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and Learn About the World
No Buredi (No Bread) 1975
Fela was born in 1938 and passed away in 1997. His family is of the same home town of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria as mine. That may or may not be the reason for my passionate love for the man’s music and my respect for his socio-political consciousness.
Lyrics
General Translation
Fela then proceeds to parody the name of Udoji, chairman of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Udoji Commission (1975) which gave away money to Civil Servants contrary to all counseling from economic experts. His parody plays on the resemblance of the name’s last syllable to one of the numbers in the Yoruba language.
As typical of Fela’s songs, No Bread is a 15-minute track.
Soundtrack edited and lyrics compiled by Bolaji (Sept. 2009)
sung in West African Pidgin English
No bread means “no money” and this Fela piece marked the advent of major economic discomfort for Nigeria’s middle and lower classes. Sudden oil wealth and government myopia visited serious inflation on the country, the likes of which government after government have, as of 49 years of independence, had no intellectual or moral capacity to reverse. Fela’s No Bread captures Nigerians’ dilemma in the mid-70s.
Also by Fela - Why Blackman dey Suffer (click to listen and learn)
Also by Fela - Don’t Gag Me (click to listen and learn)
Lagbaja - Justice for Woman (click to listen and learn)