October 12, 2025, arrived with a familiar jolt of rhythm and rebellion as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Afrobeat Rebellion debuted at the Ecobank Pan African Centre — a triumphant cultural return of the legendary Paris showcase, now reborn through a distinctly Lagos pulse.
What began at the Philharmonie de Paris has now been reimagined and rebuilt for Lagos by the A Whitespace Creative Arts (AWCA) Foundation, supported by the French Embassy in Nigeria and the Kuti family. But this isn’t just a relocation — it’s a rebirth, crafted with the texture, urgency, and soul of the city Fela fought for and sang about.
“Our father’s legacy has travelled the world, but Lagos was always its heartbeat. Afrobeat Rebellion brings the archives home — not just to remember Fela, but to inspire a new generation to use art as resistance and freedom.” — The Kuti Family
A Lagos Reimagining: Where Global Excellence Meets Local Truth
In Lagos, the exhibition evolves into something far greater than a retrospective — it becomes a 12-week cultural season that breathes, speaks, and hums with the many layers of Fela’s world. Here, art converges with memory; live music merges with cinema; workshops intersect with civic dialogue; and children’s storytelling sits comfortably alongside intellectual debate.
The journey through Fela’s life is told through a tapestry of archival objects, rare photographs, reconstructed environments that echo Kalakuta and the Afrika Shrine, immersive soundscapes, and a sweeping global map charting the influence of Afrobeat across continents.
What sets this edition apart is its ambition. Lagos has honoured Fela before, but never with this level of curatorial depth, collaboration, and cultural intelligence. This is the first time an internationally acclaimed European retrospective has been reinterpreted with Lagos at the center — merging global scholarship with the emotional truth, humour, rhythm, and lived memory of the city that made Fela who he was.
The Paris edition drew international praise — described as a “revolutionary tribute,” “an echo of Fela’s unrelenting voice against oppression,” and “urgent and unforgettable.” Now, Lagos takes that legacy and reclaims it, reshaping the narrative in its own cadence, its own colours, its own uncompromising honesty.
“Supporting Afrobeat Rebellion reflects our belief that culture is a bridge. After Paris, bringing this season to Lagos — Fela’s home — deepens the dialogue between France and Nigeria.” — Laurent Favier, Consul General of France in Lagos
Where the Pulse Began: Lagos as the True Ground of the Rebellion
Because if Afrobeat has a birthplace, a pulse, a spiritual headquarters, it is Lagos. This is the city where Kalakuta rose and burned, where the Shrine became a parliament of sound, where Surulere’s restless rhythm shaped a young Fela, and where the chaos, humour, injustice, and brilliance of everyday life sharpened his politics into something fierce and unforgettable.
Bringing Afrobeat Rebellion home gives the story its true temperature. It allows the archives to breathe in the environment that created them — a place where elders still recall the nights Fela shook entire neighbourhoods, where young Nigerians are piecing together his philosophy for themselves, and where international visitors arrive not just to observe Afrobeat but to stand inside the city that made it possible.
And this homecoming lands at a moment when Lagos is once again asserting its global cultural authority. The city sits at the crossroads of art, music, activism, and new creative economies, making it the perfect ground for a project that fuses intellectual depth with lived experience.
“Too often, Fela is flattened to catchphrases — Zombie, Water No Get Enemy, Kalakuta — or wrapped in myths that miss the point,” says Seun Alli, Lead Curator of the Afrobeat Rebellion.
“This exhibition refuses that. It positions him as a public intellectual whose ideas shaped Africa’s political and cultural consciousness.”
Inside the Exhibition: A Journey Through Fela’s Life, Sound & Revolution
Stepping into the exhibition feels like crossing the threshold into Fela’s universe—each room unfolding as a living chapter of his story. The spaces flow from his formative influences into the pulse of Lagos that shaped his worldview, before carrying visitors into the chaotic brilliance of the Kalakuta Republic and the spiritual fire of the Afrika Shrine.
As the narrative expands, it traces the arc of his global tours and the international ripple of his message, eventually leading into a quiet library space where his music, books, writings, and artifacts breathe with intimate clarity. The journey culminates in a Legacy Room that reflects on how Afrobeat has evolved, travelled, and rooted itself in cultures around the world.
Through objects, soundscapes, film clips, posters, instruments, and personal writings, the experience pulls visitors directly into the political, spiritual, and sonic ecosystems that shaped Fela’s philosophy. It is more than an exhibition—it’s cultural memory made tangible.
A 12-Week Cultural Season: The Legacy Programmes
Afrobeat Rebellion extends far beyond its exhibition halls, spilling into the streets and spirit of Lagos as a twelve-week cultural season that reshapes the city into a living classroom, an open-air archive, a block party, and a creative laboratory all at once.
Across these weeks, conversations led by influential thinkers, artists, scholars, and cultural custodians — from Yeni Kuti and Ade Bantu to Prof. Oyeronke Oyewumi, Minna Salami, Falana, and Kadaria Ahmed — unpack the intersections of identity, resistance, gender, politics, and the evolving language of Afrobeat.
Music becomes its own form of storytelling, with an opening night that brought together Ezra Collective, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Femi Kuti, and Made Kuti, followed by an ever-growing constellation of contemporary performers, including Sodi Marciszewer, YKB, Chike, Veedar, and others who continue to bridge legacy with the now.
Cinema takes a central role too, through a six-week film series that revisits seminal works like Finding Fela, Music Is a Weapon, Mami Wata, Timbuktu, and The Lost Okoroshi, screened in communal spaces that echo the improvisational energy of Lagos itself.
Literature and critical thought weave through the Karatu reading sessions, where texts such as Kalakuta Republic, Dis Fela Sef!, Arrest the Music, and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti reopen old debates and spark new ones. Younger audiences find their place in the Young Rebels’ Corner — a vibrant hub where children explore music, storytelling, design, and movement, leaving each session with a symbolic Rebel Name and ID that welcomes them into Fela’s world of creativity and courage.
Workshops deepen the engagement further, inviting participants to create zines in “Manifesto: The Weapon of the Future,” step into spoken-word battles, or move through expressive sessions led by The Mud Art Company.
This constellation of programmes transforms Afrobeat Rebellion into a full cultural season — one that reframes Fela’s ideas for both those who lived through his revolution and those encountering it for the first time.
“For us, this is not just an exhibition. It is a season of culture — built for children, elders, thinkers, artists, and everyone. Lagos deserves a homecoming of this scale.” — Onoshiokhue Ako, Project Lead, AWCA
A Homecoming Lagos Will Remember
Afrobeat Rebellion welcomes visitors from October 12 to December 28, 2025, transforming the Ecobank Pan African Centre into a vibrant crossroads of memory, music, and cultural inquiry.
Open to the public every Friday through Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with Thursdays reserved for VIPs, schools, and institutional visits, the exhibition offers both open access and curated experiences for deeper engagement.
Entry is completely free, reflecting the mission to keep Fela’s legacy accessible to all, though an RSVP is required for limited-capacity programmes like talks, film screenings, and workshops, all managed seamlessly through Luma.
More than an exhibition, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Afrobeat Rebellion is a profound cultural homecoming — a space where history, sound, and spirit converge on Lagos soil.
It reminds us that Afrobeat has always been more than a genre: it is lived memory, a vocabulary of resistance, and a philosophy of African self-definition. After traveling across continents, the Rebellion has returned to where it all began, and Lagos receives it with the weight, warmth, and wonder of home, allowing Fela’s ideas to breathe once again as a living dialogue with the present.
Why This Moment Resonates With Us
As the Official Media and Storytelling Partner, Music Custodian carries the privilege of witnessing and chronicling this rare homecoming in real time.
Our work has always been rooted in the preservation and amplification of African sound — honouring its origins, documenting its present rhythms, and imagining the landscapes it will shape next.
Afrobeat Rebellion reflects every value we champion: legacy, culture, creative rigour, archival responsibility, and the enduring force of African narratives.
It opens its doors to everyone — music lovers, journalists, students, creators, cultural observers, and all who are curious about the vast ecosystem of African music. Most importantly, access remains completely free. Passes can be secured here
Stay connected with Music Custodian and explore the Afrobeat Rebellion in its full depth — from exclusive interviews and archival insights to behind-the-scenes reports, exhibition highlights, and Fela-inspired editorials crafted just for you.
