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Meet Josiah Jesse Ransome Kuti, Grandfather of Legendary Fela Kuti and Nigeria’s 1st Recorded Artiste
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Check out Fela Kuti’s Josiah Jesse Ransome Kuti, Nigeria’s 1st recorded Artiste
Years before the great Fela Kuti made a name for himself in the music world, his grandfather, Josiah Jesse Ransome Kuti was already setting the pace for the music and recording industry.
The late Fela Kuti has earned a reputation as one of the figures who helped shape Nigeria’s music industry, but as the saying goes, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
The Kuti family has a notable place in Nigerian history, and the explanations are understandable. Both the older and younger members of this family have contributed significantly to the development of various cultures.
Talk about activism, music, and medicine…
One Kuti will always have a large chunk of history devoted to them.
The great Fela Kuti, whose name is continually recognised by the younger generation, was instrumental in creating the well-known Afrobeats genre.
However, many people are unaware that the apple did not fall far from the tree. Josiah Jesse Ransome Kuti, Fela’s grandpa, was likewise passionate in music.
Josiah Jesse Ransome Kuti’s Early Life
He was born to Egba parents on June 1, 1855, according to accounts of this famous man’s early life. When Josiah was 4 years old, his mother decided to have him baptised as a Christian, much to the disgust of her husband, a fervent traditionalist.
Josiah was able to fully embrace Christianity after the death of his father in 1863, and he later went to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Training Institution in Abeokuta before transferring to the CMS Training Institute in 1871.
Josiah Jesse Ransome Kuti’s journey into music
Josiah Ransome-Kuti started off as a teacher in Abeokuta but this was a job he would eventually abandon after eight years, to teach music.
He became a music teacher at the CMS Girls school in Lagos, and would eventually start offering hymns in the Yoruba language at the self-founded Gbagura Church in Abeokuta.
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With a successful career as a music teacher, Josiah Ransome-Kuti felt it was time to actually release a project. This was what birthed an album in 1925 containing Yoruba hymns under Zonophone Records (now known as Warner Music Group) with the aid of a gramophone.
Before the album, Josiah had travelled to England in 1922, where he recorded a total of 43 songs.
Josiah Ransome-Kuti bagged the name “The singing minister” from the colonial masters. He was Nigeria’s first recorded artiste and an early pioneer of gospel music.
Some of his known songs include the popular Egba Anthem, Ise Agbe, and Eje Ko Omode Wa.
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According to History Ville, Josiah Ransome-Kuti passed away at the age of 75 in September 1930.
His descendants include Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (pioneer of Afrobeat); Beko Ransome-Kuti (Human Rights Activist); Olikoye Ransome Kuti (Minister of Health), Professor Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature), Femi Ransome Kuti and Seun Kuti (Grammy-nominated singers.)