A study of Nigerian musician and political critic Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. It demonstrates that over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa.

Tony Allen is the autobiography of legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, the rhythmic engine of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat. Conversational, inviting, and packed with telling anecdotes, Allen's memoir is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the musician and scholar Michael E. Veal. It spans Allen's early years and career playing highlife music in Lagos; his fifteen years with Fela, from 1964 until 1979; his struggles to form his own bands in Nigeria; and his emigration to France.

Allen embraced the drum set, rather than African handheld drums, early in his career, when drum...