FELA: THIS BITCH OF A LIFE. By Carlos Moore

I have always been fascinated by people who go out of their way to put together books, monographs, studies or biographies involving others. I often feel that in most cases such works are labours of love, as it were.

In the case of this book, the subject/protagonist, Fela is one of the most fascinating and flamboyant characters in African history. "Abami eda" (Fela) was a larger than life character, a spectacular musician, an "Africanist " - and what a polemicist!!

This is a comprehensive work focusing on the life and times of Fela, his initial nuclear family, his education, travels, his evolution over the years. Here we meet Fela the maverick and iconoclast, often clad in his underwear, sociable, inviting people to do things "the African way" including sitting down on the floor, being guided by the spirits, the "Iya Alaje" et al.

Few people suffered the way Fela did, brutalised by the powers that be, soldiers, police etc. He was arrested countless times and charged with so many offences, including murder. His edifice was famously burnt down, his aides and many wives viciously beaten up. Yet Fela remained defiant to the very end. He was along the line accused of kidnapping, "corrupting" women, mainly young women who became his dancers and singers. Fela's response? He married all the women in one fell swoop, over two dozen of them at the same time and occasion!!!

And the women feature prominently in this book, too. The author actually goes out of his way to interview all the "queens", as they were stated to be. It is a fascinating section as the women express their admiration and respect for Fela; talk about structure, discipline, and even the sex life of Fela, which includes his "timetable" in respect of sleeping with so many women. We might be moved to laugh when one of the queens, eg, referring to Fela in bed, declares: "'e be like pepper...'e sweet like pepper!"

The man who put this book together, Moore, for decades, has been something of a maverick himself, a formidable intellectual intrepidly dedicated to the cause of "Blacks", too. As this book shows, his prose is lucid, flowing, powerful. Even after decades, this book still remains a definitive work on "the man who has death in his pouch"(Fela)

- O Bolaji (Eric)