Seun Kuti remembers his father’s passing: “I grieved my dad for a long time.”
Getting over the loss of a loved one is never easy, especially for parents.
Nigerian musician Seun Kuti has shed more light on his relationship with his dad, the musical icon Fela Kuti, noting that losing him was like losing a friend, father and family member at once.
He began by outlining his relationship with his father in his interview with well-known media personality Chude Jideonwo, highlighting how it differed from his relationships with his older brothers. He said jokingly that he used to feel bad for his elder ones since when he was born, his dad had become a laid-back version of himself.
“Fela was a model father; he was very different from the stories I heard about my elder ones,” he said in the opening statement. I’m sorry for them. I am not capable of lying. I frequently remark, “I enjoyed it for you guys.” You can believe I kept it down. I didn’t let up. He was 44 when he had me, and he was constantly home, so our relationship was very, very different from that of my siblings’. I am positive about that.
Seun continued by going into great depth about his anguish following the death of his father in 1997. Nobody was as close to him as he was, therefore losing him was a new kind of anguish from which he had not healed. He continued by saying that the loss was so great for him that he mourned for a very long time.
“I grieved for my dad since he was the closest to me and the first person I knew to die,” the singer continued. “Losing my dad was like losing my best friend, my dad, and a family member all at once. I cried a lot and for a very long period. I cried over my father.
He then talked about his mother, who passed away while he was on a music tour and was unable to grieve for her in the way that was necessary. In contrast to his father, he did not experience closure following her death. And as a result, he is still mourning intensely for her now.
“The one I didn’t grieve was my mom,” he said. During my tour. No time was available for a breakdown. If I’m going to discuss any of my mental health difficulties on your program, I guess I’m grieving my mother in stages. I haven’t had much time to really go into it, but the worst of it is over, and I still miss her occasionally. The same cannot be said about my mother as I can for my father.
