Teacher Don't Teach Me No Nonsense

“Teacher Don’t Teach Me No Nonsense” is a song about the results of an English education on Fela Kuti’s generation of Nigerian students. When I first heard the song, I noticed that it had a somber tonality to it. The beginning organ solo had many dissonant chords, notes played at the same time that don’t necessarily sound pretty. In this way, Fela musically introduced the song to be one of turmoil and trouble. The song talks about education in Nigeria.

When he says, “All the wahala, all the problems, All the things, All the things they go do, For this world go start, When the teacher, schoolboy and schoolgirl jam together”, he means that all the world starts when schoolchildren met their teachers. “When we be pikin, ‘FATHA BE TEACHER, When we dey for school, TEACHER BE TEACHER, When we dey University, LECTURER BE TEACHER, When we start to work, GOVERNMENT BE TEACHER, Who be government teacher? CU-ULTURE AND TRADITION” means that when we are children, our parents teach us, when we are in school, our teachers teach us, when we are in college, our professors teach us, when we get a job, the government teaches us, and culture and tradition form the government. “Now the problem side, of a teaching student-ee, I go sing about” means that he is about to sing his song about the problems of his teachers. He goes on to sing about the problems with the government in his recent past, referencing Shehu Shagari, the president of Nigeria’s second republic, who was known to be corrupt. He then plays with the word, democracy, calling it “demo-crazy…crazy demo…demonstration of craze…crazy demonstration…” His view or democracy is a result of how Nigerians in the past had taken advantage of the democratic system and did not go about it the correct way.

In an interview, Fela discussed his inspiration for the song. He says that all of his education was in English and that all he learned about were English people. He never knew what it meant to be an African man until he experienced racism during his stay in England. The song is a reflection of this education. It also references to how the English taught democracy to Nigeria, but did not follow through by helping Nigeria when it’s presidents were corrupting the democratic system.