This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. You may know my guest, Jad Abramrod, as the creator and former host of the public radio program and podcast Radio Lab, and the creator and host of the popular and Peabody Award-winning nine-episode podcast series, Dolly Parton's America. Now, Jad has a terrific new series of episodes about the

life and music of Fela Kuti. He's known as the father of Afrobeat, but music was also

Fela's weapon against the colonial values that tried to civilize Nigerians, erase African

culture, and inflict punishment often brutally to keep Nigerians in line.

With Phala's danceable, almost trans-like grooves and political lyrics,

he started a youth movement that rebelled against the repressive post-colonial government and military.

For that, he was jailed about a hundred

times, beaten frequently, enduring multiple broken bones, leaving scars all over his body. The military

breached the electric fence that protected his compound, threw his mother out a second-story window,

and burned his home to the ground.

He's also a problematic figure. He fashioned himself into what you might describe as a cult

leader. He had 27 female backup singers and dancers, and married all of them in one day. He didn't

believe AIDS was real, advised men not to use condoms,

and even wrote a song about it, and when he contracted AIDS, he denied that was possible.

We'll talk about all that and how his music continues to get people listening and dancing

and rebelling against injustice.

Dad, welcome back to fresh air.

I really love this series, and I really learned a lot from it, so thank you.

Well, it's great to be here, and that means a lot, Terry. Thank you. You know, Phelis music was, it was dance music, it was trans music, and it was music that creates

Afrobeat, and it inspires a rebellious youth movement, rebelling against colonialist thinking,

standing up against the authoritarian government, the police, the military.

I'd like to ask you to describe those elements of his music.

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