Sonny Okosuns, a Nigerian singer and musician who achieved international stature by aiming his music — a catchy, rock-inflected cocktail of funk, reggae, Afrobeat and more — at human-rights abuses, died on May 24 in Washington. He was 61.
Sonny Okosuns performing around 1984.
Nigerian government officials confirmed his death. Reports in Nigerian newspapers said the cause was colon cancer.
Mr. Okosuns added the final “s” to his surname in adulthood, Africa News reported. He was referred to by both names.
His boyhood inspirations were Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and the Beatles, but at a time when Africans were still fighting for their freedom, he took the position that songs needed a message. His anthem protesting apartheid in South Africa, “Fire in Soweto” (1977), was probably his best-known song, and others strongly promoted African unity and black pride.
“Papa’s Land” (1977) took on South African abuses. “Holy Wars” (1978) addressed liberation movements throughout southern Africa.
“All my mates were singing love songs,” he once said, according to an obituary in The Independent, in London. “I was trying to talk about what was happening to black people.”
In a review of a live performance in The New York Times in 1988, Jon Pareles said Mr. Okosuns delivered his freedom songs “with a soul singer’s gritty urgency.”
Most of his 39 albums were made in Nigeria, but some were recorded in England, France and the United States. In the 1970s and 80s, he toured in the United States and did tours of Nigeria with the reggae star Jimmy Cliff and others.
In 1985, he joined musicians including Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Rubén Blades, Run-D.M.C. and Bob Dylan on “Sun City,” a benefit record to aid the fight against apartheid. He was the only African.
Sunny Okosun was born on Jan. 1, 1947, in Benin City, Nigeria. He dropped out after elementary school. His parents were traditional musicians, but he taught himself the guitar.
In addition to foreign rock ’n’ roll, he was inspired by popular films. Vanguard, a Nigerian newspaper, reported that his first recognition came as an actor. He organized and played with several local bands before starting Paperback Ltd. in 1972. That group was soon renamed Ozziddi, which means “message.”
Mr. Okosuns popularized liberation music well ahead of any of his countrymen. But his message was not radical, like that of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a dissident songwriter who directly challenged the government, Mr. Pareles wrote.
Musically, Mr. Okosuns combined Western funk and reggae with traditional melodies and rhythms. He said he believed that the elements from elsewhere were simply returning to Africa, where they had originated. The result was a zestful, funky strand in what has come to be called world music.
By the late 1980s, Mr. Okosuns found his popularity ebbing, but he reinvented himself as a gospel performer called Evangelist Sunny Okosuns. His 1994 album “Songs of Praise” sold almost a million copies, The Independent said.
After his death, Africa News reported on his complicated involvement with many women, at least two of whom he married — and these simultaneously.
The paper said that toward the end of his life, he took in many children to whom he was not related and ran his home “like a commune.” It said he gave his surname to many of the children but did not legally adopt them. His immediate survivors include four children.
Nigeria: Music Icon, Sonny Okosun, Dies At 61
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Leadership (Abuja)
26 May 2008
Posted to the web 26 May 2008
Adesoji Oyinlola
Frontline musician, Evangelist Sonny Okosun, died on Saturday after a protracted illness that rendered him bedridden for months.
The "free Mandela" exponent gave up the ghost at the Howard University Hospital, Washington D.C., United States of America, after a futile search for a cure for cancer that made the once buoyant musician a shadow of his old self.
LEADERSHIP has it on good authority that the Ozzidi exponent, after a fruitless search for cure for the illness that rendered him incommunicado for months, had last month approached Pastor T.B. Joshua of the famous Synagogue Church of All Nations without positive results. Callers at the Ikotun, Egbe, church were stunned to see the Ozzidi king among the hordes of miracle seekers.
The late musician appeared desperate in his search for cure but was tacitly brushed aside by the big man in the synagogue.
Known for his fusion of western reggae and pop music stylings with Nigerian instrumentation and themes to create catchy tunes with wide appeal, Okosun (sometimes called "Sonny Okosuns") was born in Benin City, Edo State, in 1947.
He started his first band, the Postmen, in 1964, then served several years in the group of Victor Uwaifo before launching Paperback Ltd. (soon renamed Ozziddi) in 1972.
He sang in his native Edo language as well as Yoruba and English.
A music enthusiast, John Beadle, wrote on the website biochem.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp that Ozziddi's first few releases, with their catchy, rock-inflected melodies and topical lyrics, were all big hits in Nigeria, but 1977's "Fire in Soweto" really put Okosun on the map internationally.
Further attention came in the early '80s with the release of "Liberation," a "best-of" compilation on the American Shanachie label, and a number of international tours.
"Okosun's supposed 'controversial' lyrics in the 1970s and 1980s about South Africa and the plight of the Third World were actually not at all radical in the African context. In this regard it is interesting to compare Okosun's career with that of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who faced genuine hardship as a result of his pointed attacks on the Nigerian elite," said Mr Beadle.
Another website, www.naijajams.com, describes Okosun as "one of the most recognisable names in Nigerian popular culture and music over the past 20-30 years."
Apart from the general appeal and catchiness of his tunes, Okosun addressed political and social issues in his tunes, said the site. "… Not on the direct, in-your-face, these-are-Nigerian-issues style of Fela Kuti, but more on a pan-African 'stop the wars, let's progress' tempo with tracks like Revolution, Now or Never, Fire in Soweto, etc.
"Another prominent theme is religion, namely Christianity, where he sings various praises to Oluwa. An example is in the 1983 release Sonny Okosun - Olorun Mose on the Togetherness 12... As with most of Okosun's music, the instrumentation on this track is almost entirely western, save for the talking drum in the very beginning."
Okosun's career faded in the late 1980s, but the singer roared back in 1994 with the smash gospel album "Songs of Praise," which won a number of Nigerian music awards. Since then, "Evangelist Sonny Okosuns" had ridden a wave of Christian evangelism in Nigeria to become the country's foremost gospel musician, with a growing fan base in other parts of the world.
Family members at the Yaya Abatan, Ogba home of the late musician told LEADERSHIP that Okosun started showing signs of illness about five years ago when close associates noticed his emaciating physique.
Described as a close confidant of former President Obasanjo, the musician, who became born again about 15 years ago, established the House of Prayer Church, situated in Aguda, Ogba.
He was famous for his prowess to discover star artistes, including "One Love" diva, Onyeka Onwenu, and samba crooner, Stella Monye, among others.
A spokesperson for the family who sought anonymity told LEADERSHIP that family members are putting heads together to fine-tune burial arrangements for the departed music icon.
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