Yeni Kuti, media personality and daughter of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has revealed that her father was admitted into music music school out of pity.
Speaking on a recent episode of the TVC programme, Your View, Yeni explained that Fela, struggled academically compared to his siblings, was nearly rejected by Trinity College of Music in London due to poor grades.
“When I was in Secondary School, you know this parents were academics, they were pressurizing him to study hard. His older brother and sister had gone to University oversea.
“It was him and his younger brother who were with their parents at that time. His younger brother had excellent grades, but Fela was very average, so, his parents didn’t want him to go abroad for studies.
“But his brothers wanted him to study with him in London, so they lied to their parents that Fela was going to a medical school. That was how he got to England.
“They enrolled him in musical school because by time Fela was playing Piano, When he got to the music school, the admission officer said, “It’s only because you’ve come a long distance that I’m going to allow you into this school with these results”, she said.
She added that Fela’s siblings deceived their parents by claiming he had been admitted to medical school, just to ensure he could travel to London.
“They later enrolled him in musical school because by that time Fela was playing the Piano… That was how he got music school out of pity. But look at it today, he is a legend”.
Fela was admitted into Trinity College of Music in 1958.
-9News Nigeria.
