This dust about what is now referred to as the “Rarara Conference” brought out on interesting response from Mahmoud Abubakar (not sure of the handle!) who inquired as to whether Rarara (and perhaps the genre of his art) is comparative to Fela Anikulapo Kuti as Social Change mobilizers. Although I have replied to him in the FB post, I think it is interesting enough to warrant posting on its own.
Let us get one thing clear right away. Both Fela (1938-1997) and Dauda Kahutu Rarara (b. 1986) are gifted in their ways. It is not a question of who is better than the other. It is a question of personal preference of the listener. I know performers many people have never heard of, and will not even listen to their music. These included Klaus Schulze, Soviet Space Dogs Project, Tangerine Dream, Robert Schroeder, Ali Farka Toure, Laurie Spiegel, Dream Theater, Marillion, and hundreds of others. My music. My choice. The best male Hausa performing artist to me is Ɗan Maraya Jos, while among the female it was Barmani Choge. My choice. That does not mean others are not good or talented.
So let us understand this. Rarara is brilliant lyricist and singer. No doubt about that. His cadence and flow attract. To me, his best performance was “Tininbu Ya Kada Tsula” (2023). So, If you like him, fine and good. If you don’t, fine and good. Don’t force your choice on anyone else and assume that because someone does not like his lyrics, they hate him. Right?
So, comparing Fela and Rarara is comparing apples to oranges. It is pointless to try to find similarities or judge which is better when the items are so dissimilar (except being beautiful and delicious fruits). They are not equivalent and the comparison is therefore invalid or inappropriate. Let us look at why.
First, language. Rarara sings in the Hausa language and targeted at Hausaphone audiences. His lyrics are laced with narrative structure that only the Hausa will understand the rhetoric. Even casual Hausa speakers will not fully comprehend him. He also couches his words with metaphors only the essentially rural Hausa will understand.
This means that Rarara only speaks to the Hausa world. This severely limits his international appeal. Many African musicians perform in their languages on world’s best stages. For instance, Davido, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Oumou Sangare, Samba Toure, and others. But when they perform in Madison Square Garden New York or Wembley Arena, it is essentially the “Africaness” of their music that attracts non-African White audiences. No one really cares about the lyrics, except in post-colonial discourse. For instance, most people from the north of Nigeria will remember the song “Aliya” by Malian diva, Oumou Sangare. Does anyone really know what she is singing about? It is about “auren dole”. And the title was “Ah Ndiya”, not “Aliya”. See what I mean?
Rarara’s music is artificial and synthesized, with no genre (I called it Hausa Afropop just to create a label). It is not Hausa music, because like most modern Hausa performers (one of the few exceptions being Adam Zango, a brilliant composer and lyricist), Rarara is not a musician, but a singer and has no control over the music produced for him by his studio session musicians. For the most part, his lyrics follow the contours of the melody often arbitrarily created by the session musician in the studio.
On top of all this, Rarara’s performance is not based on any philosophical ideology; he keeps deconstructing his performance after every few months. He is a straight up singer singing for money, not ideology. For the most part you pay him and he sings your song. A wuce wurin.
Fela, on the other hand has distinct ideology of Africanism in his performance and communicates the political theory of post-coloniality in African performing arts. Fela was a musician, played and arranged all instruments in his composition in the studio. He wrote all the parts — what the bass, trumpet, Saxophone, congas, lead, etc. will do and when it will do it. Like a theater performance, each instrument has a time and length it will enter on stage. A classic example is “Lady” (1972). Her performed all over the world, to audiences who mostly did not understand his rhetoric, but loved his grooves.
His lyrics were acerbic critique of the Nigerian leadership (Shuffering and Shmiling, 1978), on military leadership (Confusion Break Bone, 1991), personal trauma (Coffin for Head of State about the attack on his club the Military authorities leading to the death of his mother) and self-destruction (Yellow Fever, about women who bleach, 1971).
Additionally, the fact the Fela’s lyrics were in English or Pidgin enhanced their global and pan-African appeal — sending his messages across Africa and the rest of the world. He has only few songs in Yoruba (e.g. Je’Nwi Temi (Don’t Gag Me, 1972). Each song has a focus on social or political messaging. And he performed based on professional standards of agency, agent, tour managers, etc. You don’t offer him one million and ask him to sing a song abusing or praising someone. That’s not how true performing arts work in the real world.
Can you call Fela and Rarara “social change mobilizers?” No. No musical piece has ever changed the society in the history of Nigeria. Other parts of the world, yes. In the US, civic rights movements, anti-Vietnam songs as well as anti-Apartheid performances all contributed to raising awareness of the race, gender issues in the US and the world, and forced changes in social culture and legislative process.
Fela’s works critiqued the contradictions of the post-colonial society in Africa, with Nigeria as an example. All the messages in his songs which he composed over 50 years ago are perfectly valid scripts for current situation in Nigeria’s political landscape. Nothing has changed. We are dealing with the same inept corrupt political cultures. To illustrate, “Shuffering and Shmiling“ was composed and released in 1978. This is what parts of it narrated:
Every day my people dey inside bus
Every day my people dey inside bus
Forty-nine sitting, ninety-nine standing
Them go pack themselves in like sardine
Them dey faint, them dey wake like cock
Them go reach house, water no dey
Them go reach bed, power no dey
Them go reach road, go-slow go come
Them go reach road, police go slap
Them go reach road, army go whip
Them go look pocket, money no dey
Them go reach work, query ready
This was describing Nigeria 48 years ago. Tell me what has changed in 2025.
I can guarantee you, without putting him down, no one will remember Rarara’s coinages of “duna”, “tsula”, “hankaka”, “magadi” five years from now because these terms were couched as invective metaphors used against people who are highly valued members of their society (with families, children and grandchildren). Only those versed in the language (and the context of their usage) will understand, restricting their value and meaning. Further, these are not revolutionary terms that will act as scripts for reflection and social change. At most, they evoke amusement and laughter.
So, no, Fela and Rarara do not exist in the same performance universe at all. Each was blessed with their individual talents and audiences. But that is where it ends. Apples and oranges.
