In 1997, when Fela Kuti (inset) died – allegedly – from Aids-related illness at the age of 58, a crowd of more than a million attended his funeral in Lagos.

Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat
BBC2

In 1997, when Fela Kuti (inset) died – allegedly – from Aids-related illness at the age of 58, a crowd of more than a million attended his funeral in Lagos. Hundreds of thousands had filed past the glass coffin in tribute to the man who created the music known as Afrobeat, a blend of traditional Yoruba music, funk and jazz, and used it as an exuberant force of resistance against repressive Nigerian regimes. He was clasping a large joint.

In a new Arena documentary (21 November), fans, colleagues and wives (lots of them) lined up to remember Kuti – and he was a man whose sheer abundance of energetic making and living had everyone stumped for superlatives. That hoary old cliché “he exploded on to the scene” got it about right as did the description of Kuti’s music as “the most lethal, most stylish, most potent level funk you can offer”.

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