Anyone who saw Fela in performance will remember baritone saxophonist Lekan ‘Baba Ani’ Animashaun, who was always situated stage left, with his trademark cap on his head and his baritone sax in hand. He was a core member of Koola Lobitos, Nigeria 70, Afrika 70, and Egypt 80.

Baba Ani was born in Lagos in August, 1936, and his primary education was split between All Saints School in Oshogbo (in Oshun State), and Ansaruddin Primary School in Alakoro, Lagos Island. His secondary education was at National High School, in the Ebutte-Meta area of Lagos.

He cites jazz baritonists Gerry Mulligan and Pepper Adams as inspirations, and credits bandleader Chris Ajillo as his first saxophone teacher. Animashaun and Ajilo met when Baba Ani joined the dance orchestra of the Nigerian Broadcasting Company (NBC), playing various ballroom dance styles including ‘cha-chas, pachangas, and waltzes’. He also played with Ajilo’s own band, Chris Ajilo And His Cubanos, playing highlife and Afro-Cuban music. In 1965, Baba Ani met Fela Ransome-Kuti, who was also on the staff of NBC and who broadcasted a weekly jazz programme. Animashaun joined Koola Lobitos the same year, and remained with Fela until the latter’s death in 1997. Today, he continues to lead the Egypt 80 band, now fronted by Fela’s youngest son Seun.

Baba Ani’s two songs here were tinkered with over a period of years, but the basic tracks date from the last days of the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo, around 1979. This was a tough time for the Afrika 70 organization, which was still recovering from the military attack (allegedly ordered by Obasanjo) that was launched on Fela’s Kalakuta Republic in February 1977, as well as the departure of Tony Allen and most of the Afrika 70 band following the Berlin Festival. By mid-1979, Fela had finally opened his new Afrika Shrine in Ikeja (an outlying suburb of Lagos). Animashaun was appointed bandleader of the new band, which was also named Afrika 70 until 1981 when Fela rechristened it Egypt 80. The opening of the new Afrika Shrine ended over two years of harassment and performances forcibly aborted by the government and soldiers of the Nigerian Army. Nevertheless, Fela’s battles with the Nigerian authorities continued, and were particularly severe during the early 1980s. As a result, Baba Ani’s songs remained unreleased for years. Work on the tracks resumed in Paris in 1986 (in a marathon recording session which followed Fela’s release from an 18-month prison term), but they were again shelved until 1995, when they were finally released on Fela’s Kalakuta Records as Kalakuta 003. Even then, Baba Ani laments that the release wasn’t given particularly vigorous promotion by the label’s staff. As a result, Low Profile remained primarily familiar to the faithful attendants of the Afrika Shrine, while Serere (Do Right) gained a bit more exposure, used as Egypt 80’s set opener at home and on the band’s international tours of the 1980s and 1990s.

The two songs were social criticisms of a sort, filtered through the unique prism of Fela’s Afrobeat experience. The title of Serere (Do Right) is self-explanatory; the lyrics ask the listener to act constructively in society, regardless of professional or social status. The title Low Profile (Not for the Blacks) takes as its inspiration comments made in late 1976 by then-General Olusegun Obasanjo. In response to a surge in armed robberies at the height of the Nigerian oil boom, General Obasanjo urged Nigerians to avoid ostentatious displays of wealth and to adopt a ‘low profile’, in order to discourage the thieves who preyed upon the Nigerian nouveau-riche. Animashaun disagreed with this sentiment, recalling ‘I was trying to say that a low profile is not for black people. Black people are supposed to be living like kings and queens. Why should our rulers be telling us to live a low profile, while they themselves are living a high profile in [the upscale areas of] Ikoyi and Victoria Island?’

Michael Veal