Nigeria: Juju great Prince Adekunle passes on

“He died on Friday at Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta after [an] illness,” said the relation. “He was brought in from Lagos when his health deteriorated. The Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, has been where he received treatment.”

Adekunle, who was born in 1942, achieved peak fame in the 1960s and 1970s. Although he never became as nationally popular as some of his juju music colleagues, he will probably be remembered for nurturing one of the most famous juju artists of all time, Sir Shina Peters. The young Peters was frequently called Shina Omo Adekunle (Shina son of Adekunle).

Other artists like Dayo Kujore and Segun Adewale were also influenced by Adekunle, who was in turn influenced by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Afrobeat sound.

Adekunle’s death comes not long after the death of Segun Bucknor, another 1970s star. Bucknor, who died on 11 August, was a gifted pop artist who played the guitar and piano. In 1975, Bucknor and his band the Assembly split, and Bucknor devoted more time to journalism, maintaining a low profile in subsequent decades.

In his heydays, Bucknor clashed often with Fela Kuti, and in 2002, following the release of a compilation record of Bucknor's music, a critic for the BBC commented on both acts. “In Nigeria, social and political commentary came to be associated almost exclusively with Fela Kuti, but Bucknor can't really be faulted for not having Kuti's unique combination of bravery and megalomania,” he wrote.