BABA ANI AT 85: THE REMINISCENCES OF A LONG-SERVING BAND MEMBER

Music

Yinka Olatunbosun

Tajudeen Olalekan Animashaun – popularly known as Baba Ani – was a former band manager of Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Africa 70 and Egypt 80 band. A baritone saxophonist, Baba Ani was a civil servant when he met Fela and his manager, Benson Idonije, who recruited most of the early band members. Precisely in February 1965, he joined Fela’s band, Koola Lobitos. After Fela’s death in 1997, he continued to serve the band and helped to mentor Seun, Fela’s youngest son as the foreman. His 52 years in Fela’s band makes him a record-holder in the history of music bands. He has an album, which was released in 1995 and titled Low Profile. “Se rere”, a track in the album, is a soundtrack to Muhammad Ali movie Rumble in the Jungle.

In his Ikotun, Lagos residence, he recounted how his journey in music began with the musicologist and popular highlife musician, Pa Chris Ajilo as mentor. His elder brother, Waheed Williams who lived in the UK had sent two music instruments to him with a note to Pa Ajilo and that was the launchpad to music as well as learning to read and write it.

When asked why he stayed so dedicated to Fela over after his death, he explained that it was because Fela was not interested in commercial music. “Fela was not a musician who went about performing at naming ceremonies, marriages, housewarming but he came with his whole band and his mother-in-law, wife and children and performed at my wedding in front of the Oreofero mosque in 1967. He did me that honour, because he never performed at any marriage ceremony of any m**********r in this country. Secondly, when Kalakuta Republic was burnt down, at 14A Agege Motor Road and most of the hotel owners did not want us to perform at their hotels because they were afraid of the military government, Fela and the band had to relocate. I was an environmental health officer and we performed in Ghana every weekend. Although Fela could have taken anyone on my instrument, he was paying for my flight ticket from Lagos to Accra every Friday evening and from Accra to Lagos every Monday morning. Much as he would want me to perform for the band, he was also taking care of my interest in my government work as a civil servant.”

The third reason was that Fela’s music became a weapon of revolution after his first US tour, during which he met his girlfriend, Sandra Izsadore. Fela learnt more about African and indeed Black activism through Sandra and would later incorporate this in his music. That’s why Baba Ani called Fela a messiah. “There was no prophet without a loyal follower. So, I decided to be his disciple,” he said.

As a band member, he saw first-hand how Fela developed Afrobeat, toured with Fela in Europe and sang against oppression and corruption. But at 85, Baba Ani thought Nigeria had not changed, as the ills still persist long after Fela’s death. Once in a while, he imagines what his life would have been like if he had deserted the band the way many band members did when they went on tours.

“We went to the Berlin Jazz Festival and by the time we came back, 11 people had left the band,” he recalled.

Fela’s critics also believed that his finances were poorly managed in his active years, causing rift between Fela and his band members. “There was a time that we went on strike. That time, he got some money and the first thing he did was to buy three cars: one for Iya Marie, that is Kunle’s mom, one for his wife and one for JK Braimah. It was a time when people like Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade bought cars for two or three members of their band. We went on strike and at that time, his mother had to come to Lagos and send for us, appealing to us. One of the reasons why Fela was spending so much was that we had more than we needed when going on tour: his house help, a girlfriend that was not performing with the band and he had so many people in his household that he had to cater for. I think that was responsible for the way he was spending money.”

An average band member with Fela is a multi-instrumentalist. As a performer, Baba Ani plays piano, baritone and tenor saxophone, shekere and other instruments that use treble clef. He grabbed his baritone saxophone which he called the grandmother of all saxophones and continued to enlighten his guest on the elements of highlife, traditional music and jazz that formed Afrobeat.

Despite his closeness to Fela, he said he never resided in the Kalakuta commune, recalling the day Fela’s Kalakuta was destroyed by ‘unknown soldiers’ in 1977. “I was in my house at Ebute Metta, Bornu way. A neighbour just came in and told me that Fela’s house was razed. I and my second wife got into a taxi and by the time we got to the railway crossing, we saw people putting their arms on their head. We had to bend down in the taxi so that nobody would recognise us. We saw the place burning. We went back home. There was no phone then.” The 85-year-old seethed with anger, which was written on his face, as he recalled the incident. It had been 44 years since that invasion happened and the pain had left neither him nor any member of the Fela family.

Married to three wives and four children, he never felt the need to impose music skills on his children. However, his last child is learning to play some instrument. Retirement opened a new chapter in Baba Ani’s life as he adheres to moderate eating habits, regular rehearsals while shunning smoking.

“I have not retired from music, I only retired from the band,” he declared. “That’s why I am still rehearsing some songs. If I go out and a favourite band of mine is performing, I could sing a song or two with a band like Dede Mabiaku’s and Yinka Alakija, Prime Quest Orchestra and Freedom Five.”

He has created a studio at home where he could mentor young folks who are gifted in or passionate about music. At this stage in his life, he would love to be remembered “as a man with integrity, a model of loyalty, a fighter on the side of the poor.’’