Fuji Music: Lagos's Percussion-Powered Sound

It is the early hours of the morning during Ramadan in a Yoruba neighbourhood of Lagos. A group of young men walk through the streets, drumming and singing, waking people up so they can eat the pre-dawn meal before the day's fast begins. Their songs are Islamic in style, with long, ornamented vocal lines, and their drums are urgent and rhythmic. Decades ago, music like this, called were or ajisaari, gave birth to one of Nigeria's most popular music styles: fuji.

What is fuji?

Fuji is a popular music of the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria, especially among Muslim communities in Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta and other cities. Its main features include:

• Percussion: fuji is driven by drums, especially the talking drum (dùndún or gángan), the sákárà frame drum, the agídìgbo and, later, the bata and other drums. Modern fuji bands may also use keyboards, guitars and synthesisers, but percussion remains at the heart.
• Vocals: lead singers use a powerful, ornamented style influenced by Islamic vocal traditions, such as Quranic recitation and were music, with call-and-response choruses.
• Praise singing: like jùjú and other Yoruba musics, fuji includes oriki, praise songs for patrons, important people and audience members, who often reward the singer with money ("spraying").
• Proverbs, social commentary and humour: songs comment on life, morality, politics and rivalries.

Sikiru Ayinde Barrister

The creator of fuji is generally considered to be Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister (1948–2010). As a boy in Lagos, he sang were music during Ramadan. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he developed a new style by combining were with other Yoruba musical forms, adding more drums and a stronger dance rhythm.

He needed a name for the new music. According to his own account, he saw a poster of Mount Fuji in Japan, perhaps in an airport or travel agency, and liked the sound of the name. He called his music fuji. Whatever the exact story, the name stuck.

Barrister released dozens of albums and became a star. His music was beloved for its rich vocals, philosophical lyrics and powerful rhythms.

The great rivalry

In fuji's early decades, Barrister's great rival was Alhaji Kollington Ayinla, who developed his own popular style. Their rivalry, played out in songs, concerts and the press, was legendary and helped make fuji enormously popular. Fans took sides, and each musician would answer the other in their recordings.

Fuji today

Fuji has continued to evolve. Major stars include:

• Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, known as K1 De Ultimate, one of the most popular fuji musicians since the 1980s, known for his energetic performances and modern sound.
• Adewale Ayuba, whose "Bubble" fuji style brought a lighter, danceable sound.
• Saheed Osupa and Pasuma (Wasiu Alabi Pasuma), who have kept fuji popular with younger audiences, sometimes mixing it with hip hop and Afrobeats.

Fuji is especially important at parties: weddings, naming ceremonies, birthdays and funerals, known as owambe, where wealthy hosts hire fuji bands to entertain guests, and where praise singing and spraying money are part of the event.

Fuji, jùjú and Afrobeats

Fuji is one of several great Yoruba popular musics. Jùjú, made famous by King Sunny Adé and Ebenezer Obey, is guitar-based and was often associated with Christian Yoruba audiences, while fuji is percussion-based and associated with Muslim Yoruba audiences, though both have fans across religious lines. We explored jùjú in our story on jùjú music.

Fuji has also influenced younger Nigerian musicians, including Afrobeats stars who have sampled fuji rhythms or collaborated with fuji artists, and the street-pop sound of Lagos, which often borrows fuji's vocal style.

The talking drum

At the heart of fuji is the talking drum, which can imitate the tones of the Yoruba language and "speak" praises, proverbs and messages. A skilled drummer can make the drum call people by name or echo the singer's words. The scholar Akin Euba studied this dùndún tradition in depth.

Why it matters

Fuji shows how a music born in a religious context, the Ramadan wake-up songs of Muslim neighbourhoods, can grow into a vibrant popular music. It combines Islamic vocal traditions, Yoruba drumming and praise poetry, and the energy of Lagos street life. And it carries, in its name, a touch of global imagination: a mountain in Japan, borrowed for a music made in Nigeria.

Further reading

• Christopher A. Waterman, Jùjú: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music (University of Chicago Press, 1990)
• Akin Euba, Yoruba Drumming: The Dùndún Tradition (Bayreuth African Studies, 1990)
• Music In Africa — Nigeria: Fuji music overview