A vernacular, mother tongue and mother language, and less frequently one sense of idiom and dialect, is the native language of a population located in a country or in an area defined on some other basis, such as a locality. For example, Navajo is a local language in the southwest of the United States, and English is the state language of a number of countries.

Etymology

The term is not a recent one. In 1688 James Howell wrote:

Concerning Italy, doubtless there were divers before the Latin did spread all over that Country; the Calabrian, and Apulian spoke Greek, whereof some Relicks are to be found to this day; but it was an adventitious, no Mother-Language to them: 'tis confess'd that Latium it self, and all the Territories about Rome, had the Latin for its maternal and common first vernacular Tongue; but Tuscany and Liguria had others quite discrepant, viz. the Hetruscane and Mesapian, whereof though there be some Records yet extant; yet there are none alive that can understand them: The Oscan, the Sabin and Tusculan, are thought to be but Dialects to these.

Here vernacular, mother language and dialect are already in use in a modern sense. According to Merriam-Webster's, "vernacular" was brought into the English language as early as 1601 from Latin ''vernaculus'', "native", which had been in figurative use in Classical Latin as "national" and "domestic", having originally been derived from ''vernus'' and ''verna'', a male or female slave respectively born in the house rather than abroad. The figurative meaning was broadened from the diminutive extended words ''vernaculus, vernacula''. Varro, the classical Latin grammarian, used the term ''vocabula vernacula'', "termes de la langue nationale" or "vocabulary of the national language" as opposed to foreign words.

In some disciplines, such as Linguistic Anthropology, the term "vernacular" is falling out of usage and has come to be identified as an offensive term. "Dialect" or "dialect variation" is more appropriate in context, as the term "vernacular" is intrinsically linked to Colonialism.

Concepts of the vernacular

General linguistic

Opposed to lingua franca

In general linguistics, a vernacular is opposed to a lingua franca, a third-party language in which persons speaking different vernaculars not understood by each other may communicate. For instance, in Western Europe until the 17th century, most scholarly works had been written in Latin, which was serving as a lingua franca. Works written in Romance languages are said to be in the vernacular. The Divina Commedia, the Cantar de mio Cid, and The Song of Roland are examples of early vernacular literature in Italian, Spanish, and French, respectively.

In Europe, Latin was used widely instead of vernacular languages in varying forms until c. 1701, in its latter stage as New Latin.

In religion, Protestantism was a driving force in the use of the vernacular in Christian Europe, the Bible being translated from Latin into vernacular languages with such works as the Bible in Dutch: published in 1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt; Bible in French: published in 1528 by Jacques Lefevre d’Étaples (or Faber Stapulensis); German Luther Bible in 1534; Bible in Spanish: published in Basel in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina (Biblia del Oso); Bible in Czech: Bible of Kralice, printed between 1579 and 1593; Bible in English: King James Bible, published in 1611. In Catholicism, vernacular bibles were later provided, but Latin was used at Tridentine Mass until the Second Vatican Council of 1965. Certain groups, notably Traditionalist Catholics, continue to practice Latin Mass.

In India, the 12th century Bhakti movement led to the translation of Sanskrit texts to the vernacular.

In science, an early user of the vernacular was Galileo, writing in Italian c. 1600, though some of his works remained in Latin. A later example is Isaac Newton, whose 1687 ''Principia'' was in Latin, but whose 1704 ''Opticks'' was in English. Latin continues to be used in certain fields of science, notably binomial nomenclature in biology, while other fields such as mathematics use vernacular; see scientific nomenclature for details.

In diplomacy, French displaced Latin in Europe in the 1710s, due to the military power of Louis XIV of France.

Certain languages have both a classical form and various vernacular forms, with two widely-used examples being Arabic and Chinese: see Varieties of Arabic and Chinese language. In the 1920s, due to the May Fourth Movement, Classical Chinese was replaced by written vernacular Chinese.

A low variant in diglossia

The vernacular is also often contrasted with a liturgical language, a specialized use of a former lingua franca. For example, until the 1960s, Latin Rite Roman Catholics held Masses in Latin rather than in vernaculars; to this day the Coptic Church holds liturgies in Coptic not Arabic; the Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds liturgies in Ge'ez though parts of Mass are read in Amharic.

Similarly, in Hindu culture, traditionally religious or scholarly works were written in Sanskrit (long after its use as a spoken language) or in Tamil in Tamil country. Sanskrit, was a lingua franca among the non-Indo-European languages of the Indian subcontinent and became more of one as the spoken language, or prakrits, began to diverge from it in different regions. With the rise of the bhakti movement from the 12th century onwards, religious works were created in the other languages: Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and many others. For example, the Ramayana, one of Hinduism's sacred epics in Sanskrit, had vernacular versions such as ''Ranganadha Ramayanam'' composed in Telugu by Gona Buddha Reddy in the 15th century; and ''Ramacharitamanasa'', a Hindi version of the Ramayana by the 16th century poet Tulsidas.

These circumstances are a contrast between a vernacular and language variant used by the same speakers. According to one school of linguistic thought, all such variants are examples of a linguistic phenomenon termed diglossia ("split tongue", on the model of the genetic anomaly). In it the language is bifurcated; i.e., the speaker learns two forms of the language and ordinarily uses one but under special circumstances the other. The one most frequently used is the low (L) variant, equivalent to the vernacular, while the special variant is the high (H). The concept was introduced to linguistics by Charles A. Ferguson (1959), but Ferguson explicitly excluded variants as divergent as dialects or different languages or as similar as styles or registers. H must not be a conversational form; Ferguson had in mind a literary language. For example, a lecture is delivered in a different variety than ordinary conversation. Ferguson's own example was classical and spoken Arabic, but the analogy between Vulgar Latin and Classical Latin is of the same type. Excluding the upper-class and lower-class register aspects of the two variants, Classical Latin was a literary language; the people spoke Vulgar Latin as a vernacular.

Joshua Fishman redefined the concept in 1964 to include everything Fergusen had excluded. Fishman allowed both different languages and dialects and also different styles and registers as the H variants. The essential contrast between them was that they be "functionally differentiated;" that is, H must be used for special purposes, such as a liturgical or sacred language. Fasold expanded the concept still further by proposing that mulitple H exist in society from which the users can select for various purposes. The definition of an H is intermediate between Ferguson's and Fishman's. Realizing the inappropriateness of the term diglossia (only two) to his concept, he proposes the term broad diglossia.

Sociolinguistic

Within the subcategory of sociolinguistics, the term ''vernacular'' has been applied to several concepts; unfortunately, it is only possible to identify which is meant in an authored work by context.

An informal register

In variation theory, pioneered by William Labov, language is a large set of styles or registers from which the speaker selects according to the social setting of the moment. The vernacular is "the least self-conscious style of people in a relaxed conversation", or "the most basic style"; that is, casual varieties used spontaneously rather than self-consciously, informal talk used in intimate situations. In other contexts the speaker does conscious work to select the appropriate variations. The one he can use without this effort is the first form of speech acquired.

A non-standard dialect

In another theory, the vernacular is opposed to the standard. The non-standard varieties thus defined are dialects, which are to be identified as complexes of factors: "social class, region, ethnicity, situation, and so forth." Both the standard and the non-standard language have dialects, but in contrast to the standard, the non-standard have "socially disfavored" structures. The standard are primarily written, but the non-standard are spoken. An example of a vernacular dialect is African American Vernacular English.

An idealisation

A vernacular is not a real language but is "an abstract set of norms."

First vernacular grammars

Through metalinguistic publications vernaculars acquired the status of official languages. Between 1437 and 1586 the first grammars of Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German and English were written, though not always immediately published. It is to be understood that the first vestiges of those languages preceded their standardization by up to several hundred years.

Irish grammar

Auraicept na n-Éces is a grammar of the Irish language which is thought to date back as far as the 7th century: the earliest surviving manuscripts are 12th century.

Welsh grammar

The so-called ''Grammar Books of the Master-poets'' (W.: ''Gramadegau'r Penceirddiaid'') are considered to have been composed in the early fourteenth century, and are present in manuscripts from soon after. These tractates draw on the traditions of the Latin grammars of Donatus and Priscianus and also on the teaching of the professional Welsh poets. The tradition of grammars of the Welsh Language developed from these through the Middle Ages and to the Renaissance.

Italian grammar

Italian appears before standardization as the ''lingua Italica'' of Isidore and the ''lingua vulgaris'' of subsequent medieval writers. Documents of mixed Latin and Italian are known from the 12th century, which appears to be the start of writing in Italian.

The first known grammar of a Romance language was a book written in manuscript form by Leon Battista Alberti between 1437 and 1441 and entitled ''Grammatica della lingua toscana'', "Grammar of the Tuscan Language" In it Alberti sought to demonstrate that the vernacular – here Tuscan, known today as modern Italian – was every bit as structured as Latin; He did so by mapping vernacular structures onto Latin.

The book was never printed until 1908. It was not generally known, but it was known, as an inventory of the library of Lorenzo de'Medici lists it under the title ''Regule lingue florentine'' ("Rules of the Florentine language"). The only known manuscript copy, however, is included in the codex, Reginense Latino 1370, located at Rome in the Vatican library. It is therefore called the ''Grammatichetta vaticana.''

More influential perhaps were the 1516 ''Regole grammaticali della volgar lingua'' of Giovanni Francesco Fortunio and the 1525 ''Prose della vulgar lingua'' of Pietro Bembo. In those works the authors strove to establish a dialect that would qualify for becoming the Italian national language.

Spanish grammar

Spanish, more accurately la lengua castellana, has a development chronologically similar to that of Italian: some vocabulary in Isidore of Seville, traces afterward, writing from about the 12th century, standardization beginning in the 15th century, coincident with the rise of Castile as an international power. The first Spanish grammar by Antonio de Nebrija (''Tratado de gramática sobre la lengua Castellana'', 1492) was divided into parts for native and nonnative speakers, pursuing a different purpose in each: Books 1–4 describe the Spanish language grammatically in order to facilitate the study of Latin for its Spanish speaking readers. Book 5 contains a phonetical and morphological overview of Spanish for nonnative speakers.

French grammar

French emerged as a Gallo-Romance language from Vulgar Latin in the late antiquity period. The written language is known from at least as early as the 9th century. That language contained many forms still identifiable as Latin. Interest in standardizing French began in the 16th century. Because of the Norman conquest of England and the Anglo-Norman domains in both northwestern France and Britain, English scholars retained an interest in the fate of French as well as of English. Some of the numerous 16th-century surviving grammars are as follows.

John Palsgrave: ''L'esclarcissement de la langue francoyse'' (in English), 1530

Louis Meigret: ''Tretté de la grammaire françoeze'', 1550

Robert Stephanus: ''Traicté de la grammaire françoise'', 1557

German grammar

The development of a standard German was impeded by political disunity and strong local traditions until the invention of printing made possible a "High German-based book language." This literary language was not identical to any specific variety of German. The first grammar evolved from pedagogical works that also tried to create a uniform standard from the many regional dialects for various reasons. Religious leaders wished to create a sacred language for Protestantism that would be parallel to the use of Latin for the Roman Catholic Church. Various administrations wished to created a civil service, or chancery, language that would be useful in more than one locality. And finally, nationalists wished to counter the spread of the French national language into German-speaking territories assisted by the efforts of the French Academy.

With so many linguists moving in the same direction a standard German (''hochdeutsche Schriftsprache'') did evolve without the assistance of a language academy. Its precise origin, the major constituents of its features, remains uncertainly known and debatable. Latin prevailed as a lingua franca until the 17the century, when grammarians began to debate the creation of an ideal language. Before 1550 as a conventional date "supraregional compromises" were used in printed works, such as the one published by Valentin Ickelsamer (''Ein Teutsche Grammatica'') 1534. Books published in one of these artificial variants began to increase in frequency replacing the Latin then in use. After 1550 the supraregional ideal broadened to a universal intent to create a national language from Early New High German by deliberately ignoring regional forms of speech, which practice was considered to be a form of purification parallel to the ideal of purifying religion in Protestantism.

In 1617 the Fruitbearing Society, a language club, was formed in Weimar in imitation of the Accademia della Crusca in Italy. It was one of many such clubs; however, none became a national academy. In 1618–1619 Johannes Kromayer wrote the first all-German grammar. In 1641 Justin Georg Schottel in ''teutsche Sprachkunst'' presented the standard language as an artificial one. By the time of his work of 1663, ''ausführliche Arbeit von der teutschen Haubt-Sprache'', the standard language was well established.

Dutch grammar

A sermon of 1275 AD by Berthold von Regensburg made the earliest known distinction between the speech of the ''Niderlender'' and that of the ''Oberlender''. The ''Niderlender'', or speakers of Low German, were anyone living in the lowlands from the Baltic Sea to the Netherlands, while the ''Oberlender'', who spoke High German, lived in more elevated terrain. The first known such distinction was made in Dutch – a Low German variant – in a printed book of 1482, which mentioned ''nederlantsche'' and ''oberlantsche sprake'', still with the same ranges, with the meaning of ''neder duutsche'' and ''hoghen duutsche''. Martin Luther, however, a generation later, used ''Niderlender'' to mean the population of the Burgundian Netherlands, a small state consisting of several lowland counties ruled by the Duke of Burgundy since its creation by Charles the Bald of the Holy Roman Empire in 843. By that time also northern Germany was using düdesch for their variant as opposed to duutsch in the low countries. The southerners referred to their speech as diutesch.

In the 16th century while Martin Luther was working out a compromise High German for his translation of the Bible, societies called ''rederijkerskamers'', "chambers of rhetoric," were being formed in Flanders and Holland between 1550 and 1650, which at first attempted to impose a Latin structure on Dutch, on the presumption that Latin grammar had a "universal character." However in 1559 Jan van den Werve published his grammar ''Den schat der Duytsscher Talen'' in Dutch and so did Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (''Eenen nieuwen ABC of Materi-boeck'') in 1564. The Latinizing tendency changed course with the joint publication in 1584 by De Eglantier, the rhetoric society of Amsterdam, of the first comprehensive Dutch grammar, ''Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst/ ófte Vant spellen ende eyghenscap des Nederduitschen taals''. Hendrick Laurenszoon Spieghel was a major contributor but others contributed as well.

English grammar

Modern English is considered to have begun at a conventional date of about 1550 most notably at the end of the Great Vowel Shift (for example, bot, the footwear, more as in boat to boot). It was created by the infusion of Old French into Old English after the Norman conquest of 1066 AD and of Latin at the instigation of the clerical administration. While modern-English-speaking adolescents regularly read Middle English authors such as Chaucer in secondary school with some coaching, Old English cannot be understood without more study.

Middle English is known for its alternative spellings and pronunciations. The British Isles although geographically limited have always supported populations of widely variant dialects (as well as a few different languages). Being the language of a maritime power English was of necessity formed from elements of many different languages. Standardization has been an ongoing issue. Even in the age of modern communications and mass media, according to one study, "… although the Received Pronunciation of Standard English has been heard constantly on radio and then television for over 60 years, only 3 to 5% of the population of Britain actually speaks RP … new brands of English have been springing up even in recent times ...." What the vernacular would be in this case is a moot point: "… the standardisation of English has been in progress for many centuries."

Modern English came into being as the standard Middle English – that is, the preferred dialect of the king, his court and administration. That dialect was East Midland, which had spread to London where the king resided and from which he ruled. It contained Danish forms not often used in the north or south, as the Danes had settled heavily in the midlands. Chaucer wrote in an early East Midland, Wycliffe translated the New Testament into it and William Caxton, the first English printer, wrote in it. The first printed book in England was Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'', published by Caxton in 1476. Caxton is considered the first modern English author.

The first English grammars were written in Latin, with some in French. After a general plea for mother-tongue education in England: ''The first part of the elementary'', published in 1582 by Richard Mulcaster, William Bullokar wrote the first English grammar to be written in English: ''Pamphlet for Grammar'', followed by ''Bref Grammar'', both in 1586. Previously he had written ''Booke at Large for the Amendment of Orthography for English Speech'' (1580) but his orthography was not generally accepted and was soon supplanted, and his grammar shared a similar fate. Other grammars in English followed rapidly: Paul Greaves' ''Grammatica Anglicana'', 1594; Alexander Hume's ''Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britain Tongue'', 1617, and many others. Over the succeeding decades many literary figures turned a hand to grammar in English: Alexander Gill, Ben Jonson, Joshua Poole, John Wallis, Jeremiah Wharton, James Howell, Thomas Lye, Christopher Cooper, William Lily, John Colet and so on, all leading to the massive dictionary of Samuel Johnson.

First vernacular dictionaries

A dictionary is to be distinguished from a glossary. Although numerous glossaries publishing vernacular words had long been in existence, such as the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville, which listed many Spanish words, the first vernacular dictionaries emerged together with vernacular grammars.

Italian

In the early 15th century a number of glossaries appeared, such as that of Lucillo Minerbi on Boccaccio in 1535, and those of Fabrizio Luna on Aristo, Petrarca, Boccaccio and Dante in 1536. In the mid-16th the dictionaries began, as listed below. In 1582 the first language academy was formed, called Accademia della Crusca, "bran academy", which sifted language like grain. Once formed, its publications were standard-setting.

Monolingual

Alberto Accarisio: ''Vocabolario et grammatica con l'orthographia della lingua volgare'', 1543

Francesco Alunno: ''Le richezze della lingua volgare'', 1543

Francesco Alunno: ''La fabbrica del mondo'', 1548

Giacomo Pergamini: ''Il memoriale della lingua italiana'', 1602

Accademia della Crusca: ''Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca'', 1612

Italian/French

Nathanael Duez : ''Dittionario italiano e francese/Dictionnaire italien et François'', Leiden, 1559–1560

Gabriel Pannonius: ''Petit vocabulaire en langue françoise et italienne'', Lyon, 1578

Jean Antoine Fenice : ''Dictionnaire françois et italien'', Paris, 1584

Italian/English

John Florio: ''A Worlde of Words'', London, 1598

John Florio: ''Queen Anna’s New World of Words'', London, 1611

Italian/Spanish

Cristóbal de las Casas: ''Vocabulario de las dos lenguas toscana y castellana'', Sevilla, 1570

Lorenzo Franciosini: ''Vocabulario italiano e spagnolo/ Vocabulario español e italiano'', Roma, 1620.

Spanish

The first Spanish dictionaries in the 15th century were Latin-Spanish/Spanish-Latin, followed by monolingual Spanish. In 1713 the Real Academia Española, "Royal Spanish Academy," was founded to set standards. It published an official dictionary, 1726–1739.

Alonzo de Palencia: ''El universal vocabulario en latin y romance'', 1490

Antonio de Nebrija: ''Lexicon latino-hispanicum et hispanico-latinum'', 1492

Sebastián de Covarrubias Orozco: ''Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española'', 1611

Real Academia Española: ''Diccionario de la lengua castellana'', 1726–1739

French

Surviving dictionaries are a century earlier than their grammars. The Académie française founded in 1635 was given the obligation of producing a standard dictionary. Some early dictionaries are:

Louis Cruse, alias Garbin: ''Dictionaire latin-françois'', 1487

Robert Estienne, alias Robertus Stephanus: ''Dictionnaire françois–latin'', 1539

Maurice de la Porte: ''Epitheta'', 1571

Jean Nicot: ''Thresor de la langue fracoyse, tant ancienne que moderne'', 1606

Pierre Richelet: ''Dictionnaire françois contenant les mots et les choses'', 1680

Académie française: ''Dictionnaire de l’Académie française'', 1694 and subsequently

German

High German dictionaries began in the 16th century and were at first multi-lingual. They were preceded by glossaries of German words and phrases on various specialized topics. Finally interest in developing a vernacular German grew to the point where Maaler could publish a work called by Jacob Grimm "the first truly German dictionary:"

Joshua Maaler: ''Die Teutsche Spraach: Dictionarium Germanico-latinum novum'', 1561

It was followed along similar lines by

Georg Heinisch: ''Teütsche Sprache und Weißheit'', 1616

After numerous dictionaries and glossaries of a less than comprehensive nature came a thesaurus that attempted to include all German:

Kaspar Stieler: ''Der Teutschen Sprache Stammbaum und Fortwachs oder Teutschen Sprachschatz'', 1691

and finally the first codification of written German:

Johann Christoph Adelung: ''Versuch eines vollständigen grammatisch-kritischen Wörterbuches Der Hochdeutschen Mundart'', 1774–1786

Schiller called Adlung an ''Orakel'' and Wieland is said to have nailed a copy to his desk.

Dutch

Glossaries in Dutch began about 1470 AD leading eventually to two Dutch dictionaries:

Christophe Plantin: ''Thesaurus Theutonicae Linguae'', 1573

Cornelis Kiliaan: ''Dictionarium Teutonico-Latinum'', 1574 (becoming ''Etymologicum'' with the 1599 3rd edition)

Shortly after (1579) the Southern Netherlands came under the dominion of Spain, then of Austria (1713) and of France (1794). The Congress of Vienna created the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 from which southern Netherlands (being Catholic) seceded in 1830 to form the Kingdom of Belgium, which was confirmed in 1839 by the Treaty of London. As a result of this political instability no standard Dutch was defined (even though much in demand and recommended as an ideal) until after World War II. Currently the Dutch Language Union, an international treaty organization founded in 1980, supports a standard Dutch in the Netherlands, while Afrikaans is regulated by Die Taalkommissie founded in 1909.

English

Standard English remains a quasi-fictional ideal, despite the numerous private organizations publishing prescriptive rules for it. No language academy was ever established or espoused by any government past or present in the English-speaking world. In practice the British monarchy and its administrations established an ideal of what good English should be considered to be, and this in turn was based on the teachings of the major universities, such as Oxford University, which relied on the scholars whom they hired. There is a general but far from uniform consensus among the leading scholars about what should or should not be said in standard English, but for every rule examples from famous English writers can be found that break it. Uniformity of spoken English never existed and does not exist now, but usages do exist, which must be learned by the speakers, and do not conform to prescriptive rules.

Usages have been documented not by prescriptive grammars, which on the whole are less comprehensible to the general public, but by comprehensive dictionaries, often termed unabridged, which attempt to list all usages of words and the phrases in which they occur as well as the date of first use and the etymology where possible. These typically require many volumes, and yet not more so than the unabridged dictionaries of many languages.

Bilingual dictionaries and glossaries precede modern English and were in use in the earliest written English. The first monolingual dictionary was:

Robert Cawdrey: ''Table Alphabeticall'', 1604

which was followed by a larger one,

Edward Phillips: ''A New World of English Words'', 1658

Nathaniel Bailey: ''An Universal Etymological English Dictionary'', 1721

These dictionaries whetted the interest of the English-speaking public in greater and more prescriptive dictionaries until Samuel Johnson published a grand design for such a one:

Samuel Johnson: ''Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language'', 1747

which would imitate the dictionary being produced by the French Academy. He had no problem acquiring the funding, but not as a prescriptive dictionary. This was to be a grand comprehensive dictionary of all English words at any period:

Samuel Johnson: ''A Dictionary of the English Language'', 1755

By 1858 the need for an update resulted in the first planning for a new comprehensive dictionary, which would document standard English, a term coined at that time by the planning committee. The dictionary, known as the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', published its first fascicle in 1884. It attracted significant contributions from some singular minds, such as William Chester Minor, a former army surgeon who had become criminally insane and made most of his contributions while incarcerated. Whether the OED is the long-desired standard English Dictionary is debatable, but its authority is taken seriously by the entire English-speaking world. Its staff is currently working on a third edition.

See also

Dialect

First language

Folklore

Glossary

Literary language

National language

Register (linguistics)

Slang

Sociolect

Standard language

Notes

Bibliography

. .

External links

Category:Sociolinguistics Category:Language varieties and styles Category:Folklore

ar:لغة محلية cs:Vernakulární de:Vernakularsprache es:Vernáculo fr:Langue vernaculaire arz:لغه محليه ms:Vernakular no:Dagligtale nn:Daglegtale pt:Vernáculo zh:地方话

Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti
Alias	Fela Anikulapo KutiFela Ransome-Kuti
Birth date	October 15, 1938
Death date	August 02, 1997
Origin	Abeokuta, Nigeria
Instrument	Saxophone, vocals, keyboards, trumpet, guitar, drums
Genre	Afrobeat, Highlife
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, activist
Years active	1958–1997
Label	Barclay/PolyGram (world except US, Japan, and Nigeria)MCA/Universal Records (US)Celluloid Records (US)EMI Nigeria (Nigeria)JVC Records (Japan)Wrasse Records (UK, US)Shanachie (US)Knitting Factory (US)
Associated acts	Africa '70Egypt '80Koola LobitosNigeria '70Hugh MasekelaGinger BakerTony AllenFemi KutiSeun KutiRoy AyersLester Bowie
Website	felaproject.net
Past members	}}

Fela Anikulapo Kuti 15 October 1938 — 2 August 1997), or simply Fela (), was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.

Biography

Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars. In 1967, he went to Ghana to think up a new musical direction. That was when Kuti first called his music Afrobeat. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now Izsadore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party—which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria '70. Soon, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the U.S. without work permits. The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as ''The '69 Los Angeles Sessions''.

After Fela and his band returned to Nigeria, the band was renamed The Africa '70, as lyrical themes changed from love to social issues. He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band that he later declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name. The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated. Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous. As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972 Ginger Baker recorded ''Stratavarious'' with Fela appearing alongside Bobby Gass. Around this time, Kuti was becoming more involved in Yoruba religion. In 1977 Fela and the Afrika '70 released the hit album ''Zombie'', a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military. The album was a smash hit with the people and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic, during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune. Fela was severely beaten, and his elderly mother was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries. The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Fela's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Fela claimed that he would have been killed had it not been for the intervention of a commanding officer as he was being beaten. Fela's response to the attack was to deliver his mother's coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obasanjo's residence, and to write two songs, "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier", referencing the official inquiry that claimed the commune had been destroyed by an unknown soldier.

Fela and his band then took residence in Crossroads Hotel as the Shrine had been destroyed along with his commune. In 1978 Fela married twenty-seven women, many of whom were his dancers, composers, and singers to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta Republic. Later, he was to adopt a rotation system of keeping only twelve simultaneous wives. The year was also marked by two notorious concerts, the first in Accra in which riots broke out during the song "Zombie", which led to Fela being banned from entering Ghana. The second was at the Berlin Jazz Festival after which most of Fela's musicians deserted him, due to rumors that Fela was planning to use the entire proceeds to fund his presidential campaign.

Despite the massive setbacks, Fela was determined to come back. He formed his own political party, which he called Movement of the People. In 1979 he put himself forward for President in Nigeria's first elections for more than a decade but his candidature was refused. At this time, Fela created a new band called Egypt '80 and continued to record albums and tour the country. He further infuriated the political establishment by dropping the names of ITT vice-president Moshood Abiola and then General Olusegun Obasanjo at the end of a hot-selling 25-minute political screed titled "I.T.T. (International Thief-Thief)".

In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari's government, of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currency smuggling which Amnesty International and others denounced as politically motivated. His case was taken up by several human-rights groups, and after 20 months, he was released from prison by General Ibrahim Babangida. On his release he divorced his twelve remaining wives, saying that "marriage brings jealousy and selfishness." Once again, Fela continued to release albums with Egypt '80, made a number of successful tours of the United States and Europe and also continued to be politically active. In 1986, Fela performed in Giants Stadium in New Jersey as part of the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope concert, sharing the bill with Bono, Carlos Santana, and The Neville Brothers. In 1989, Fela and Egypt '80 released the anti-apartheid ''Beasts of No Nation'' album that depicts on its cover U.S. President Ronald Reagan, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and South African Prime Minister Pieter Willem Botha.

His album output slowed in the 1990s, and eventually he stopped releasing albums altogether. In 1993 he and four members of the Afrika '70 organization were arrested for murder. The battle against military corruption in Nigeria was taking its toll, especially during the rise of dictator Sani Abacha. Rumors were also spreading that he was suffering from an illness for which he was refusing treatment. On 3 August 1997, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, already a prominent AIDS activist and former Minister of Health, stunned the nation by announcing his younger brother's death a day earlier from Kaposi's sarcoma which was brought on by AIDS. More than a million people attended Fela's funeral at the site of the old Shrine compound. A new Africa Shrine has opened since Fela's death in a different section of Lagos under the supervision of his son Femi Kuti.

Music

The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is a complex fusion of Jazz, Funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian High-life, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and rhythms. Afrobeat also borrows heavily from the native "tinker pan" African-style percussion that Kuti acquired while studying in Ghana with Hugh Masakela, under the uncanny Hedzoleh Soundz. The importance of the input of Tony Allen (Fela's drummer of twenty years) in the creation of Afrobeat cannot be overstated. Fela once famously stated that, "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat".

Afrobeat is characterized by a fairly large band with many instruments, vocals, and a musical structure featuring jazzy, funky horn sections. The "endless groove" is used, in which a base rhythm of drums, shekere, muted West African style guitar, and melodic bass guitar riffs are repeated throughout the song. Commonly, interlocking melodic riffs and rhythms are introduced one by one, building the groove bit-by-bit and layer-by-layer to an astonishing melodic and polyrhythmic complexity. The horn section then becomes prominent, introducing other riffs and main melodic themes.

Fela’s band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophones, whereas most groups were using only one of this instrument. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles, and can be seen in funk and hip hop. Fela’s bands at times even performed with two bassists at the same time both playing interlocking melodies and rhythms. There were always two or more guitarists. The electric West African style guitar in Afrobeat bands are paramount, but are used to give basic structure, playing a repeating chordal/melodic statement, riff, or groove.

Some elements often present in Fela's music are the call-and-response within the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. Fela's songs were also very long, at least 10–15 minutes in length, and many reaching the 20 or even 30 minutes, while some unreleased tracks would last up to 45 minutes when performed live. This was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside Africa. His LP records frequently had one 30 minute track per side. Typically there is an instrumental “introduction” jam part of the song, perhaps 10-15 mins. long before Fela starts singing the “main” part.

His songs were mostly sung in Nigerian pidgin, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba language. Fela's main instruments were the saxophone and the keyboards, but he also played the trumpet, electric guitar, and took the occasional drum solo. Fela refused to perform songs again after he had already recorded them, which also hindered his popularity outside Africa.

Fela was known for his showmanship, and his concerts were often quite outlandish and wild. He referred to his stage act as the Underground Spiritual Game. Fela attempted making a movie but lost all the materials to the fire that was set to his house by the military government in power. Kuti thought that art, and thus his own music, should have political meaning.

Political views

Kuti thought that the most important thing for Africans to fight is European cultural imperialism, Kuti being a supporter of traditional religions and lifestyles. The American Black Power movement influenced Fela's political views. He was also a supporter of Pan-Africanism and socialism, and called for a united, democratic African republic. He was a candid supporter of human rights, and many of his songs are direct attacks against dictatorships, specifically the militaristic governments of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a social commentator, and he criticized his fellow Africans (especially the upper class) for betraying traditional African culture. The African culture he believed in also included having many wives (polygyny) and the Kalakuta Republic was formed in part as a polygamist colony. He defended his stance on polygyny with the words "A man goes for many women in the first place. Like in Europe, when a man is married, when the wife is sleeping, he goes out and fucks around. He should bring the women in the house, man, to live with him, and stop running around the streets!" His views towards women are characterized by some as misogynist, with songs like "Mattress" typically cited as evidence In a more complex example, he mocks the aspiration of African women to European standards of ladyhood while extolling the values of the market woman in his song "Lady".

Bypassing editorial censorship in Nigeria's predominantly state controlled media, Kuti began in the 1970s buying advertising space in daily and weekly newspapers such as ''The Daily Times'' and ''The Punch'' in order to run outspoken political columns. Published throughout the 1970s and early 1980s under the title ''Chief Priest Say'', these columns were essentially extensions of Kuti's famous Yabi Sessions—consciousness-raising word-sound rituals, with himself as chief priest, conducted at his Lagos nightclub. Organized around a militantly Afrocentric rendering of history and the essence of black beauty, ''Chief Priest Say'' focused on the role of cultural hegemony in the continuing subjugation of Africans. Kuti addressed a number of topics, from explosive denunciations of the Nigerian Government's criminal behavior; Islam and Christianity's exploitative nature, and evil multinational corporations; to deconstructions of Western medicine, Black Muslims, sex, pollution, and poverty. ''Chief Priest Say'' was cancelled, first by ''Daily Times'' then by ''Punch'', ostensibly due to non-payment, but many commentators have speculated that the paper's respective editors were placed under increasingly violent pressure to stop publication.

The Fela revival

In recent years there has been a revitalization of Fela's influence on music and popular culture, culminating in another re-release of his catalog controlled by Universal Music, off-and-on Broadway biopic shows, and new bands, such as Antibalas, who carry the Afrobeat banner to a new generation of listeners.

In 1999, Universal Music France, under the aegis of Francis Kertekian, remastered the 45 albums that it controlled and released them on twenty-six compact discs. These titles were licensed to other territories of the world with the exception of Nigeria and Japan, where Fela's music was controlled by other companies. In 2005, Universal Music USA licensed all of its world-music titles to the UK-based label Wrasse Records, which repackaged the same twenty-six CDs for distribution in the USA (replacing the MCA-issued titles there) and the UK. In 2009, Universal created a new deal for the USA with Knitting Factory Records and for Europe with PIAS, which included the release of the ''Fela!'' Broadway cast album.

Thomas McCarthy's 2008 film ''The Visitor'' depicted a disconnected professor (Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins) who wanted to play the djembe. He learns from a young Syrian (Haaz Sleiman) who tells the professor he will never truly understand African music unless he listens to Fela. The film features clips of Fela's "Open and Close" and "Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)."

In 2008, an off-Broadway production of Fela Kuti's life titled ''Fela!'' began with a collaborative workshop between the Afrobeat band Antibalas and Tony award winner Bill T. Jones. The show was a massive success, selling out shows during its run, and garnering much critical acclaim. On November 22, 2009, ''Fela!'' began a run on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theater. Jim Lewis helped co-write the play (along with Bill T. Jones), and obtained producer backing from Jay-Z and Will Smith, among others. On May 4, 2010, ''Fela!'' was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Bill T. Jones, Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Sahr Ngaujah, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Lillias White.

On August 18, 2009, award winning DJ J.Period released a free mixtape to the general public via his website that was a collaboration with Somali-born hip hop artist K'naan paying tribute to Fela, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan entitled ''The Messengers''.

In October 2009, Knitting Factory Records began the process of re-releasing the 45 titles that Universal Music controls, starting with yet another re-release of the compilation ''The Best of the Black President'' in the USA. The rest is expected to be released in 2010.

In addition, a movie by Focus Features, directed by Steve McQueen and written by Biyi Bandele about the life of Fela Kuti went into production in 2010. It was announced in 2010 that Chiwetel Ejiofor would play the lead role.

Discography

Filmography

''Fela in Concert'' 1981, (VIEW)

''Music is the Weapon'' 1982, Stéphane Tchal-Gadjieff & Jean Jacques Flori, (Universal Music)

''Fela Live! Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and the Egypt ’80 Band'' 1984, Recorded Live At Glastonbury, England (Yazoo)

''Femi Kuti—Live at the Shrine'' 2005, Recorded Live At Lagos, Nigeria (Palm Pictures)

Notes

References

[authorized biography].

External links

'He was in a godlike state' - Guardian feature

The Shrine Unofficial website for Fela Kuti and Afrobeat Music with news, bio's, tour dates, gig reviews, interviews, lyrics and forum.

Fela Kuti article from the New Official Ginger Baker Archive and Drummers forum launched by the Baker family September 2010

Fela Kuti biography at World Music Central, includes biography, discography and bibliography

Category:1938 births Category:1997 deaths Category:Nigerian musicians Category:Nigerian songwriters Category:Nigerian saxophonists Category:Bandleaders Category:Pan-Africanism Category:People from Abeokuta Category:AIDS-related deaths in Nigeria Category:Polygamy Category:Yoruba musicians Category:World music musicians Category:Trinity College of Music alumni Category:MCA Records artists

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