This film screening (60 minutes) will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Professor Saheed Aderinto (30 minutes).

From a country on the threshold of disintegration during a thirty-month Civil War in the 1960s, the 1970s in Nigeria ushered in a major cultural and artistic revolution made possible by millions of dollars in revenue from the global oil boom. In the process, Afrobeat was born. Juju finally left the shadow of highlife. Pop music, Jazz, Rock and Roll, and Reggae all found comfortable homes in dance halls across the country.

The cultural rebirth of the 1970s reached its climax in 1977 when Nigeria hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture—the most spectacular spectacle of cultural display in postcolonial Nigeria.

This documentary is about Fuji, one of the numerous musical creations and re-creations of the period. Today, Fuji is the most dominant of the Yoruba musical traditions, influencing so many other genres, including Afrobeats, hip-hop, and even gospel music.

Shot in libraries, museums, galleries, archives, art centers, universities, private homes and public events across southwestern Nigeria, in Europe, and the United States, the first episode of the Fuji Documentary tells the incredible story of Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, the man who created Fuji.