The Afrika Shrine is located in the Central Business District (CBD) which is within the heart of Ikeja.
You can come watch Femi Kuti rehearse with his band on Thursdays and can also catch him perform on Sunday night.
Prices for drinks have been regulated to make it affordable for everyone who comes to visit.
The Shrine thrives deep into the night. You can come out by 2am, drive over and still catch the vendors peddling cooked indomie, suya and bread and egg.
You can’t however ignore the cheap and bitters sellers.
The idea of a headquarters that doubled as a sanctuary most likely began during Afrika 70’s residency in the courtyard of the Empire Hotel, but soon enough Fela built his own venue and dubbed it the Afrika Shrine.
It quickly became the pulpit for Fela’s revolutionary sermons—and a target for the government’s censorship. In 1977, General Olusegun Obasanjo sent some 1,000 soldiers to burn the Shrine to the ground. Afrika 70 remained intact, taking up residency back in Lagos at the Crossroads Hotel, where they remained until Fela died of complications related to AIDS in 1997. Upon his death, more than a million people gathered to mourn at the site of the old Shrine, a spontaneous public funeral—and a sign to his family that it would have to be resurrected.
The current Shrine, in Lagos, functions as a kind of hybrid performance space, temple of worship, and drop-in center.
Speaking to GQStyle Femi Kuti said about The New Afrika Shrine:
“The New Afrika Shrine is three or four times bigger than the previous space. It holds around 2,000 people. Between the musicians, dancers, and security, there are maybe 150 people who work here—probably more! I don’t have an exact figure. The management is all done by my sister. I make sure the music is good. We have about 15 musicians in the band, plus 15 or 16 dancers, so the performers alone are at least 30 people. When we first opened, there were raids all the time. The police would either close the place or arrest people as they were coming or leaving. In 2009, the governor of Lagos state closed the Shrine and there was a huge outcry from my friends in Europe and America. That was the last time we had any police trouble.”
This one of our favourite spot in Lagos. You should visit and enjoy the experience. It’s also safe too by the way!!
