Honoring the "Chancellor" of the University of Fela's Music: Sandra Izsadore and Afrobeat Music
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that generated so much furor online, Nigerian singer Burna Boy said contemporary Afrobeat lacks “substance”. As critics and commentators munch on his comment, I realize how much-uninformed opinion was passed around as knowledge and history. Historian of repute and biggest history prize winner Professor Saheed Aderinto warns us within our proclivities to turn fiction to history that “If Nollywood films are your only source of history, you will think that all young royal wives are nymphos like Arolake, whose superfluous sexual desire couldn't be matched by an aging king, but by Saro the macho gigolo, who was “poronizing” all the beautiful women, old and young, in the kingdom. And that's what you get when you refuse to read history books or (re)educate and (re) immerse yourself in your culture.” I paraphrase that to say that if gossip blogs and uninformed content creators are your only source of knowledge about Afrobeats, you will think Davido, Burnaboy, Tiwa Savage, and Yemi Alade created Afrobeat.
Along the lines of Burnaboy’s comment, while we can debate the substance or lack of current Afrobeat (s), I have often wondered where the woman, whom all scholars I have read affirmed, changed the artistic life of what makes for the “substance” of Fela's Afrobeat. Scholars of African sound, specifically Afrobeat, will agree that the Queen Mother of Afrobeat, Sandra Izsadore, is more than a lover but a professor, tutor, and chancellor of the University of Fela's music. Fela got his education in the philosophy, history, and politics of Global Black consciousness, which he domesticated and synchronized to his instrument, lyrics, stance, and politics from her.
Several scholars of Afrobeats and popular music affirmed that Afrobeat is unlikely to be the genre of music that Fela founded without Queen Mother Sandra Izsadore. Fela applied or domesticated the knowledge of the everyday realities of Global Blacks he learned from her to the postcolonial reality of Nigeria. No doubt, the postcolonial conditions, and realities were a canvas that allowed Fela to paint his music dexterity and personal and political philosophies in what came to be known as sound. His consciousness and intentional critique of it would not have been possible without a woman who, to my mind, deserves more scholarly attention, celebration, and honor.
This is with no prejudice to the role of his nationalist and feminist mother, Mrs Funmilayo Kuti, his first wife, Remi, or even other women who always seem to be submerged under the category of Kalakuta Queens as though they are so monolithic and lacking their individuality.
I have something in the works for the Queen Mother of Afrobeats Book and celebration of her contribution to African Sounds at the 2024 Lagos Studies Association Conference.
In the meantime, get her book "FELA and ME" now available on sandraizsadore.com
New Music "Run Run feat Erah Gunz” is now available on Apple Music.
Posted on Facebook on December 22, 2023.
Photo credit: Used under @ Creative common. Google
