Tekno's Fela Argument Is Messy. The History He Wants Is Still Worth Recovering
LAGOS, 29 August 2026 — Tekno has argued that Fela Anikulapo-Kuti should not be treated as the only father of the music now discussed under the Afrobeats banner, pointing instead to a wider Nigerian inheritance that includes eastern highlife and artists such as Oliver De Coque.
The comment predictably produced a fight about respect. Yet the more useful problem is language. Afrobeat and Afrobeats are related terms, not interchangeable ones. Fela and drummer Tony Allen shaped a distinct band-driven form built from jazz, funk, highlife, Yoruba rhythm and political performance. Contemporary Afrobeats is a much broader commercial category containing many lineages and production styles.
Tekno's wording can therefore sound historically careless even when the instinct behind it is correct: no serious account of modern Nigerian pop should erase highlife, juju, fuji, palm-wine music, gospel, hip-hop, dancehall or the regional scenes that fed today's sound.
First, separate the two words
Afrobeat, without the final “s,” commonly describes the style associated with Fela's late-1960s and 1970s experiments and the musicians who developed that vocabulary. Long arrangements, horn lines, interlocking guitars, percussion and political confrontation are central to its identity.
Afrobeats, the contemporary umbrella, was popularised decades later as a way to market a fast-changing collection of West African pop sounds. It includes records that borrow from Afrobeat, but also songs closer to R&B, highlife, amapiano, hip-hop, dancehall or electronic pop.
Confusing the categories makes every origin argument impossible. Fela can be a foundational creator of Afrobeat without being the single inventor of every sound later exported as Afrobeats.
International visibility is not the same as sole authorship
Tekno's emphasis on travel raises a fair historical question. Artists who tour, record effectively, attract international journalists and leave organised archives often occupy more space in global memory than equally influential musicians whose work circulated regionally.
That does not reduce Fela's achievement. His compositions, performance practice, politics and institution-building were original and consequential. It does remind us that fame affects which archive survives. A history written from records available in London or New York will not automatically capture every band, market or local broadcast that shaped Nigerian listeners.
Oliver De Coque belongs in the conversation because Igbo highlife's guitar language, social commentary and community circulation formed part of the environment from which later pop emerged. So do numerous artists from other traditions. Their inclusion should enlarge the map, not require shrinking Fela.
The industry keeps repeating a false choice
Online arguments reward a winner and a loser: either Fela created everything or his role has been exaggerated. Music history rarely behaves that way. Styles emerge through musicians borrowing, contesting and recombining ideas across cities, ethnicities and generations.
Credit also operates at different levels. One artist may codify a genre, another popularise it internationally, another develop a production technique, and another create the commercial infrastructure that carries it into a new era.
Modern Afrobeats owes debts to all of those processes. The category became global because songs, labels, DJs, diaspora communities, streaming services and touring networks aligned—not because one family tree suddenly appeared.
A better argument would begin with listening
Schools, broadcasters and streaming services could use this controversy to build accessible listening guides. Place Fela beside Tony Allen, E.T. Mensah, Rex Lawson, Oliver De Coque, Osita Osadebe, King Sunny Adé and later producers. Explain what changed in rhythm, instrumentation, language, song length and recording technology.
That approach would be more useful than turning artists into flags for regional pride. It would also help younger musicians identify techniques they can develop instead of treating heritage as a list of names to mention during interviews.
The archive has commercial value
Recovering neglected history is not only cultural work. Properly cleared catalogues can generate sync licensing, documentaries, samples, reissues and educational products. Estates benefit when rights are documented. New artists benefit when they can engage the past legally and accurately.
Nigeria has repeatedly allowed valuable recordings, photographs and paperwork to decay while foreign archives become the default authority. Every origin dispute is also a reminder that memory follows whoever preserves the evidence.
TalkTalkNigeria's view: broaden the canon without breaking the facts
Tekno is right that Nigerian music history is bigger than one celebrated name. He is wrong if that broad point collapses the distinction between Afrobeat and Afrobeats or makes international recognition sound like mere publicity.
The honest position can hold both ideas: Fela and his collaborators created and internationalised a powerful form called Afrobeat; modern Afrobeats emerged from a wider field of Nigerian and West African traditions that deserves far better documentation.
A mature culture should be able to add names to its history without deleting the one already printed in bold.
Regional memory changes what listeners hear as foundational
A listener raised around Lagos clubs, Yoruba percussion and Fela's public mythology may hear one obvious origin story. Someone formed by eastern guitar music, church bands and highlife records may hear another. Geography does not make either listener dishonest; it shapes the archive available in homes, markets and local radio.
The responsibility of criticism is to move beyond personal memory. Dates, recordings, personnel, interviews and musical comparison can show which innovations appeared where and how musicians influenced one another. That method produces a richer history than counting whose fans can dominate a timeline.
Tony Allen demonstrates why single-author stories fail
Even the clearest account of Fela's Afrobeat has to include the rhythmic architecture developed with drummer Tony Allen and the work of bands whose members contributed arrangements, performance practice and sound. Celebrating a frontman should not erase collaboration.
The same principle applies to contemporary Afrobeats. Producers, engineers, songwriters, dancers, DJs and promoters help create genres while marketing compresses credit into a recognisable face. Historical accuracy requires restoring those layers.
A national music archive could turn debate into evidence
Nigeria needs a searchable institution holding recordings, oral histories, photographs, contracts, posters, radio logs and musician credits. Materials should be digitised with rights information, regional expertise and access rules that allow education and licensing.
Such an archive could commission listening courses and exhibitions built around connections: highlife guitar into modern pop, Yoruba theatre into stagecraft, military-era politics into protest music, and studio technology into new rhythmic forms.
It would also reduce dependence on foreign collections for the documentation of Nigerian culture. International archives can be partners, but the country should not have to leave home to verify its own musical history.
Artists should be precise when history becomes promotion
Provocative interviews generate attention, and Tekno is entitled to challenge received wisdom. Artists with large audiences also have the power to turn imprecise wording into a durable falsehood. The standard should not be silence; it should be curiosity followed by correction where needed.
He could advance the discussion by naming specific recordings, dates and musical features from the eastern traditions he wants listeners to reconsider. That would send a young audience toward the music instead of leaving it with a personality dispute.
Broadcasters could help immediately by pairing the controversy with programming rather than panels alone. A week of annotated listening—original recordings, later adaptations and conversations with surviving musicians—would let audiences test competing claims with their ears. History becomes healthier when evidence is easier to hear than outrage is to share.
Sources: Punch's report on Tekno's Hot 97 comments; Voice of Nigeria's account; background accounts distinguishing Afrobeat from the contemporary Afrobeats umbrella.
