TRIBUTE—A DAY OF SORROW, TEARS AND BLOOD.
by Ayanwuyi, Israel Temitope.
On Saturday August 2,1997.
Crashing thunders sundered the sky while flashes of lightning seared the eyes, but there was no rain.
The whole state was over castle with great black clouds.
Everybody scatter Scatter. Everybody run run run. Everybody crying!
Confusion everywhere
Sorrow, tears and blood.
The day of grief and tears.
Alas! The weird creature has gone for that famed diaspora of no return!
The only true champion of the masses; the poor, vagrant, the vagabond, the wretched, the disenfranchised and the abandoned.
It is in this unfortunate predicament of life that hoodlums, hopeless and drug addicts, those for whom violence is an every day side of their life with every waking moment as a struggle for survival had lost their champion and were not happy.
Everyone looked around fearfully.
Was he sending rough signs from beyond the grave?
Did Baba 70 really defy death?
Did he really have the power to reach out beyond grave?
Was he as potent in death as he was in life?
It was as if no one believed he was truly gone and everyone accorded him the obedience they gave when he was alive.
He could silent the greatest mob in his lifetime with one word. Such was the awe in which the sundry held him.
To them he was like a god, to be obeyed unhesitatingly.
He mean something to everyone and was everything to some people.
O, what a day of sorrow, tears and blood.
Thousands occupied streets of Lagos beyond mid-night, more than six hours after he had been buried in distress and tears.
To some, a hero had died.
To others it was good vengeance, but a legend live on forever.
Fela's death shook Lagos, Nigeria.
On 15th October, 2018, the Legend—Fela Anikulapo Kuti would be 80years old as one of the greatest Socio-Political musicians to come out of Africa in three millennia.
Nothing can be compared with the day Fela was buried twenty years ago. Millions of nigerians travelled from afar and wide to be a part of it.
His death is the greatest shock that hits Africa ever.
This is the 20 years remembrance of your death which yearly #FELABRATION.
When BABA 70 was age 35, he rejected his European given surname of Ransome and replaced it with Anikulapo, which means one who has death in his pouch.
Your death at 58years demand a comprehensive explanation from your grave!
Awwn! Fela is gone but his music live on.
Fela was arrested around 200 times at the heavy cost of agitating against oppressive regimes through his music!
Roughly a million of people attended his funeral which started at Tafawa Balewa Square and ended up at his residence in Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria, where he was laid at the front of the house.
Fela Kuti,
May your agitating soul rest in perfect peace.
#Felalism #Fela_Kuti #Baba70 #KoolaLobitos #IsraelAyanwuyi
© Israel Ayanwuyi, 22072017.
