Orlando Julius Declares Himself Founder of Afrobeat in Resurfaced Interview
An old interview with the late legendary musician Orlando Julius Ekemode has resurfaced online, sparking renewed debate about the origins of Afrobeat. This comes amid a recent controversy involving award-winning singer Wizkid and Seun Kuti, the son of the iconic Fela Kuti. In the interview originally conducted with Agbaletu TV, Orlando Julius makes bold claims about his role in creating the genre that many attribute to Fela.
The Genesis of Afrobeat According to Orlando Julius
"I started Afrobeat in Nigeria in 1960," Orlando Julius stated emphatically in the interview. He asserted that at that time, no one was making music remotely similar to what would become Afrobeat. The musician traced his musical roots to his childhood in Ikole Ekiti, where he was born and attended St. Peter's Anglican School as a band boy.
He credited his mother, an Aso Ofi fabric maker, with nurturing his early interest in music. "Music had been in my blood since then," he recalled, describing how he would sing for her after school. His musical journey took a significant turn after his father's death, when he dropped out of high school and moved to Ibadan.
Obafemi Awolowo's Crucial Role in Musical Development
Orlando Julius expressed profound gratitude to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of the defunct Western Nigeria, whose policies directly facilitated his musical education. "When Obafemi Awolowo was the Premier of Western Nigeria around 1956, I devoted my full interest to music in 1957," he explained.
He detailed how Awolowo, despite establishing free education, recognized the lack of formal music instruction in schools. Unlike his friend Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana who made music compulsory, Awolowo took a different approach. "He called the Action Group and suggested they buy a lot of musical instruments that could be enough for about 30 bands," Orlando Julius recounted.
This public music resource center became Orlando Julius's training ground. "That was where I learnt music and where I learnt my first instrument," he said, listing alto sax, saxophone, and drumset among the instruments he mastered there. He emphasized that many musicians who later populated Nigeria's popular bands received their training at this establishment.
The Birth of a New Sound
After playing briefly with Eddy Okonta in 1958, Orlando Julius established his own band. He explained how he transformed the Ekiti and Ijesha music from his school days, which used minor notes, into something new. With encouragement from his brother I.K. Dairo, who provided band instruments, he began rehearsing in early 1961.
The name "Afrobeat" emerged organically from audience reactions. "Whenever people asked what kind of music we were playing, I always told them it was Afrobeat," he said. The term reflected his musical synthesis: "I listened to Cuban music, Caribbean music, Kenyan music, South African music, and others. So, I put them all together. That is where Afro comes from."
Fela Kuti's Entry and Orlando Julius's Support
Orlando Julius clarified the timeline of Fela Kuti's involvement with Afrobeat. "Fela had not started singing when I established my band," he stated, noting that he only began hearing about Fela in 1963 after Fela returned from studying music abroad.
He described how Fela, then working as a DJ at NBC in Lagos, would regularly visit Ibadan for courses. Ibadan was then considered the Mecca of music due to WNTV and WNBS, Africa's first television station. Orlando Julius's band played nightly at Independence Hotel in Oke Bola, attracting university students and intellectuals including Tunji Oyelana and Wole Soyinka.
"Every time Fela came, he always played trumpet on our stage," Orlando Julius recalled. "I always brought him to my stage to play the trumpet as a guest artist, and people loved it." He noted that Fela particularly admired his band, which was Fela's favorite at the time.
When Fela decided to start his own band, Koola Lobitos, Orlando Julius made a significant contribution: "I released three members of my band to follow him to Lagos." These musicians included Isiaka Adio (konga), Eddy Fayehun (trumpet), and Ojo Ikeji (bassist).
He distinguished their early styles: "The music they were playing then was not my music brand but jazz high-life... We were the only ones playing Afrobeat." Orlando Julius also shared personal observations about Fela's habits at the time, noting that "if you bought Fela Fanta, he won't be able to drink half of the bottle" and that he didn't smoke then.
Contemporary Relevance and Social Media Reaction
This interview gained renewed attention as music producer Samklef shared it on social media platform X amid the Wizkid-Seun Kuti controversy. Samklef used it to support his claim that "Fela stole Orlando Julius Ekemode's style, the original Afrobeat founder." He added that Orlando Julius taught Fela how to play the saxophone.
The resurfacing of this interview adds historical context to current debates about musical legacy and influence in Nigeria's vibrant music scene. It challenges widely held assumptions about Afrobeat's origins while highlighting the interconnectedness of Nigeria's musical pioneers.
