Dede Mabiaku, one of the close friends and associates of late music legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, is an interviewer’s delight.
He is fearless, direct, and speaks his mind, no matter whose ox is gored.
In this encounter with IYABO OYAWALE, he talks about the many trials he endured because he chose to associate with the late Abami Eda. He also talks about how he lost his son to medical carelessness. Read on to discover your quintessential Dede Mabiaku.
I know you studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin but chose music as a career. Why is that so?
Yes, you’re right, I studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin. First of all, I started at the University of Jos then moved to the University of Benin. But the point is, what is the theatre itself?
Theatre is a unit that embodies mass media, mass communication, music, dance, acting, singing, rhythm, culture, traditional activities and spirituality. So, it is an all-encompassing thing and music is a part of it. So, it is not like I am deviating from the theatre.
Basically, what I do on stage is like total theatre. I dance, sing, and act. I chose music as the propelling medium for the theatre format I so choose to express.
Would you say your meeting the late Fela had a hand in that choice?
I would say that my path has been ordained this way. In my primary school, I was in the musical society. I was in the church choir. Secondary school, I was in the school choir.
I have a witness here. I was in the school band. It was called Melbits in the Federal Government College, Warri. And then a group of us, about 9 of us, we were called the Fela Boys because we just loved Fela. So, it was an ordained thing. It’s not meeting him that made the choice.
It’s something that has begun a long time ago, from the beginning of my path. Meeting him was like concretizing the essence of what I was brought forth to do and learning better from him.
At the time, he was known as anti-government and many parents wouldn’t have loved your association. How did your parents react to your association with him?
At the time it all started, my parents fought against it. I was disowned and I was driven out with nothing. When I went to Fela to tell him what was happening, he said “eh, I tell you this boy that they will fight you. So wetin you want do now?” I said “Fela, I wan stay”. “You wan stay at Kalakuta?” I said yes. He said “you”, I said “yes now”. He just pressed his bell to call the duty boy and instruct him to clean the room upstairs.
It took like 2 hours and when he was informed the place was okay, he asked me to start sleeping there. So even though it looked like I was disowned. Even though it looked like I was driven away from the home of my birth, here I was being taken in, adopted into the home of my rebirth. They say in Olodumare’s realm, there is no vacuum, there are no accidents, only situations. So it had to happen that way to find out if my resolve was legit or genuine. So if, for instance, I’d gone to beg my folks because they’d told me I must not go to Fela’s place. I must not be seen or heard of going to Kalakuta talkless of the shrine but I didn’t listen. Even my own colleagues fought me.
At the period, I was working with NTA, I was not working as a full staff. We had the chance to be contract staff at NTA and I had lots of friends who cut off from me because of the association with Baba but it was a test to find out if I was qualified to go through the training he was going to put me through. So I am grateful for everything that happened.
And then you went on to become Fela’s protegee…
So they call it. I am grateful they didn’t call me the protegee of one of those big thieves, all of them Obasanjo & Co. They call me the protegee of a great one and that is very humbling, as far as I am concerned. I say this with all sense of respect.
What was the experience like with Fela?
More spiritual than you can imagine. Sincerely he was. Straight forward, direct, open, friendly, caring. See the adjectives I am using. We sit down for 14 hours, going through books, journals, and reportorials, arguing about politics, finance, spirituality, Africa, Africans, history, and our culture. These are things that he kept as a way of life. Fela read books that I never dreamt of reading in my life, journals, many publications.
He was so astute, he was so deep. He was an arid reader. He will memorize stuff he’s read and pour it out, word for word, line for line. I used to call him “Manputer”. You know it is computers that can do such stuff but he was simply exceptional, so I used to call him “Manputer”. His mind was something else. The essence of his being was gratifyingly spiritual. So, I would say I was lucky to be present there as a participant-observer.
What changed about your career when you met him?
Changed? I would say what put a better standing on my career. I won’t use the word change. If you say change, it means a turnaround. Here I am as an artiste and I was doing everything within the arts itself. I was a drummer, dancer, singer and I learnt about culture, tradition and history in the theatre but I never knew that I only touched the tip of the iceberg until I met him. So when I met him, he emphasised the essence of who we are and the culture we are supposed to attribute ourselves to. And the essence of artistry itself because Fela teaches you clinical finesse.
Fela was thorough. Fela used to score his own songs. He took his time for details, his costume, his presentation. These are theatre attributes, so he trained me and gave meaning and more essence to them in the person I am.
Apart from your father disowning you, what were the challenges you faced at the beginning of your career?
I was supposed to get married then. My woman at that time was pregnant. We’d even gone to do the introduction. I was now being called a drug addict, that I was an area boy. Then the woman was saying that I cannot have anything to do with her daughter because I was hanging around Fela. So, they took their child away from me. Don’t forget I said she was pregnant, she put to bed and I wasn’t given the chance to see my child. It was that bad. I was tortured in many ways. I remember at that time, I went to NTA, I was being owed money at the accounts for the programs, acting jobs, and productions we did. I was supposed to get my money but I didn’t even have money to go there. I was broke, I’d been disenfranchised, don’t forget the family I come from is quite comfortable. I won’t lie about that. My father really tried and here I was penniless.
He was the Iyasere of Warri…
Yes, he was.
Is he still alive?
No, we lost him a few years ago. He was quite comfortable. He did very well for himself. So, for me, it was like cutting you off, you have practically nothing. It’s not like now that people can send money to your account and the rest. You must physically look for what will come into your hand. So even going to friends to ask for money was a problem.
Don’t forget my friends didn’t like the fact that I was associating with Fela. I was castigated by friends and family members. It got to a time I wanted to collect my money from NTA but I didn’t have money so I trekked from Kalakuta to Anthony. I stayed at Golden Egg, there was a place called Golden Egg at the time and somebody gave me a bottle of coke. So I drank the coke. I couldn’t tell anybody what I was going through. People were treating me as an outcast like I was a leper. That was how bad it was. It was very stigmatizing. I now began walking from Anthony right through Eko Bridge, I’d not eaten, then I got to NTA. There was this lady then Mama T, that is her name. I remember her very well. She was in charge of the restaurant at NTA. I was very known in the restaurant at the time because I used to pay for friends to eat and drink. Friends used to enjoy at my expense but to this day, I didn’t have a dime. I reached the accounts and I was told my money wasn’t ready so you can imagine the journey I took just to get some money! I was hungry. I was tired. I didn’t know what else to do. So I was studying everybody there and my old friends weren’t relating with me like they used to so I went to the back where they were washing plates and I wanted to eat remnant food. I remember very clearly that meal. It was rice, beans, and dodo. The person who bought it had eaten three-quarters of the fish.
There was one quarter left, then 3 dodo pieces, some beans just scattered on the rice. As I just wanted to begin digging in, Mama T saw me and said “Dede, wetin”? She asked me to follow her and gave me food to eat. I couldn’t tell her I didn’t have a penny.
I couldn’t say a word. When I got up to go, this woman still called me and put 200 naira into my hands. At the time, it was big money. The 200 naira was enough for my transportation but I was considering that if I spend 200 naira to join Molue from that place to Maryland, how would I get to Kalakuta? So, I calculated and thought thoroughly. I decided to walk from NTA to Race Course, then from Race Course to Ikeja was 200 naira so I followed the bus from Race Course to Ikeja and walked to Kalakuta. So you want to talk of trials or tests, I had many but that is one very vivid example to show you what society can do to their own just because of a choice. My choice was to go to Kalakuta to learn, to earn my stripes in the world called Life.
Apart from your music, I know you’re an actor and producer with movies such as Black Gold, Black November and Inale. I want you to throw more light on that part of you.
I am a thoroughbred thespian and theatre graduate so everything that has to do with theatre, I have deeply learned. I have done cinematography, still, photography, acting, stage design, costume design, lighting, sound, all those rudiments I have but one thing I took very special at my early training years was acting. In the National Theatre, I have played a lot of lead roles in many lead plays like Kongi’s Harvest, Femi Osofisan’s productions, I played lead roles ages ago.
So I have always been in that acting world. In later years, I did a couple of other things intermittently like playing the role of Oba in Ovonramwen Nogbaisi’s work. I took the script in 2 weeks. The producer and director had a problem with the lead actor. I was in Ghana and they called me to see if I could help and I took up the challenge. In two weeks, I took the lines in plus my movement and they were happy with my interpretation of the role. I also played the role of the king in one of the Itsekiri plays we did years ago.
Oba Akengbua at the MUSON but I still did some things in the film. I did 4 or 5 of them and I stopped because they have not approached me with any script but I feel it is an experience which is worth expressing. Because you can’t learn something and allow it to go comatose. I still express it once in a while.
With your music, do you play shows?
No, we only do specialised concerts now. So, for me, it is not about doing music just for the heck of it. It’s being in the arts for art sake. We do it live and I have a big band and you can’t have a big band like mine and play the regular shows without your own standard venue which I don’t have yet. It doesn’t mean I can’t have it or won’t have it, it just means I don’t have it yet. So, I don’t do regular shows, I just do specialised concerts. We do tours. It is better that way.
I prefer to keep it local for now. What am I looking for out there? Mine is all about service to our people and I move from place to place rendering that service.
What is the age now?
Age is just a number. When you’re past 50, you don’t disclose your age and I passed 50 a long time ago, so I don’t discuss my age with anybody.
What advice do you have for upcoming musicians?
They should take their time to learn musicianship. That is a very important thing to note. Musicianship trains the craftsman in you. It develops the instrumentalist in you. It teaches you the ethics of the profession.
It builds professionalism in you. It cultures the artiste that you’re meant to be the right way but most of our upcoming musicians/artistes just want to rush to the studio, loop a few beats together, because they know certain people are out there to package them. They are just there for the money-sake. If you look at it, many of them have come and gone. They have made the hits, they have made the releases, sharp sharp, they have gone because there is no sustenance. We have been there since we are still there. They have come, they have gone but when you do it live and for real, it stays. It stands the test of time so they need to learn to know that this is a spiritual medium, the arts as a whole and if you get into it, be ready to commit yourself to it deeply otherwise, it would leave you quickly. They must be tolerant.
Many of them are not patient. They must also learn humility because that will give them longevity.
Looking back, would you say you have any regrets?
I don’t live with regrets. I see every happening as a lesson. The bad, there is a lesson, good, there is a lesson there. Why the regret?
This is quite sensitive but I want to ask it. You lost your son early this year.
How did you know this?
We are journalists now. And it is quite painful, losing a son
I lost my son, yes, to medical carelessness in the rotten shitstem that we live in.
How have you been able to cope?
It’s not easy, we are all human beings.
Okay, let’s put it this way. My son’s mother took ill, she had diabetes and high blood pressure. It had gotten to the point where they were going to amputate. I think she couldn’t take it anymore so she gave up. My son took ill two weeks after she gave up. His Uncle took him to the hospital. His mother’s brother. He was being treated for malaria and typhoid only for them to discover that the diagnosis was not done properly after a week. Meaning that the system itself keeps failing us without these big men knowing. Now, when they found out what he had, they found out he had Lymphoma. It had become too late. It was irreversible.
So I lost my son. At the time this happened, my mindset was crazy. I wonder why I did not do the kind of nasty thoughts that came to my mind but I am grateful because I decided to pray to Olodumare to help me turn the anger and bile to medicine. Because I see no reason why all these politricians, all these legislooters, and executhieves walk in the streets while our people have no good medical facilities or services. No good functional diagnosis and diagnostics.
No sensible health facility for the common man in our system. This is no system, it is a shit stem. Heartless minded people who, instead of improving our health facilities, will be travelling to London to go and take treatment a la Buhari yet you have a clinic inside Aso-Rock called the Aso Rock Clinic. You cannot improve the medical facilities there, talkless of the medical facilities in the federal hospitals or even the University College Hospitals. In the 60s, the Saudi Royal Family came to UCH to receive treatment. What a shame that in this day and age they will make a person like me feel this way. What would happen to the common man that is a little bit lower than our level? I have said Olodumare should help me convert my anger into medicine. I am trying. I am trying. Nobody has asked me this question. This is strange. I never knew you heard about it.
Painful but this should not be happening to us as a people. The money they spend travelling to those places for medical treatment can build hospitals. They claim they spent about 3 trillion for Covid-19 and Covid-19 related issues, a well-equipped hospital will not cost up to N50 billion. Inside 1 trillion, you have 1 thousand billion, if you will over-equip that hospital, give it a world-class standard, you cannot spend 25 billion, imagine how many hospitals you will get. 25 divided by 1,000 in just one trillion. Steal the remaining 2 trillion but they’d rather steal all and leave all of us to suffer. It hurts. It stinks. I don’t give a hoot anymore. I don’t care about these bastards anymore.
I know if the system was working, my son wouldn’t have died. That young man was going to be 40 this December 2021 but he didn’t live to see his 40th because of the negligence of the system we live in and they expect me to keep quiet, fold my hands, say nothing, and do nothing? Are they for real? Where are the medical research centres we are supposed to be having? For every ailment that afflicts man, the Almighty has put a cure in plants. China is making trillions of dollars from herbal medicine. We are the custodians of the most natural herbs in the world. We are not having any research into herbal cure, herbal remedy, we are not earning any money, we are not training people the right way.
Private hospitals are just there as collection centres to kill people. I remember what happened to my brother Kimono. Those people at Lagoon Hospital just collected money for nothing, prevented us from even taking the boy down for treatment in the first place. They insisted on 2.5 million before they will start treatment. At the end of the day, it was just about the money. They killed my child right in front of me and I am not going to keep quiet.
Can we meet your family of birth?
My father’s family was large. My father was a multi-dimensional polygamist but he kept his children together. He had 25 children. Forget which number I was. I came from a very large family and I have so many brothers and sisters.
How about you? How many children do you have?
I cannot tell you the number of children I have because I am not sure, I have finished my life. I just lost one, maybe Olodumare wants to use me to produce more (laughs).
READ ALSO: WHAT 3 PROPHETS SAID ABOUT ANAMBRA ELECTIONS: WHO GOOFED? WHO GOT IT RIGHT?
Send Us News, Gist, more... to citypeopleng@gmail.com | Twitter: @CitypeopleMagz
