Femi Kuti: African history is important

The Afrobeat star was speaking from a panel at the first of UBA’s Africa Conversations, an event organised by the bank to mark Africa Day.

At the panel, which took place under the theme Africa’s History Redefined, Our Past, the Path to the Future, Kuti was joined by the United Bank for Africa CEO Tony Elumelu, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, historian Djibril Tamsir Niane and Ghanaian politician Samia Nkrumah.

Elumelu said his bank "understands the past, that Africa as a continent has always been united by the struggle for identity", adding that "identifying with Africa and indeed Africa Day is synonymous with who we are as a bank.

"It presents us the opportunity to remind ourselves, the world and indeed Africa that we owe ourselves the duty of making Africa the continent of our dreams. Our past provides a veritable tool to fashioning the continent’s development, renaissance and economic growth.”

His remarks were echoed by Soyinka, who thanked the bank for providing an opportunity for the discussion to take place. In a complaint about the removal of history from the curriculum of some African countries, the celebrated dramatist said: "How can we cope with the modern phenomenon if we do not know the past? We should never forget the importance of history as it is not just an academic exercise."

For Nkrumah, daughter of the founding father of Ghana, history is important in the building of unity among African countries. "As we work in our individual smaller countries, it will be easier to achieve more if we work together and complete unification can only come if we work together; we won’t go anywhere unless we use unity as a political project," she said.

"Our children need to learn this history so that they can come up and build the continent," Kuti said. "We need everyone, both boys and girls, to work towards this vision."

In responding to a question by a member of the audience, Kuti explained how a knowledge of history has shaped his musical choices.

“History is everything," he said. "If I didn’t know Kwame Nkrumah, I probably wouldn’t care and be singing stupid songs. If my father didn’t care about history, probably I wouldn’t care."

He also touched briefly on feminism and how historically the idea is not alien to African societies, giving an example concerning royalty in Yorubaland. “An oba is an oba,” he said. “There was no gender to differentiate a male king from a female king.”