Shortly after 1997, Afrobeat current king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, released an album that included the song ‘…97’. In the song he shared with his fans, lovers of his kind of afrobeat music and music lovers in general his trumatic and depressing experiences that year; a year that witnessed the death of his father, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, reputed to be the originator of afrobeat kind of music and two of his family members, Frances, the dentist wife of Mr. Tunde Kuboye of Jazz 38, Awolowo Road Ikoyi; Frances was also a fantanstic jazz singer who together with her husband releaed an album titled Jisting. Then his younger sister, Sola, who died mainly as a result of wrong diagnosis by a popular Allen Avenue, Ikeja based hospital . Sola before her death was a member of Femi’s Positive seductive dancer always dress on state in a colour costume. All these deaths occured in quick succession, thus fueling the rumour among Femi’s fans that the spirit of Fela was the one calling them home one after the other because both occupied a special place in his heart.
Femi ended the song by telling his fans “97, I shall never forget!”

And like Femi who has vowed on vinyl never to forget 1997, I have equally vowed not to forget 1999. The only difference is that while that of Femi is in a recorded form, for all to hear, mine is only etched in my memory for only me to recall when situation calls for it.

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