For those who have spent the least amount of time getting to know Fela Kuti and Thomas Sankara, their friendship should come as little or no surprise.
The two African legends’ friendship, despite being very well known, is one of the least talked about friendships between famous African figures.
Thomas Sankara, on the other hand, was the populist favorite dedicated to the undoing of what he saw as the asymmetries of Burkinabe society. Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a musician with a thousand and one things to say about the corruption of unforgiving military governments in Nigeria.
The two men would have bonded over their differing perspectives on how power ought to be used. They had great affection for Africa and its people and believed that community was much more beneficial than the individuation promoted by westernization.
Unlike the soldier, who was a Marxist, the musician was not a fanatic. But Kuti and Sankara’s visions of Africa were remarkably similar in that they both merely desired for their people to have access to food, good health, and freedom from all forms of oppression.
Sankara was a master guitarist and an educated admirer of African music, so their meeting could not have been purely political. Even if it weren’t for politics, it’s possible that Fela Kuti would have connected with the Burkinabe president on some level.
Documentation on the friendship between Sankara and Kuti is not particularly abundant. In addition, we only know of two occasions in which the two men actually met.
In 1987, they crossed paths at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival, also known as FESPACO, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A spoken-word song by IR, Kabaka Labartin, and Bassilar Membrane honors that encounter. These words from the song accurately summarized the gathering.
There was laughter at the meeting of Fela Kuti and Thomas Sankara.
They were fearless when they spoke.
Parts of speeches made by Sankara were interspersed with these and other sentences. Many people now cite this tribute to the well-known friendship as proof that the two men were, in fact, close friends.
All indications are that the two men kept in touch after their initial meeting. When Fela was questioned about the coup one year after Sankara was shot to death by mutinous soldiers, he gave the following response:
“His departure is a terrible blow to African politics because he was the only one advocating for African unity, which is what Africa needs to advance. He was the only one speaking.
Sankara’s passing must have significance for Africa, so while his loss is terrible (long pause), my mind is at ease. Since Sankara is no longer alive, you will be able to tell immediately if the current Burkinabe president is struggling. This implies that evil leaders would exercise extreme caution when assassinating good leaders in the future.
Kuti cried privately, away from the public’s gaze, if he did cry at all. But it was obvious that Kuti had found in Sankara a leader who was likeable enough to avoid criticism—something that had been giving Nigeria’s leaders at the time nightmares.