Abia Radio News<\/strong> reports that he spoke at the Ake Arts and Books Festival in Lagos, where he described his upbringing as unusual.<\/p>\nAccording to him, there were no formal lessons at home, yet his father expected him to know things on his own.<\/p>\n
He recalled how he was pushed to read and understand many things even though he had not been taught in the usual way.<\/p>\n
Femi explained that the normal father-son bond did not exist in their home.<\/p>\n
He said\u00a0Fela demanded excellence from everyone around him, adding that failure\u00a0was not an option, and excuses were not accepted.<\/p>\n
Femi said this made him rely heavily on watching his father\u2019s actions and learning from daily experiences.<\/p>\n
He said his understanding of life came from seeing how his father handled danger, police raids, and other challenges.<\/p>\n
He often asked questions about fear and survival, and those moments shaped his thinking more than any classroom could.<\/p>\n
Femi also said that poor school results never brought anger from Fela.<\/p>\n
Instead, Fela reacted in a confusing way that made him question what was really expected of him as a child.<\/p>\n
He linked these experiences to his desire to stand on his own.<\/p>\n
He recalled how he left Fela\u2019s band years ago to build his identity and follow his own path in music.<\/p>\n
He said he believed he was meant to be Femi, not a copy of his father.<\/p>\n
Femi also shared that when he released his first album, Fela dismissed it, but he continued to work, grow, and create a career that reflects his own sound and journey.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe (Fela) expected me to know how to read. How is it possible to know how to read if I am not taught? If I haven\u2019t got any formal education of any sort, how can I read? But I had to read. \u2018You should know,\u2019 he would say. \u2018Did you take your brain and put it in my head?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cIf you are Fela\u2019s person you had to excel beyond reasonable doubt. You just had to know. So you couldn\u2019t give excuses.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI learnt by just watching him. I would ask questions probably like \u2018Are you not afraid to die?\u2019 He would give me his answer.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cAnd as I was growing up I would say \u2018what\u2019s wrong?\u2019 \u2026 but if I failed\u2026 Fela would say, \u2018Ah you failed, well done.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cIf God wanted me to be Fela, I would have been Fela. I had to be Femi Kuti.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
\u00a9 2025 Abia Radio News, a division of Tee Global Innnovations [abiaradios@gmail.com]. [email\u00a0protected]<\/strong><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerian Singer Femi Kuti has opened up about his childhood with his father, the late Afrobeat icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, saying he grew up without direct teaching and had to find his way through observation. Abia Radio News reports that he spoke at the Ake Arts and Books Festival in Lagos, where he described his upbringing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":237876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2060,1900],"class_list":["post-237875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-fela-anikulapo-kuti","tag-femi-kuti"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2140320784femikutiB1-1000x600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}