Quotes from Fela Kuti

Music is a weapon of the future / music is the weapon of the progressives / music is the weapon of the givers of life

With my music, I create change...I am using my music as a weapon.

You cannot sing African music in proper English

Music is the weapon. Music is the weapon of the future.

The music of Africa is big sound: it's the sound of a community

I want peace. Happiness. Not only for myself. For everybody.

I could never leave my home.... It inspires me a lot.

My country will be a symbol of free human society.

I'm not your average politician. I believe in higher forces.

Art itself is knowledge of the spiritual world. Art is information from higher forces, by those who are talented. I'm not jiving.

The secret of life is to have no fear.

I refuse to live my life in fear.

Western music is Bach, Handel and Schubert. It's good music, cleverly done. As a musician, I can see that.

No, I didn't hear about 'Live Aid.' I was in prison, and we were not allowed newspapers in prison.

Our prisons are very bad. When I was in Ikoyi prison, people were dying every day. They were carrying bodies out of the prison every day.

People thought I was trying to say that women had no say, no rights. I was not saying that. I was saying that women had a role, a duty. When they want to have a say in government - though in Africa they are not expected to do that - they are not discouraged. They can do what they want to do.

It is a false belief to think you can own somebody, I'm out of that now. The man should understand he does not own the woman, and the woman should understand she does not own the man.

To be spiritual is not by praying and going to church. Spiritualism is the understanding of the universe so that it can be a better place to live in.

The rhythm, the sounds, the tonality, the chord sequences, the individual effect of each instrument and each section of the band - I'm talking about a whole continent in my music.

My mother was the most wicked mother ever seen in life when it came to beating. Oh-la-la! Every time I would say, 'This is the end of me.' Oh, how she would beat me.

When you start to think of revenge, you start to think of hate. I don't believe in hating people. It's a retrogressive thing.

The art, the greatness of the music, the experience of the music is what I'm about. I think most African artists have destroyed their artistry by commercialization, and I don't want to belong to that bag.

My ideas are threatening to the government.

Marriage is a terrible institution, it creates such a regression of the mind.