Seun Anikulapo Kuti, son of the late famous afrobeat singer Fela Kuti has thrown some light on the relationship he shared with his father.
Seun mentioned that his father’s death was like losing his family and close friends. He said the grief hurt him so bad because his father was like a best friend and all.
He mentioned that his relationship with his father was different because he was born when his father was always home, unlike his other siblings who did not experience their father’s presence like he did. To him, his relationship with his father was all he knew.
He said: “Fela was a model father; he was very different from the stories I heard of my elder ones. I feel bad for them. I can’t lie.”
“I tell them all the time, I enjoyed it for you guys. Trust me, I held it down. I did not slack.”
“By the time he had me, he was 44; he was always home, so my relationship with him was very different from that of my siblings very, very different. I know that for a fact”.
Jokingly, he added that he had felt sorry for his older brothers who did not experience their father’s attention and presence like he did because he was always away from home making music then.
Seun talked about the mental toll that the death of his father had placed on him, emphasizing how hard it was for him to move on from the terrible loss and find closure.
Since he was everyone’s best friend, losing him was an entirely different kind of suffering from which he was still recuperating. He continued by saying that he cried for a long time since the loss affected him so deeply.
He said: “I grieved for my dad because he was the closest person to me, and he was the first person I know that died, so for me, it was a really impactful experience losing my dad; it was like losing my best friend, my dad, and a family member, all in one. I really grieved for a long time. I grieved for my dad.”
About his mother, he stated that he didn’t have the time to grieve her demise as he was on a tour and there was no time to break down.
In his words: “The one I didn’t grieve was my mom. I had a tour. There was no time to break down.”
“If I’m going to share some of my mental issues on your show, it’s like I think I’m grieving my mom in stages; kind of, I’ve not really had time to really delve into that, but the bad part is past, and I still grieve her from time to time. I don’t have complete closure for my mom like I do for my dad”.
His expressions plainly narrated his desire to grieve his mother and find closure like he did with his father. To him, talking about his mother is like grieving her demise in different stages.
