Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti has revealed that her late mother, Remilekun Anikulapo-Kuti, remained celibate for two decades after separating from Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.
The 64-year-old made the disclosure while speaking on TVC’s Your View.
“Sex is very important in marriage, but celibacy is a matter of choice,” Yeni said. “My mummy moved out of my father’s house in 1981, and she died in 2002. From 1981 till she died, she never met another man. She was celibate during that period. I knew, but I could never understand.”
Yeni said a doctor once told her mother that something might be closing up because she wasn’t “using it.” According to her, her mother replied, “Fela is the only man for me.”
Remilekun, born in London in 1941, married Fela on January 7, 1961. The union produced three children – Yeni, Femi and Sola, who died in 1997. The marriage ended in the early 1980s. She died of cancer in 2002.
In January, Yeni and Femi released their mother’s memoir, Mrs Kuti, detailing her childhood in an English orphanage, her meeting with Fela, and the cultural challenges of settling in Nigeria.
Fela died in August 1997 from AIDS-related complications.
