Babatunde Olatunji was a Yoruba born in southwestern Nigeria. He began playing traditional African music at an early age, especially drums and percussive instruments.
In 1950 he received a Rotary International Scholarship and went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia to study. After graduating he went to New York University. He founded a percussion music group to earn some money on the side. Soon his skill, energy and passion caught the attention of others. He was signed to a record label and began performing at major venues. His Drums of Passion album and show with the band of that name burst him into the entertainment big time as well as introducing U.S. audiences to African music.
Besides his music, Olatunji was engaged in social activism. In 1952, 3 years before Rosa Parks launched the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, he challenged segregation on the busses in Atlanta. He and some friends boarded a bus in traditional African garb, and they were allowed to sit wherever they wanted because they were not viewed as African-American. But the next day when the same group boarded the bus in Western clothing, they were forced to sit in the back. Olatunji and his friends continued to stir up challenges to the Jim Crow laws.
Later Olatunji met with both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X through his engagement in the U.S. Civil Rights movement. He also traveled to Accra, Ghana to participate in the All African People’s Conference organized by the Ghanian independence leader and later president Kwame Nkrumah. Delegates gathered from 28 countries to strategize about how to engage in the anti-colonialism struggle. Olatunji often performed at events for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC).
His autobiography, The Beat of My Drum, was published in 2005, shortly after his death. Another activist/musician, Joan Baez, wrote the foreword.
His widow Iyafin Ammiebelle Olatunji said her husband “saw himself as a panAfricanist who always reached out to unify Africans and African-Americans.” He was an ambassador for peace, justice, and joy in his music and in his life.
To read the BBC report about Babatunde Olatunji, click here.