Kuti was born into the Ransome-Kuti family, an upper-middle-class family, on 15 October 1938, in Abeokuta, Colonial Nigeria. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was an anti-colonial feminist, and his father, Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti was an Anglican minister, school principal, and the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. Kuti's parents both played active roles in the anti-colonial movement in Nigeria, most notably the Abeokuta Women's Riots which were led by his mother in 1946. His brothers Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, were well known nationally. Kuti is a cousin to the writer and fellow activist Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner. They are both descendants of Josiah Ransome-Kuti, an Anglican clergyman and musical pioneer, who is Kuti's paternal grandfather and Soyinka's maternal great-grandfather.
Kuti attended Abeokuta Grammar School. In 1958, he was invited to London by his younger brother Beko (a medical student at the time), to study music at the Trinity College of Music, with the trumpet being his preferred instrument. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos and played a fusion of jazz and highlife. The ensemble would include as members Bayo Martins on drums and Wole Bucknor on piano. In 1960, Kuti married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor with whom he had three children (Yeni, Femi, and Sola). In 1963, Kuti moved back to the newly independent Federation of Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos, and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All-Stars.
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