Seun Kuti has claimed that his father, Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, contracted HIV from his wives rather than infecting them, pushing back against a narrative that has long shadowed the musician’s legacy.
The younger Kuti made the assertion during an Instagram livestream, responding to a woman who alleged that Fela infected his partners with the virus that eventually claimed his life in 1997.
“One day, I saw a video of a lady online asking why people continue to praise Fela’s legacy despite him giving women HIV and dying of AIDS,” Seun said, before offering a contrary account.
He argued that Fela’s open marriage philosophy — which permitted his wives to have relationships outside the home — created the conditions for the transmission. According to Seun, his father did not seek out women beyond his household, while his wives moved freely outside it.
“Fela did not keep his women to himself. He believed that as he was free to sleep with all his women, his women should also be free to meet other men — just don’t bring them to my house. That was my father’s law,” Seun said.
“My father doesn’t leave his house to sleep with other women outside, so it was his women who brought HIV home to him.”
He suggested the outcome may have been different had stricter boundaries governed the marriages. “If Fela were a traditional man, he would still be alive,” he said.
Seun was nonetheless careful to acknowledge his father’s imperfections. “Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But Fela is a man who is on the side of humanity,” he said.
Fela Kuti, one of Africa’s most celebrated musicians and a fierce critic of military rule in Nigeria, died in August 1997. He was survived by several wives and children, including Seun, who has carried on the Afrobeat tradition.
