Fela: The king of acronyms and polysemy

BY VICTOR AKHIDENOR 

Today marks the 27th anniversary of the demise of the King of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Aside from being synonymous with that genre of music, the maestro was easily the king of Acronyms and Polysemy. The Abami Eda had pet forms and many meanings for words or phrases. And if those words and phrases could talk, they would have asked for more!

Fela had the knack of stretching to the limit the potentials of language through his re-coinage of standard acronyms and words to subvert actual and perceived constructs and develop coded ones. We all have a FOMO when coded words elude us. But if you think FOMO means Fela Omo Mama Olikoye and not Fear Of Missing Out you’ve missed out. Before you say “who cares” and come up with an antonym-acronym, JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out), let’s deconstruct some of Fela’s acronyms and polysemy, JLT.

Well, that’s Just Like That in full!

There’s no hidden meaning in Just Like That, the title of his 1990 released work. The same cannot, however, be said about ITT, which ordinarily should stand for International Telephone and Telegraph. Sharks swallow smaller fishes and that’s the way Fela’s ITT (International Thief Thief) has swallowed the ITT he mimicked in this 1979 track. The song condemns the nefarious activities of multinational corporations and their local collaborators in undermining the growth and development of Africa.

The company, then the leading telecoms in Nigeria, has since folded up. It’s good news to potential clients who have been saved the embarrassment of: “Can I have your ITT number”? International Thief Thief will come to my mind if you ask me that!

The US can only be the United States, right? Then you don’t know about Fela’s last recorded album US– Underground System. The 1992 track talks about “the show of corruption and destruction; mismanagement of the mind…” from demonic agents outside Africa…like the US. Not forgetting the letter A in the US, America, according to Fela means “ye shall find wickedness” in Yoruba and “that is why there is so much wickedness in America”.

The States Antagonist-in-chief, Russia, was not spared, either.

“The real meaning in Yoruba is rush-into-suffering,” he said.

What about her ally?

“The British were the first to colonise the world,” he said.

“They got the power from Ife. That was where London got the name L-o-n-d-o-ni that’s ‘from Ooni’, which again means crocodile.”

Yes, the translation of crocodile is Ooni.
Anything about Germany, the foe of the US, Russia, and Britain, especially between 1939 and 1945?

“The true meaning in Yoruba is Ija ma ni,” he said.

“They came to earth to fight. They came to fight God, that is why Germans started the First World War, the Second World War and even…”

We leave the ellipsis for you to imagine!

Let’s leave polysemy, for now.

Do you know of an acronym that has a verb and a noun? ODOO – Overtake Don Overtake Overtake – is grammatically and structurally impossible. But that’s where the ingenuity of Fela and the Pidgin English come in. Overtake (noun) don overtake (verb) overtake (noun)!
You call SAP, the Structural Adjustment Programme. To Fela, SAP means Selling African People.

“That is why Babangida could easily sell Nigeria and call it SAP,” he said.

“That is what Rawlings did to Ghana, and Mobutu did in Congo, they all sell Africa and call it SAP. They sell the people, sell the land, sell the whole country. They’ve sold us.”

The sellers were mostly Very Important Personalities, VIP, aka Vagabonds In Power!
The track was perfected in preparation for the Berlin Jazz Festival where Fela had been contracted as the star performer. Before he left for Germany, he and his entourage had been on a 78-day occupation of the record label, Decca West Africa, over a breach of contract. The chairman of Decca was MKO Abiola, who Fela “eulogised” in ITT.

The show in Berlin wasn’t a soar-away success. The audience received Fela with boos and calls of “No disco” and “No Travolta”. It had nothing to do with the Germany and “Ija ma ni” reference, though.

“I want you to scream and shout more because the more you shout the more you convince me that you wish Afrobeat was German music,” Fela said to the jeering crowd.

“Unfortunately, it is authentic African music; a product from the African musical archives.”
After the event, a German newspaper described the Abami Eda as “the most colourful personality of the festival who revealed how wide the gap is between cultural philosophy in Europe and Africa”. The initial boos and jeers definitely had nothing to do with the Germany and “Ija ma ni” association!

But the Berlin audience may well have been JJD in need of GB and NNG!

You are a JJD (Johnny Just Drop) in the world of Fela if you think GB is something to look forward to. Except you don’t mind being giving a “general beating” by the boys. And if after the beating you are offered an NNG, don’t assume it’s a job at Nigeria Natural Gas. Your system is about to inhale Nigeria Natural Grass (Igbo) and exhale smoke.

Now, let’s talk politics.

But we’ve been talking politics all along.
Okay, let’s talk more about politics.

A member of parliament is called an MP. But that could also be a Moustache Problem.
“Hitler, who is one of the most wicked men according to history, has a moustache,” he said.
Surely, he was an MP to the world!

The YAP – Young African Pioneers – was the ideological arm of Kalakuta Republic. Its pioneer members were Duro Ikujenyo, Ghariokwu Lemi, and Kayode Mabinuori. YAP had a registration fee of 30 kobo and members were given ID cards.

Duro, as quoted by Benson Idonije, said: “We registered over 5,000 people and the number one member was M.D. Yussuf, the Inspector General of Police.”

MD, (Muhammadu Dikko), was an acronym Fela had nothing to do with. But if the Abami Eda were to write a book on the IG, it would have been titled, The Policeman Who Loved Me – TPWLM!

Later, YAP metamorphosed into another acronym – MOP (Movement Of the People) – a political party with the sole objective of actualising Fela’s presidential ambition.

Members were mostly students in tertiary institutions. The party’s philosophy was based on some of the things Fela proposed during the Second World African Festival of Arts and Culture. And yes, it has an acronym. It’s called FESTAC.

The MOP was eventually disqualified by FEDECO (Federal Electoral Commission) who saw the party as a mere PINO – Party In Name Only. Sadly (well, you can attach a quotation mark to the word depending on your stand – Pro-or Anti-Fela), the party’s MASS was never actualised.

Mass? Like in the Catholic Church?
Well, if that also stands for Movement Against Second Slavery, then it is MASS!

Now let’s return to Polysemy, the sidekick of an acronym. We’ve yet to define it, right? Well, when a word, symbol, or phrase means many things, that’s polysemy. “Get” is a good example as the verb can mean “become”, “procure”, and “understand”. Like “Ija ma ni” and “L-o-n-d-o-ni”, Fela’s brand of polysemy might be lost on you especially if you don’t understand the Yoruba language.

Those, the Igbos call “In gbati gbati” or “Onye Yoruba” can relate to Condom being called “ko do mi” (he didn’t fuck me) or marriage as Igbeyawo – “looking at punishment yet deciding to carry it”. Wouldn’t even the non “in gbati gbati” agree with this portrayal of marriage? Especially the male gender and husbands.
Husband?

“You are not even the horse, you are the band of the horse,” Fela said.

Yikes!

Here are a few more polysemy from the “polygamist”:

“What people call mother or Iya in Yoruba is nothing other than punishment (Iya).

The Yoruba meaning of education is someone whose mind has been trained and locked with a key.

Look at the word soldier. It means Isoluja in Yoruba. Again, look at the word police, it means po. They take that word from the dirtiest place, po – potty.

Some words have a mixture of Yoruba and English together, like hospital, for example. They say h-o-o (spit) and spittle, the lowest form of treatment of human beings. People say they go there for treatment but don’t go there.

Then they go on to call you mister, which means you have missed your star.”

And the congregation screams: It’s not my portion…

Watch out for more articles on the Abami Eda during the next Felabration in October.

Victor Akhidenor can be reached via [email protected]