I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT.

I DON’T FEEL LIKE IT

  When my mother went to Valencia to live with my father’s family, she found herself in a far more conservative environment than what she was used to. One day they were invited to a wedding. My father told her that she had to buy a hat. “I don’t like hats.

  “You know what my mother’s like. You’re going to have to wear one. All the women wear them.”

  “I told you I’m not going to wear a hat.”

  “But…what difference does it make? Why?”

  “Because I don’t feel like it.”

  One might think- What a stubborn woman your mother was! After all, it was just a question of etiquette. It’s possible. Men wear ties, women wear hats, etc. But human beings have to be careful with the symbolism they attribute to objects and actions in every place and time in history – very careful with the precedents we establish every time we say yes or no, and with the consequences which that affirmation or negation may or may not have.

  Men and women all over the world take these steps every day; but especially women. We decide we’re not going to do something that they tell us to just for being women or, otherwise, we decide we are going to do something they want to stop us from doing, just for being women. Even if the one ordering us or impeding us is another woman.

  This is nothing different from what Rosa Parks did: she didn't sit in the back of the bus, not because the seats in the back were worse than the seats in front, but because no one could tell her where to sit just for being black. Once places stopped symbolizing power hierarchies, it stopped mattering where you sat.

A HOMENAGE TO POLIGAMY.

"77 albums, 27 wives, over two hundred court appearances. Harassed, beaten, tortured, jailed. Twice-born father of Afro-beat. Spiritualist. Pan-Africanist. Commune king. Composer, saxophonist, keyboardist, vocalist, dancer. Would-be candidate for the Nigerian presidency. There will never be another like him."

This quote is taken from MySpace and describes in grandiose terms the magnificent life of Fela Anikulapu-Kuti the king of afrobeat. As you can read, the number of wives is considered after the number of albums, but not for that less important. Those women were the queens of his personal republic in Nigeria where, as we know, polygamy was a tradition which is still considered a great thing for part of population, especially now that Islam is playing an increasingly important role in the region.

In this context we’re now introduced to the musical Fela! which explores Fela’s life and his music, placing particular emphasis on his simultaneous marriage with 27 women. If you want more information, read the article Finding Depth in Fela’s Women in the New York Times.

For example, one can read: "What the audience might not know is that the marriage — often described in prurient terms by the news media over the years — had been publicly described by Fela as a gesture of political solidarity and emotional support for his women after a devastating 1977 raid on his compound in Lagos, called Kalakuta."

Nevertheless there is no explanation about what kind of relation was maintained between Fela and these women, a political and friendship-based relation, or a marital relation. On the other hand, no information is provided regarding these people, even in the case of the AfroAmerican activist Sandra Isadore, who introduced Fela into the political world of the Black Panthers and radical politics." And, of course, neither does there seem to be any mention, or appearance, of Fela’s mother, who was a noted feminist and anti-colonialist in Nigeria.

“The relationship is more intricate than just a bunch of passive women who let a man do whatever he wanted" said the article’s author. And if you have any doubt about that, it's only necessary to read the actresses’ own words:

“If you look at our faces and attitudes during the play, it’s not a ‘look at me.’ We are not grinning and gyrating and trying to please. We are there to create a community, to make a statement, to help create music.” So, they are only dancing, even if only in a serious and sexually non-provocative manner, if one is to believe the article. "Mr. Jones (the play’s director) instructed them not to “bat your eyes or wiggle your hips at the audience.” (...) “He said my role in the play is to always be attending to Fela because that is what she did, so you see me lighting his cigarettes, giving him his saxophone, wiping his brow.”

If the musical’s intention is to be progressive, in these times of “Big Love” it seems more like a glorification of masculinity as epitomized by Fela, and a homage to polygamy.