Fela honoured with blue plaque in London — like Bob Marley

Fela Kuti, the late Afrobeat legend, has been honoured with a blue plaque in Shepherd’s Bush, London.

English Heritage, a charity that manages historic monuments, accorded the honour to the Afrobeat pioneer.

An honourary blue plaque was mounted on the 12 Stanlake Road residence at Shepherd’s Bush, a district of West London, where Fela first lived when he came to the UK to study music.

The plaque read: “Fela Anikulapo Kuti(1938-1997), singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and Nigerian activist. Lived in this house as a student in 1958.”

In 1958, Fela had arrived London from Nigeria to study medicine but opted for the Trinity College of Music.

With the blue plaque, the late singer joins other notable artistes who have been honoured by English Heritage.

These celebrities include Bob Marley, the late Jamaican singer, who was honoured with a blue plaque on the house where he and The Wailers finished recording the album ‘Exodus’.

Also honoured was Jimi Hendrix, the guitarist who became an overnight star with the release of his band’s 1966 single ‘Hey Joe’.

According to English Heritage, the blue plaques link the people of the past with the buildings of the present.