MONTHS before the naminq of 'Kalakuta 
Republic', I earned Fela's friendship in 
1974 through my aquaintanceship with 
Babatunde Harrison, then of the Sunday 
Punch. Very eager to learn 
and in my last teenage year, I 
was a man in the making and 
'rearing to go'! I frequented the 
'republic' and within weeks got 
assimilated into the main ideological 
fold. My credentials were 
as good as they come: a great 
Student of Life, a Pan- 
Africanist (albeit an acolyte) 
and a 'highly gifted1 artist 
rolled into one. I passed my first 
test in flying colours, Babatunde Harrison 
was the invigilator and Fela, the examiner. 
A life-like portrait of the 'Abami' did the 
magic, and with a stroke of fate my first 
opportunity to design Fela's album cover came 
knocking on the door, and as great achievers 
do, I jumped, swung the door wide open and 
grabbed Mr. Opportunity with both hands. For 
African Quarterlv 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/No. 2 GlENDORA • 
9. feJa's 
Ghariokwu 
Lemi 
the next seventeen years, I was to design some twenty 
three or more thought-provoking album covers for him. 
Late in 1 974, Fela experienced his first beating 
and incarceration by the police. This gruesome experience 
inspired the hit song Alagbon Close whose 
cover was my first hit cover. Having listened ardently 
to the numerous recounting of the harrowing experience 
from the man himself and been privy to the 
various stages of composing the new tune, it was a fait 
accompli. The album cover was actually a montage of 
a drawing of Fela I had in my portfolio prior to my 
chance meeting with 'Tunde Harrison. The said drawing 
reported the musician to be dancing on a mishmash 
of mud and rubbish from my own version of a 
cover of a previous hitalbum Roforofo Fightof the same 
year. This was what caught 'Tunde's attention in my 
collection whereby he asked if I could design record 
sleeves at which I answered in the affirmative. Alagbon 
Close album cover was a poster colour painting of a 
scenario with a rocky background with Fela's 'Kalakuta 
Republic' standing solidly on the left and a decrepit 
'Alagbon Close' jail house with a broken chain half of 
which is still attached to Fela's left wrist as he dances 
triumphantly over a capsizing Police patrol boat helped
in effect by a prodigious whale! This 
cover sent signals to all quarters that 
a new regime of album covers has 
begun.
The next two album covers No 
Bread and Kalakuta Show followed 
in tow of Fela's vitriolic statements on 
vinyl. My 'No Bread' was an elaborate 
oil painting, a melange of social 
ills plaguing a developing nation fuelled 
by the then recently introduced 
Udoj i Bursary Awards for public workers 
- a fallout of the oil-boom. The 
cover forespoke of the doom' to 
come. 'Mister inflation is in town' was 
one of the warnings in the painting. 
This cover took the best of two weeks 
and a trip to'cloud nine'to achieve! Fela had insisted 
I tried a concoction of Igbo' (hemp) to 'elevate' my 
talent. Not wanting to let my great friend down, I 
tried the herb and the resultant effect was superb. But 
being a born tetotaller and someone with a mind of 
my own, I keyed my spirit on the frequency that 
produced that superb cover without any recourse to 
the use or abuse of any addictive substance whatsoever 
and continued with my blossoming career. I 
thereby simply by meditation had to tune into the right 
frequency whenever the need arises. 'Kalakuta Show' 
is also an oil painting on canvas illustrating the 
arrogant sacking of the 'Republic' in another Fela 
versus Police drama, the highlight of which is a 
portrait of Fela's plastered head and the smoking 
'Kalakuta Republic' in the background with Fela and 
aides being brutalised; an escaping 'People's Lawyer' 
Kanmi Ishola Osobu (Fela's radical lawyer, 'e 
dey run o, looku lawyer, e dey run o' in the popular 
song).
Our association and friendship grew in leaps 
and bounds. I became a regular companion sharing 
the great ideology of Pan-Africanism and having my 
—• he cover 
forespoke of 
the 'doom' to 
come. 'Mister 
inflation is in 
town' was one 
of the warnings 
in the painting. 
This cover took 
the best of two 
weeks 
mind's eye opened to the great thoughts of no less 
personages than 'The Redeemer' Kwame Nkrumah, 
Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey etc. I became a travelling 
companion on some of the trips across the West 
African coast. I contributed my quota to this great 
struggle for the emancipation from mental slavery. I 
found myself in the vantage position of having a preknowledge 
of the logic behind the conception of 
some of his magnum opuses. With a lot of hardwork 
and dedication the illustration and design of the 
album covers thereby became such an easy task. 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/No. 2 GLENDORA.
Great Fela records followed in succession and 
so did great Lemi sleeves Rave reviews locally and 
internationally joined. Here are two samplers, one 
from home and the other from abroad. In the Times 
Review page of Daily Times, Thursday July 22nd, 
1 976, Eseoghene Barrett reviews Ikoyi Blindness album 
cover thus: '...Theartist is the popular "Lemi" who 
has done quite a few other works on Fela's albums. The 
title of the album is Ikoyi Blindness and the artist has 
depicted the affliction of the upper classes in purely 
graphic terms. The overdressed and puffed-up lawyer 
is scrambling away from his roots in Mushin, Idioro, 
Maroko etc. with his eyes thoroughly blindfolded. 
Behind this frightened central figure, we see the ills of 
the modern society that he purports to lead, though he 
cannot, or rather will not see them. The colours used 
enhance the feeling of brutal neglect by the proliferation 
of blood-like red and flesh-like 
whites, and in the foreground, the 
brush strokes are deliberately rough 
and random. This is one of the most 
striking record covers designed this 
year.' From Black Music and Jazz 
Review, May 1978, Vol. 1 Issue 2, 
Page 4. A reader writes in London, ...' 
Chris May's (The Editor) review of 
Africa 70's album "JJD" in the March 
issue of Black Music makes readily 
interesting reading except for a misconception 
of the message Fela was 
putting across in the said album I 
disagree with Chris on his conclusion 
that Fela is directing his sardonic 
humour at the frequently arrogant critics 
of Black American visitors to West 
Africa. Fela's message is very evident 
from the piece written at the back of the album by 
Ghariokwu Lemi (Afrika 70's talented album designer) 
part of which I quote as follows: "In the hot baking sun, 
he is the only African man in suite and tie, he is the 
youngster in faded jeans, he is also in high 'guaranteed' 
platform shoes. He is the alien in his country - his 
own motherland!" I believe the attack is on Africans 
who go abroad only to return home as fully Westernised 
black men.' 
Space will not permit a full treatise on Fela's 
covers. A future memoir will deal more elaborately with 
my close encounters with the 'weird one' and the 
resultant joy I derived from contributing to the struggles 
of this generation. I remember Fela, as one of my 
mentors and great inspirators. GR 
GLENDORA r..™ 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol 2/No. 2