Seun Kuti is working on a new album titled “Black Times.” It is partly inspired by the politics and corruption of Nigeria, from the past, down to the present.
Nigeria’s current ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, was also the country’s dictator when Seun’s legendary father, Fela, was alive and had the singer jailed. Seun Kuti today is the band leader of the massive multi-instrument ensemble founded by Fela, the Egypt 80.
“For me, I think this is a message for humanity, not only for young people to rise-up for humanity, to stand on the side of humanity. Like this whole trump brouhaha, Trump said this, Trump said that is just salty liberals. This is the way elites behave. They hate to lose anything,” Seun told Intercept in an interview.”
“Black Times” will be released in March 2018, and muc of its message is targeted at the poor people of the world.
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"Well, for me it’s not only young people, I think it’s directed at the poor and working class people of the world," Seun explains. "Listen to any head of state, any big-time leader in this world use the word “poor people.” They don’t say poor people anymore. They are completely erased out, because nobody lobbies for them, and there’s no representation whatsoever for the poor."
On Donald Trump and "Shithole" Comment
The Afrobeat maestro, Seun Kuti thinks there is some benefit in Donald Trump only calling African countries including Nigeria ‘shithole’ countries.
The US President in a meeting on immigration asked his cabinet the reason for the existence of immigrants from Africa and Haiti. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to people briefed on the meeting who spoke with The Washington Post.
Seun Kuti, a vocal critic of Nigerian leaders, the US, and its transnational companies who drill for oil and protect their interests with the collusion of the rulers.
“I think the problem that the Western media has Donald Trump is that he’s unmasking the system,” Kuti told Intercept on a podcast. “You know? He’s unveiling the system for what it really is, and they don’t like that, because the Western system of global white domination depends a lot on plausible deniability, and Trump, in his ignorance, is erasing that.
“The fact that Trump sees Africa as a shithole country is no different than — it’s nothing. Because words don’t hurt me, you know? I mean, I’m too tough for words to prick.
Why The Media Storm?
He continued: “But I was surprised that the old liberal media is still silent about the atrocities that Obama committed in Libya, and Syria, and El Salvador, and all these same countries that everybody’s so pissed off about, some words being said about, Obama treated Africa like a shithole. Bush treated Africa like a shithole, you know? So just because Donald Trump articulates it, doesn’t mean I need to see something new. There’s nothing new to see. In fact, I think that’s a toning down of the things we’ve experienced.”
He further said being labelled by Trump is actually better than being turned into a ‘shithole’, “If I’m just going to experience bad words from Trump, I prefer that to the actuality to being the shithole that past Western governments have made Africa to realize that it is, you know? So, I don’t think this is anything that anybody should be losing their mind over.”