Fela Kuti

Age: 58

Summary: Nigerian musician who used his music which combined elements of rock, funk, jazz and traditional African music to criticize his country's military regime and corruption, whose outspoken opposition to the government came to a head in 1977 when 1,000 soldiers bombarded his home, burning it to the ground in which he was badly beaten and his mother thrown from her bedroom window before she died a year later from injuries sustained in the fall, but who remained a bitter enemy of Nigeria's government from that point on and whose recordings also included M.A.S.S. (Music Against Second Slavery), B.B.C. (Big Blind Country) and V.I.P. (Vagabonds in Power).

Cause of Death: AIDS

Born: October 15, 1938

Died: August 2, 1997

Location: Lagos, Nigeria