‘My father’s death was an impactful experience for me’ – Seun Kuti

The relationship that Afrobeats musician Seun Kuti had with his late father, the well-known musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has come to light. Seun Kuti likened the sensation to simultaneously losing one’s parent, friend, and family.

Seun Kuti, a well-known singer, has revealed that losing his father, Fela Kuti, was a significant event in his life.

Seun talked on the ways in which his relationship with his father was different from that of his older brothers when he was speaking with well-known media personality Chude Jideonwo.

Playfully, he added that he had felt sorry for his older brothers since their father had become a different person from birth—someone more relaxed.

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”.

Seun talked on 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.

Seun 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.”

He went on to say that he was unable to properly grieve for his mother because he was on a music tour at the time of her passing.

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.”