The Funkees

The Funkees were a Nigerian afro-rock group formed in the late 1960s. They moved to London in 1973 and quickly gained prominence in the expatriate West African and West Indian music scene, but fragmented four years later. They specialised in funky, upbeat, highly danceable afro-rock that often featured lyrics sung in Igbo, as well as English. Originating as an army band after the Nigerian Civil War, they contributed to the outpouring of upbeat music produced by young people in Nigeria in response to the darkness of the recently concluded civil conflict. An article in The Guardian (2018) relates percussionist Sonny Akpan’s reminiscences that the Funkees’ music 'contributed to healing Nigeria’s divisions' after the Civil War, quoting his observation that “(w)hen you started playing good music everybody forgot. Things started getting normal.”