Seun Kuti, son of the late Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has claimed that his father contracted HIV from his wives rather than infecting them.
Seun made the assertion during an Instagram livestream while responding to comments questioning why his father continues to be celebrated despite allegations that he infected women with the virus.
According to the musician, the narrative that Fela infected his wives is inaccurate, insisting that the circumstances surrounding his father’s marriage structure may have contributed to how the virus entered the household.
He explained that Fela practised an open marriage system that allowed his wives to maintain relationships outside the home.
“Fela did not keep his women to himself. He believed that as he was free to sleep with all his women, his women should also be free to meet other men — just don’t bring them to my house. That was my father’s law,” Seun said.
“My father didn’t leave his house to sleep with other women outside, so it was his women who brought HIV home to him.”
Seun suggested that different marital boundaries might have altered the outcome, noting that stricter arrangements could have prevented the situation.
Despite his defence of his father’s legacy, he acknowledged that no individual is without faults.
“Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But Fela is a man who is on the side of humanity,” he said.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, one of Africa’s most influential musicians and a prominent critic of military rule in Nigeria, died in August 1997. He was survived by several wives and children, including Seun, who has continued the Afrobeat tradition.
