The Brief & Fabulous Friendship of Peter Tosh & Fela Kuti

hello everybody you're welcome back again to the regga appreciation society as far as reg and indeed jamaic music is concerned no other artist May ever be as confrontational and radical as the great Winston Hubert Macintosh AKA Peter Tosh the faceoffs between this riggy icon and mystery Babylon which is represented by the oppressive World Systems of government have since become the stuff of Legend in his lifetime he not only waged war against Babylon with his music and lyrics but was also an activist in the streets demonstrating resistance at every given opportunity and very often receiving brutal repercussions for his trouble that came with the form of incarceration censorship and Savage beatings interestingly the most similar musician to the Stepping Razor in terms of his radical music and activist credentials was not a Jamaican or reg artist but an eccentric genius African Superstar almost 9,000 km away in Lagos Nigeria in the person of the great fella CTI he was the originator of the Fusion of funk Jazz high life and African rhythms that we now know today as afro beats and just like TSH he was as confrontational to the system on a level that's not been seen since both TSH and futi were Freedom Fighters who use music as a potent weapon he too had suffered devastating oppression by the Nigerian authorities in the form of numerous beatings jail time and even a brutal and terrible assault on his home by over 1,000 soldiers that resulted in his house being burnt to the ground and his mother dying from injury sustained in that horrible attack not to mention the biggest similarity between TSH and fella was a huge unquenchable love for you guessed it herb both men were faced admirers of each other and though thousands of miles apart were like twins this incredible pair would come face to face in their lifetimes when TSH embarked on an epic visit to Nigeria in 1982 let's take a look at the awesome story of what happened when TSH met fakti in late 1981 the Stepping Razor was taking a break after staggering World Tour to promote his album wanted dread and alive during that tour he had met with fellow Emi records artist a Nigerian singer T osum during a concert in Cuba that was organized by their labor osum was also a passionate her advocate so both men quickly became close Pals and in the course of conversation oku invited TSH to visit Nigeria once he could find the time TSH had been looking forward to coming to Africa for a while and jumped at the opportunity so he told his manager Copan fors to get to work on their visas and to pack their bags for a trip to Nigeria ASAP with $10,000 in his pocket he and his sidekick Forbes hopped on a plane to New York and onwards to Lagos Nigeria but due to a mix up in their schedules they arrived a day later and son kosu wasn't able to meet them at the airport and take them to his home as planned so they decided to spend the night at a hotel and locate the kosum from there after passing through customs and immigration they got their luggage out and found a taxi and headed into the city but on their way Peter would come face to face face with the same Babylon system and oppression that he had fought against back home in Jamaica between the airport and the hotel they would encounter several checkpoints manned by aggressive heavily armed policemen and soldiers and at each stop the policemen would act really hostile until they would look into the taxi and see the man in the back seat was none other than the great Peter TSH and each time they were get all excited and wave the taxi through and Kon Forbes would give them some cassettes as souvenirs and he worked for the first seven checkpoints but at the eighth and final checkpoint before the Hotel the police wouldn't budge and after Peter got angry and screamed at them they retaliated by beating up the taxi driver declaring them all under arrest before taking them to the police station and when they got there Forbes noticed how angry Peter was and told him to wait outside by the car because he knew that Peter would very likely confront them so Forbes and the driver would go inside to handle the matter and while waiting outside the station Peter was recognized and thronged by dozens of fans fors was soon after secur a release after paying a bribe of $10 to the cop who had arrested them in the first place and when for told Peter how it got settled the steing Razer became Furious not because he had to pay a bribe but he was just angry that they hadn't said it from the start so they got to the hotel and settled in they will locate son kosu who took them to spend the night at his palacial home before taking them to his hometown of Benin a few hours drive away from Lagos Peter was having a ball but since he arrived he had been itching to see futi to after convincing OSU the trio would head back to Lagos and as said earlier the stepping Razer was a big admirer of futi and was also eager to smoke some herb with that Nigerian icon fti's consumption of herb was legendary and world renowned and in fact a popular Story Goes that sometime in the early 1990s dance hall Legend shabara came to Nigeria to play at a concert and would visit futi on the morning of the day of the show and after a very extensive split session shaba got so stoned that he couldn't perform later that evening but that's a story for a different day if TSH was the Jamaican king of herb futi was his African counterpart so Peter and his sidekick Kon fors will set out to find futi in what was a legendary sprawling Community nicknamed The kakuta Republic futi in a show of defiance declared that neighborhood's independent from Nigeria that neighborhood was supposed to be a mini country of his own and in that Kingdom he was truly the king he always had massive quantities of Herb in his home and due to his criticisms of the government the police were always looking to catch him and would often read his home to find evidence to put him in jail but every single time the police would raid the place he would always get a heads up and warning from residents of the kakuto Republic and would always succeed in hiding a stash to their frustration and Peter would arrive at Fella's House unannounced he was playing a saxophone when someone told him that the Stepping Razor was looking for him and fella was so excited that he ran out to meet them in his underwear he was really happy to see Peter and took them upstairs for some refresh ments and of course the first thing he would offer them was the finest and strongest herb that you could find in Lagos and according to cand Forbes Peter and F would roll up spliffs that were the size of deodorant spray cans and chatted excitedly for hours on every single topic Under the Sun and fella would at intervals stop talking get up and fire away at some mean tunes on his saxophone fella was an awesome host and treated them to lots of Beverages and food and told his staff to go buy and barbecue a whole goat which they all feasted on with a large crowd of visitors that thronged F's house every evening Peter and futi hit it tough big time and would hang out every evening for the rest of his stay in Nigeria kak Republic was always buzzing with activity and there were always lots of visitors from all over the world Peter would meet lots of local celebrities and popular faces at Fella's house and one evening Peter would meet Sandra Isador the American lady who is credited with inspiring fuchi Afrocentric and revolutionary worldview the friendship that Peter had built with fuchi was so tight that the Stepping Razor began to make plans to buy a home and establish a base in Nigeria where he would eventually settle so after 2 weeks Peter will say goodbye to Nigeria and his friends and his bonding with fouti was supposed to be the spark of a fruitful musical relationship the pair were booked to embark on a massive tour of the US in 1984 but what would have been a legendary tour for the ages would never happen at the military J in Nigeria would throw fella in jail before it could take off and in solidarity with his friend Peter TSH would opt out of that concert fakti was sentenced to 5 years in jail by the military government but was released after 2 years in 1985 when a new military leader deposed the previous ruler who had thrown him in jail and with f now released TSH will visit Nigeria again late that year and went over to spend time with his friend this time he would seriously begin to put plans in place to come and settle in Nigeria but sadly he would never get round to it before his untimely passing in 1987 and his friend futi would pass away 10 years later in 1997 after a series of health challenges which were exacerbated by Decades of physical abuse and brutality by the Nigerian authorities the pair never got to perform together or share the same stages as I'm sure they were itching to but at the end of the day it's a pretty cool thing that these two once in the lifetime icons and soul brothers with similar attributes personalities and life missions met in their lifetimes and became close friends before leaving this world so there you have it thank you for watching this video today please leave a like subscribe and until next time jobless [Music]

Channel: Reggae Appreciation Society

Views: 8,002

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Id: NzTUByG9AKE

Length: 8min 37sec (517 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024