‘I Didn’t Grieve After My Mom Died’ – Seun Kuti On How The Death Of His Father, Fela Took A Toll On Him And How He Later Coped With It
The youngest son of legendary Afrobeat godfather Fela Anikulapo Kuti has shared on how he managed to cope after losing his parents.
Seun Kuti was just 14 and 24 years old respectively when he lost both parents. Speaking with popular media personality, Chude Jideonwo, Seun said he did not get complete closure when he lost Fehintola, his mother, unlike the late Afrobeat legend.
He also said he wasn’t able to grieve his mother properly when she passed away because he was on a music tour at the time.
“The one I didn’t grieve was my mom. I had a tour. There was no time to break down. If I’m going to share some of my mental issues on your show, it’s like I think I’m grieving my mom in stages; kind of, I’ve not really had time to really delve into that, but the bad part is past, and I still grieve her from time to time. I don’t have complete closure for my mom like I do for my dad.”
According to him, he grieved his father for a long time because he was the closest person to him. He then went on to speak on the relationship he shared with his late father.
The 40-year-old singer and father of one who lost his father in 1997 and his mum in 2017, said that his father’s death was “impactful” because, to him, it seemed like losing a best friend and a family member all at once.
He stressed that their dynamic was different than with his older siblings. He mentioned jokingly how he used to feel bad for his older ones because their dad had become a laid-back version of himself when he was born.
Seun said:
“Fela was a model father; he was very different from the stories I heard of my elder ones. I feel bad for them. I can’t lie. I tell them all the time, I enjoyed it for you guys.
Trust me, I held it down. I did not slack. By the time he had me, he was 44; he was always home, so my relationship with him was very different from that of my siblings very, very different. I know that for a fact.”
Speaking on how the death of his father took a toll on him, Seun detailed his experience and how difficult it was for him to heal and recover from the tragic loss.
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He said losing his father was a different kind of pain from which he had not recovered because nobody was as close to him as he was. He added that the loss was so heavy for him that he grieved for a long period.