How Fela father’s cane shaped my life, by Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has said that the strict discipline he got as a child growing up with his uncle, father of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Oludotun Ransome Kuti shaped his life to become what he is today.

Soyinka recalled with nostalgia how tough it was to have spent two years as a student at Abeokuta Grammar School where his uncle Oludotun Ransome Kuti was principal of the school. The Nobel laureate who is one of the extended family members of the Kuti family relived his two years stat at Abeokuta Grammar School, Friday during the unveiling of the Kuti Heritage House at Isabo Abeokuta.

The house was refurbished by Ogun state government.

Soyinka recalled that two years he spent with his uncle was enough to have shaped his life and made him what he is today, though he later escaped to Ibadan Grammar School.

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“I remember my uncle. I remember that he wielded heavy cane that was what made us. Two years were more than enough to tune me up. I spent two years at Abeokuta Grammar School before I escaped to Ibadan Grammar School, which to him, was an “Ajebutter” school, a school for spoilt child,” he said.

He noted however that irrespective of the campaign against child abuse, parents shouldn’t spare the rod.

Soyinka who commended Ogun government for the refurbishing and upgrading of the Fela”s family house in Abeokuta urged African governments to preserve African culture by investing in it.

Unveiling the Kuti Heritage House Gov Ibikunle Amosun said the unveiling was part of his administration’s efforts at celebrating Ogun state sons and daughters and preserve the cultural heritage of the state. Senior Consultant to Gov Amosun on Culture and Tourism Yewande Amusan described the Kuti Heritage House as a well thought out idea and investment to preserve the legacies of Ransome Kuti’s family as a befitting museum was put up to tell the stories of the family as a whole.

Speaking on behalf of Kuti family Yemisi Kuti noted that integrity, human values, hard work, selflessness, and patriotism that were put up by her family to national development in various fields of human endeavour translated to what the government and people were celebrating and not material wealth or position.