The Legend Of Fela, His Lawyer, And His Many Women
……….That disgraced Braithwaite, man! He was trying to use me for politics, man, and he ended up being disgraced. Tunji Braithwaite! Let me tell you who that man is….
Tunji And Fela
After the burning of my house, he was the one handling the case. I was suing for twenty-five million naira, man! The government wanted to settle. They went to see him in his house. But he didn’t tell me that they wanted to settle. No. Just the opposite, man. He told me he wanted to go to court. So the case went to court. All of that was only to make his name popular, man. Nobody knew Braithwaite in Lagos before. Nobody heard his name anywhere. But when he started my case, he was on the front page, big: “Braithwaite in court with Fela.
Fela
You want me to show you the press coverage of my case, man? If you stack the papers in a pile, they’d be so fucking high. I swear! They were carrying news on me for a year and a half, every day. So Braithwaite too was in the news. That’show everybody came to know him. See? Braithwaite wanted people to think I was a hooligan, that I was just doing the marriage for publicity. As if I was any musician going round the street, looking for prestige, man. That’s why he did that shit, man.
After that I’d said, “I am not gonna see this man again. Let me show him a big mind.” But then I thought it over, and said to myself, “Why not?” So one day me and my wives went to visit him at his home. “FELA! How are you?” “Fine, man. Cool.” Then he started saying he felt sorry about what had happened and stupid things like that. So we left, man. Later on I went back again to his place, but to discuss politics now. Throughout the case we had never discussed politics. It was time we did. “Now, politics. You know I’m running for the presidency.” “Fela, look, let’s work together in this thing ‘cause I want to be president too.”
So we discussed and decided to work together. I was ready to let him run for presidency in my place. Really, I don’t want to be president, you know. Once the ideas I am fighting for are there, I don’t need to be president. Right? Then, on another day, I went to see him to discuss the situation of poor people and what should be done. I gave him my ideas, not just on bettering the lot of people but changing it.
But before I tell you what he said, let me ask you this. Have you ever seen his house in Ikoyi, man? It’s a big, mighty house! Exactly like a ship, you know. He’s very proud. He calls it a mansion. “Fela, how do you like my mansion?” His next statement was this exactly: “You think I’m going to allow my children to go to school at Mushin with those Mushin boys? … So you want Mushin people to take over my house here?” I looked him in the eyes. “So, what do you want? … No use me arguing with you over this one.”
When I went back outside, I started to think about it. I said to myself: “OK, I know this one now!” Coming back to my wives. OK. What attracted me to each of them? Sex! I thought they were sexy and fuckable. That’s what attracts me to a woman first. Some came to my house on their own. Others, I had come. Why? ‘Cause I wanted to fuck them. That was all. I wanted a house where I could be fucking and I had it. It grew into something else after though. Something special. But it started just with sex. The desire to fuck. Man, the one most important thing in the human being is that life-giving and pleasurable sensation: sexual orgasm. And that’s what’s being condemned the most. Yeah. Somebody was asking me, trying to put down my ideas, if I thought sex was politics. “No, I don’t,” I said. “Sex is life.” That’s what I believe. Me, I fuck as often and as long as I can-o! Now, it’s not even a matter of choice. When I married twenty-seven women I knew what I was doing-o!
Did I sleep with all of them on the night of the marriage? No. Man, I said I married twenty-seven, not seven! I only slept with one. The one next in turn. I followed my normal procedure. You see, before I married them I’d told them: “Look, when I marry you, I’m gonna do the same thing I was doing before with you. It’s gonna be the same house, the same thing, but just that we’re married.” Do I find living with them difficult? Naaaaah. I love it. It’s not difficult at all. It’s difficult if you don’t think of them or deal with them as women. Now, if you put them in the same frame as men, then it would be difficult. But I don’t do that, man. Of the original twenty-seven I married – besides, of course, my first wife Remi – only fifteen are still with me. The others? Man, they’ve left. Life was too hard, you know. Where are they now? Well, I still hear from them, and see them. They come to house to visit me. They come to Shrine. How do I feel about their having left? I don’t mind. I don’t feel animosity against them.
At all! I don’t feel nothing, man. Ask them what they feel? I don’t feel nothing ‘bout them, man. Do I beat my wives? Not beat; not that. Never! Not that brutal thing, man. Until I was seventeen I got beaten. Mercilessly! Me, I’ve never beaten my children-o. I swear! But sometimes it’s necessary to give my wives some paf-paf-paf-paf-paf-paf. … I slap ‘em. Yeah. You see, when you talk ‘bout women, you’re talking ‘bout something else, man.
A woman has to respect her husband. If she don’t, I feel sorry for you. They need you to show authority, man. See what I mean? Then they’ll say to themselves: “Ah-aaaaaaaah! This na good husband-o! He don’t care fo’ no bullshit!” See what I mean? But I never kick their asses, man. Never! That’s about everything on how and why I married those girls, man. I stopped calling them “my girls”. After the marriage, they became my queens. Yeah, man. I’m very attached to them. They’ve been through it. But they’ve chosen to be with me and they stay with me. Why? Me, I no dey speak fo’ dem-o! For that one, you have to ask them yourself, man! You have my permission.
Tunji And Fela
After the burning of my house, he was the one handling the case. I was suing for twenty-five million naira, man! The government wanted to settle. They went to see him in his house. But he didn’t tell me that they wanted to settle. No. Just the opposite, man. He told me he wanted to go to court. So the case went to court. All of that was only to make his name popular, man. Nobody knew Braithwaite in Lagos before. Nobody heard his name anywhere. But when he started my case, he was on the front page, big: “Braithwaite in court with Fela.
Fela
You want me to show you the press coverage of my case, man? If you stack the papers in a pile, they’d be so fucking high. I swear! They were carrying news on me for a year and a half, every day. So Braithwaite too was in the news. That’show everybody came to know him. See? Braithwaite wanted people to think I was a hooligan, that I was just doing the marriage for publicity. As if I was any musician going round the street, looking for prestige, man. That’s why he did that shit, man.
After that I’d said, “I am not gonna see this man again. Let me show him a big mind.” But then I thought it over, and said to myself, “Why not?” So one day me and my wives went to visit him at his home. “FELA! How are you?” “Fine, man. Cool.” Then he started saying he felt sorry about what had happened and stupid things like that. So we left, man. Later on I went back again to his place, but to discuss politics now. Throughout the case we had never discussed politics. It was time we did. “Now, politics. You know I’m running for the presidency.” “Fela, look, let’s work together in this thing ‘cause I want to be president too.”
So we discussed and decided to work together. I was ready to let him run for presidency in my place. Really, I don’t want to be president, you know. Once the ideas I am fighting for are there, I don’t need to be president. Right? Then, on another day, I went to see him to discuss the situation of poor people and what should be done. I gave him my ideas, not just on bettering the lot of people but changing it.
But before I tell you what he said, let me ask you this. Have you ever seen his house in Ikoyi, man? It’s a big, mighty house! Exactly like a ship, you know. He’s very proud. He calls it a mansion. “Fela, how do you like my mansion?” His next statement was this exactly: “You think I’m going to allow my children to go to school at Mushin with those Mushin boys? … So you want Mushin people to take over my house here?” I looked him in the eyes. “So, what do you want? … No use me arguing with you over this one.”
When I went back outside, I started to think about it. I said to myself: “OK, I know this one now!” Coming back to my wives. OK. What attracted me to each of them? Sex! I thought they were sexy and fuckable. That’s what attracts me to a woman first. Some came to my house on their own. Others, I had come. Why? ‘Cause I wanted to fuck them. That was all. I wanted a house where I could be fucking and I had it. It grew into something else after though. Something special. But it started just with sex. The desire to fuck. Man, the one most important thing in the human being is that life-giving and pleasurable sensation: sexual orgasm. And that’s what’s being condemned the most. Yeah. Somebody was asking me, trying to put down my ideas, if I thought sex was politics. “No, I don’t,” I said. “Sex is life.” That’s what I believe. Me, I fuck as often and as long as I can-o! Now, it’s not even a matter of choice. When I married twenty-seven women I knew what I was doing-o!
Did I sleep with all of them on the night of the marriage? No. Man, I said I married twenty-seven, not seven! I only slept with one. The one next in turn. I followed my normal procedure. You see, before I married them I’d told them: “Look, when I marry you, I’m gonna do the same thing I was doing before with you. It’s gonna be the same house, the same thing, but just that we’re married.” Do I find living with them difficult? Naaaaah. I love it. It’s not difficult at all. It’s difficult if you don’t think of them or deal with them as women. Now, if you put them in the same frame as men, then it would be difficult. But I don’t do that, man. Of the original twenty-seven I married – besides, of course, my first wife Remi – only fifteen are still with me. The others? Man, they’ve left. Life was too hard, you know. Where are they now? Well, I still hear from them, and see them. They come to house to visit me. They come to Shrine. How do I feel about their having left? I don’t mind. I don’t feel animosity against them.
At all! I don’t feel nothing, man. Ask them what they feel? I don’t feel nothing ‘bout them, man. Do I beat my wives? Not beat; not that. Never! Not that brutal thing, man. Until I was seventeen I got beaten. Mercilessly! Me, I’ve never beaten my children-o. I swear! But sometimes it’s necessary to give my wives some paf-paf-paf-paf-paf-paf. … I slap ‘em. Yeah. You see, when you talk ‘bout women, you’re talking ‘bout something else, man.
A woman has to respect her husband. If she don’t, I feel sorry for you. They need you to show authority, man. See what I mean? Then they’ll say to themselves: “Ah-aaaaaaaah! This na good husband-o! He don’t care fo’ no bullshit!” See what I mean? But I never kick their asses, man. Never! That’s about everything on how and why I married those girls, man. I stopped calling them “my girls”. After the marriage, they became my queens. Yeah, man. I’m very attached to them. They’ve been through it. But they’ve chosen to be with me and they stay with me. Why? Me, I no dey speak fo’ dem-o! For that one, you have to ask them yourself, man! You have my permission.
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