Travel || A Tour of Kalakuta Republic Musuem.

I have always had a desire to know more about Fela- Anikulapo Kuti because am a huge fan of his music, and  have been looking  forward to a tour of his museum . Fast forward to April, I put out a tour request on my instastory (follow me on Instagram )  and Evatonia  with Royalbiba  showed interest on coming on a tour of kalakuta muesum with me.

On the scheduled day , we all met at the museum which is situated at Allen, Ikeja.  We paid 1,000 naira each for the tour,  and got assigned to a tour guide.

Kalakuta Museum formerly known as Kalakuta Republic was the home of the late Afrobeat Legend Fela - Anikulapo Kuti which has now be turned into a museum to promote Fela's Legacy .

Royalbiba sitting pretty in the museum 

Pictures of Fela and his family 

Fela -Anikulapo Kuti  was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome - Kuti on October 15 1938 into an upper- middle class family ( an activist mother and his father was a school principal and a reverend) . He attended Abeokuta grammar school before  he was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but he decided to study music instead at the trinity college of music. Fela was a musician, composer, polygamist, human rights activist, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre ,political maverick and a legend. 

At the museum, we got a glimpse of how Fela lived from his photographs, sitting room, bedroom with many of his clothes and on display. Fela's personal effects makes up the bulk of the items on display ranging from his shoes, clothes, undergarmets, album covers, art works, paper clippings, relics, reminants of Fela's musical instruments and photographs.  The main attraction of the museum is the late singer's bedroom which is still preserved the way he left it . The bedroom is locked and restricted to visitiors but can be viewed through a glass

Fela's Bedroom

Fela's clothes and personal effects

Fela's closet

cross-section of Fela's shoes 

A picture of Fela's undergarments

Fela in a group picture with his wives

There was a part of the museum which housed art works of fela, pictures of him and his troupe during performances, a type writer, manifestos and paper clippings showing Fela's fight with the then military government. We went to the souvenir shop  housed in the museum but there was really nothing going on there and it was looking empty with just few items that were overpriced.

Paper clippings and manifestos 

We proceeded to the roof top terrace- bar to chill out before heading back to our different directions. It was a  mildly sunny day and every where was quiet except from the Nigerian music booming from the music box. We had fun dancing and yeah we took a whole lot of pictures.

Chilling with evatonia at the roof top terrace

On our way out of the museum, we saw the grave of the musician who died on the 2nd of August,1997 at age 58.

Fela's grave

Shown below are words used by the citizens of Nigeria made popular by the legendary king of acrobeat FELA.

Are you a fan of FELA'S music?  Have you been to Kalakuta musuem? Would you love to know more about his history ?  Kindly leave your answers in the comment section below. Thanks.