Lemi Ghariokwu recounts working with Fela Kuti and the Kalakuta raid

Lemi Ghariokwu, the 70-year-old artist who designed many of Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti’s record sleeves, has revisited their close working relationship and the violent raid on Kuti’s Lagos HQ, the Kalakuta Republic, on 18 February 1977. Ghariokwu’s designs feature in a new career-spanning box-set, The Best of the Black President, and Kuti’s work has also been highlighted recently by a podcast produced by the Obamas, the outlet said.

Ghariokwu first entered Kalakuta as an 18-year-old after a portrait caught a journalist’s eye. He was given a gate pass by Kuti and went on to produce iconic sleeves such as Alagbon Close and No Bread. Ghariokwu says Kuti mentored him politically, lending books on African history, and introduced him to marijuana; after one potent dose he described vivid sensory visions that he then channelled into his densely packed compositional style.

He recalls the 1977 assault in stark detail: “There were flames everywhere. Soldiers with bayoneted rifles were dragging people out into the streets, staggering, naked and bleeding. Nobody knew if Fela was still inside the burning building.” Ghariokwu describes brutality during the raid, including a neighbour’s severed finger and a bodyguard’s fatal injuries.

Kuti sued the government for $1.6m, rebuilt Kalakuta and the Shrine a block away, but his mother Funmilayo never recovered from being thrown from a second-floor window and Kuti was changed, Ghariokwu says.

Key Topics

Culture, Lemi Ghariokwu, Fela Kuti, Kalakuta Republic, Kalakuta Raid, Alagbon Close