EP 12 Nina Simone - An Artist's Duty is... I Women And Resistance 🌍

In this conversation, Aya Fubara Eneli channelled her inner Nina Simone and reflected on her life as a musical prodigy, her struggles with identity and race, her duty as an artist to speak out against injustice, and the personal turmoil she faced in her relationships. 

She emphasises the impact of Nina Simone's music and the legacy she leaves behind, highlighting the importance of activism and self-expression.

Takeaways

*Nina Simone's journey began at a young age, showcasing her prodigious talent in music.
*Her upbringing was marked by a complex relationship with her father and a supportive mother.
*Simone faced racial discrimination throughout her career, shaping her identity as an artist.
*She believed that an artist must reflect the times and advocate for change.
*Personal struggles, including abusive relationships, influenced her music and activism.
*Simone's music served as a powerful tool for social justice and empowerment.
*She experienced rejection from prestigious institutions due to her race, impacting her career trajectory.
*Simone's legacy continues to inspire artists and activists today.
*Her music is a reflection of her life experiences, pain, and triumphs.
*Simone's story is a testament to resilience and the power of self-expression.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Nina Simone's Journey
01:38 The Early Musical Influence and Family Background
04:37 Struggles and Rejections in Pursuit of Music
07:09 The Birth of Nina Simone: A New Identity
08:30 The Evolution of Musical Style and Identity
13:32 Art as a Reflection of Social Struggles
16:45 The Impact of Racism and Personal Struggles
19:39 Breaking Free: Personal Liberation and Artistic Expression
20:33 Confronting Racism: A Personal Story
22:05 The Weight of Racial Identity
23:11 Art as Resistance
25:41 Life in Liberia: A Personal Escape
26:58 Motherhood and Regret
27:50 Mental Health and Redemption
28:50 Legacy and Recognition
32:49 The Fight for Freedom
37:20 The Power of Music as a Weapon

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.346)
Yes, greetings, greetings and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance. And I am your host as usual, Adesoji Iginla and with me is Aya Fubari, Eneli Esquire. And yes, you must be wondering who is she's going to throw out to us tonight, but it's none other than the

Beautiful spirit that is Nina Simone. Welcome sister.

Aya Fubara Eneli (00:37.828)
It's a pleasure to be here.

Adesoji Iginla (00:41.112)
Yes, Miss Simone.

You told us that an artist must awaken the masses to the ongoings before them. And you said not to do it with anger because anger has fire and fire moves things. Would you say you were moved to music?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:17.116)
Interesting question moved to music Do you know this about me? When I was six months old They said they would put musical notes in front of me and I knew what those notes were We were in church, you know, my mother was a minister and They were singing us

And I just went to the piano and I could play by ear. I played in the church when I was just three years old.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:05.146)
The music movement, my whole life is my music. My first love is my music. My last love is my music. I was born with it. It was born inside of me. Yes, me and my music. And I sacrificed a lot for my music.

Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (02:31.246)
That's it.

At your sixth month, you were already hitting the keys. What would you say? I mean, give us an insight into what led to that kind of environment where music became who you are. I suppose we're asking.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:40.208)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (02:54.872)
for you to give us a window into your life, how you were born or.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:00.646)
Well, you know, you know, my father, was, well, my father was many things. And we had a complicated relationship. You have to listen to some of my music. You listen to the song I wrote about my father.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:19.386)
I love that man. But I did not go to his funeral.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:27.93)
I will tell this story as I like, you know? May not fit in exactly with what you have, but this is my story. And

Adesoji Iginla (03:36.366)
Go on, take your time.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:42.286)
I was visiting the family and he was talking and he was talking about how he worked so hard to take care of the family. And I was upset because I was working. I was sending money home for the family. I was taking care of the You know, my father was a great man. He was an entertainer. Never got to my levels, you know.

racism. hate that country. United States of America.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:19.363)
I said when I died, do not take my body, don't take my ashes back to that country. My father was John Divine Wayman. My father was a barber. At one time he owned a dry cleaners. Hard for black people to succeed in business because of the racism in America. And he was an entrepreneur.

And my mother, my mother was a housekeeper. She was a devout Methodist preacher. And she had an ear for music too. You know, we're a family. Music was important. And when they noticed this gift that I had,

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:14.957)
a woman that we called Miss Marzie. She took me under her wings and began to teach me classical piano. I love Bach. I love Bach. I love Bach so much.

and I would play. I was a prodigy. I was a child. I was a child musical prodigy.

and the community, they rallied around me. They provided scholarships for me. And so I graduated. You know, I was born in North Carolina. Try on North Carolina.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:04.803)
and I graduated at the top of my class at 15. That was brilliant.

And then I attended Juilliard, Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Adesoji Iginla (06:17.57)
Go, New York. New York, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:27.087)
But I dropped out because of finances. When we tell these stories.

Da! How many?

People never got to live their dreams or use their gifts because of the color of their skin.

You know, I am a black woman. And I'm a proud black woman.

Not the color that some people might want me to be, even in the black community. But I'm proud of who I am.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:07.651)
and I.

applied to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Adesoji Iginla (07:16.365)
you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:19.833)
In fact, my parents even moved there with my family. I was the sixth child of eight children.

We were poor. Not poor in spirit. Poor in results. You know, sometimes we would say, mama.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:40.868)
What we gonna eat?

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:45.403)
Puss up.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:48.911)
My mama was a praying woman.

She would say, I don't know, but God will provide. And you know what? God did provide. So I was taught from age four classical piano by Muriel Mazinovich. Affectionately, we called her Miss Massey. She was an English woman who began teaching me at about

maybe closer to six. She taught classical technique, stage presence, and introduced me to back lessons lasting around four years. She taught me, she saw the genius in me.

I was going to be the first black classical pianist.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:54.137)
and much to my dismay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:59.791)
The Curtis Institute of Music. They turned me down.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:12.629)
Someone should go and investigate their archives if they've not purged them now. I know it was due to my race. It crushed me. I've never recovered from that rejection. I was going to be the first classically trained pianist and they rejected.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:36.473)
But you know what?

in 1954 when I was 21 years old.

I went to Atlantic City, New Jersey. I was actually teaching younger kids how to play the piano. And one of my students told me about how they sometimes pick up these gigs in the nightclubs and they were making more.

in one setting than I was in the whole week.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:19.483)
But I had a dilemma.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:23.739)
I told you my mother was a devout preacher. Well, what kind of music do they play in the nightclub? It's the devil's music, according to my mother. How was I going to pull this off?

Adesoji Iginla (10:25.358)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (10:34.67)
worldly music.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:43.375)
had an idea. I had a friend who would call me Nina. Little, you know. And

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:59.105)
I also admired an actress, Simone.

Adesoji Iginla (11:05.356)
the moon.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:07.297)
and I put the two names together Nina Simo and so Wendy would advertise me on the billboards they had for the nightclub.

I was Nina Simone and that way my mother would be no more the white s**t.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:32.955)
And I would get paid $90 a week. And I would give most of that money to my parents for the family.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:47.663)
went in just to play. That's my training. I play the piano.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:56.038)
But by the second night, the owner says, you have to sing. I have to sing?

Well, I grew up in the church. Sing I will. And I began to sing.

the songs I was playing. Now there's this moniker they try to give me the high priestess of what is that nonsense? Soul and I said don't call me that. So she's a jazz musician don't call me that. Jazz is the name white people gave

to our music to differentiate black music from their music. It's not a, no, don't play jazz. If you want to call me something, call me a folk singer. Call me a folk musician. Cause I tell our stories. And I have a blend of gospel, of folk, of classical piano, being classically trained as a pianist.

And I bring all of that and I fuse it. And what you see is what you get. You know, there's an interview I did with the BBC and they were asking something about, sometimes I keep the audience waiting.

Adesoji Iginla (13:30.67)
the

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:34.491)
said, yes, of course, of course I do. I do what my teacher trained me to do. She said.

Adesoji Iginla (13:37.71)
because they came to see you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:45.808)
You know, my birth name is Eunice, Eunice Kathleen Waymon. She said, Eunice, you don't ever touch the piano until you're ready.

Adesoji Iginla (13:59.691)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:02.553)
And so, they can wait.

I come out and I share my gift when I'm ready.

How do I know when I'm ready? I know when I'm ready and I know when they're ready.

I interrupted some of my performances sometimes when can you imagine the lack of respect?

In the world of classical music, when the music is being played, you don't get up, you don't move around, you don't talk. You show respect for the art. And here I am playing my tune in the middle of my song and someone has the nerve to get up and I say, sit down. Yes, you, you, you, you, you, you, down. I'm talking.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:01.497)
and I don't play.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:05.721)
You must show respect for the art!

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:12.697)
So I married, I started to perform, yes. I released in 1958, I released my first album, Little Girl Blue.

Adesoji Iginla (15:25.55)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:27.541)
And one of the songs from that, Poetry? You I love poetry. That song, it did very well. And it kind of put me on the radar.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:45.115)
I didn't marry in 1958. Not a marriage worth talking about. I got divorced in 1960.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:56.249)
In 1961...

I met an ex New York City police officer, Andy Stroud, and he became my manager. He was the best manager I ever had.

And then we got married in 1961.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:27.481)
And we had my only child!

She was called Lisa Celestraud, but today you might know her as Lisa Simone Kelly. She's an actress and a singer.

Chip off the whole block.

Adesoji Iginla (16:50.456)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:56.623)
But Andy, Andy.

Andy, he worked me like a horse. I was so tired all the time. He controlled me and controlled my money and controlled everything. I begged for some rest.

I wanted to spend time with my baby, my child!

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:34.266)
You know.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:40.517)
Lisa, she used to spend quite a bit of time with a family, you know?

Brother Malcolm and Sister Betty. Betty and I were good friends.

Adesoji Iginla (17:53.464)
That's Macom. MacomX.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:59.312)
and they had six daughters.

And Lisa was like their seventh daughter. Call them Auntie Betty.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:11.727)
She was the same age as one of the girls. I knew she was safe with them.

We live in the same neighbourhood, our houses not too far from each other.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:26.581)
and look at how all our lives ended up.

Adesoji Iginla (18:29.954)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:34.328)
really good friend Lorraine Hansberry she's the one that some might say radicalized me

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:48.027)
She taught me about who we are and where we came from.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:54.723)
Some who are looking for some salacious tidbits here and there claim perhaps we have been lovers. What business of yours is that? Of course I'm a sexual being. Some might say ahead of my time, but that's a story I will tell you more of later.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:19.417)
and I would sit.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:23.668)
those were the good days. With Lorraine.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:30.828)
Lorraine left this earth so, so soon, too soon.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:39.949)
I will sit with James Baldwin.

And Langston Hughes. You know Langston wrote the lyrics for one of my songs? Listen, if you want to know who I am in all my complexities, you must sit with my music. You must sit with my art. My music is me. You must sit with it. And let it, let it bathe over you. Let it wash over you.

If you want to understand me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:21.243)
There comes the FBI and Comtel Pro. And do you know who had the audacity to be upset with me?

my own husband Andy Stroud.

He said I was messing up my career.

Adesoji Iginla (20:47.234)
by being involved in the struggle.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:51.247)
The duty of an artist is to reflect the times in which they live. Is that so difficult to understand? Otherwise, what are you doing? So my purpose initially was to be a classical pianist, the first black classical pianist, but that purpose shifted.

some knowledge about myself and my purpose shifted to our struggle, our liberation. How could I not write about the times in which I was in?

And they killed Medgar Evers. And they killed those four innocent little girls in Birmingham.

And I'm supposed to just come and entertain you? When my heart is breaking? When my people...

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:08.941)
And it worked me like a horse.

When I was pregnant with Lisa, Andy punched me in the stomach. Andy used to beat me so bad. And I would fight back. I would fight back too. I'm not nonviolent. I would fight back too.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:29.935)
And I suppose some would say...

That was when they began to notice what they claimed were erratic behavior.

I like sex. I wanted sex. Sometimes I wanted it rough. But I don't want to be beat up. Andy beat me. we were at a club, a disco club.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:07.511)
And I'm just

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:12.717)
enjoying myself and the music and the atmosphere.

Some guy handed me a note. I didn't even think anything of it. I just put it in my purse.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:32.377)
And he grabs me. He pulls me out of the club. And he starts wailing on me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:47.481)
the way to her house, the way up the stairs into the bedroom. He's just beating me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:01.551)
I write about this in my book. put a spell on you and he tied me up.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:16.569)
I know for your airwaves and for your listeners I should give a warning before I say this but...

Adesoji Iginla (24:23.758)
What do I say? Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:31.599)
He had his way with me without my consent.

Adesoji Iginla (24:34.764)
Consent, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:52.677)
was a star.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:57.551)
And then he untied me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:02.489)
went to sleep.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:09.645)
And I left my house, paid for with my work, my blood, my sweat, my tears, my sacrifice. And I went to the home of one of the musicians that had accompanied me for many years.

knocked on his door in the middle of the night.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:37.711)
He could not believe his eyes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:43.437)
and he let me in and gave me a room, a place to to lay down and I stayed there for almost two weeks and he didn't know where to find me

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:02.437)
But I went back.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:13.211)
Randy hated what he called protest music. And you know, one time I hated it too. You know, I hated the idea because how do you distill the pain of a people? The indignities we suffered? How do you distill it into a three and a half minute? How do you do that?

Adesoji Iginla (26:41.678)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:44.815)
But when they killed Medgar Evers and killed those little girls, I put my pen to paper and I wrote Mississippi. Goddamn!

I'm gonna share just a little bit of the lyrics, but you ought to go and listen to it so you can feel my spirit, feel my heart, feel the emotions coursing through me in that moment.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:15.415)
Alabama's gotten me so upset. Tennessee made me lose my rest. And everybody knows about Mississippi, God damn!

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:30.533)
Can't you see it? Can't you feel it? It's all in the air. I can't stand the pressure much longer. Somebody say a prayer.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:46.832)
This is a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet. Hound dogs on my trail, school children sitting in jail, black cats cross my path. I think every day is going to be my last. Lord have mercy on this land of mine. We all going to get it in due time. I don't belong here. I don't belong there. I've even stopped believing in prayer.

Don't tell me. I tell you. Me and my people just about you. I've been there so I know. They keep on saying go slow. But that's just the trouble. Do it slow. Washing the windows, do it slow. Picking the cotton, do it slow. You're just plain rotten, do it slow. You're too damn lazy, do it slow.

The thinking's crazy, do it slow. Where am I going? What am I doing?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:03.353)
Picket lines, school boycotts, they try to say it's a communist plot. All I want is equality for my sister and my brother and my people and me. Yes, you lied to me all these years. You told me to wash and clean my ears and talk real fine just like a lady. And you'll stop calling me Sister Sadie. but this whole country is full of lies. You're all gonna die and die like flies. I don't trust you anymore.

You keep on saying, go slow, go slow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:44.549)
Do you know what the black woman endures in this country? Do you know why Josephine Baker left and never came? She tried, she came back two times and she said, I can't do it.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:03.397)
then they kill.

Bekil Malcolm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:18.543)
They killed.

The Doctor of Love, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

You know I sang at his funeral.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:36.091)
Ten children, no longer with five.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:42.307)
Add Medica Everest. Add all the ones whose bodies we never found.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:53.805)
I too began to sing Strange Fruit. You should listen to my rendition of it.

Adesoji Iginla (30:57.24)
Oops.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:04.325)
We had to speak up. You can't be silent.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:11.587)
And finally, I got so damn fed up with working like a horse.

being mistreated. I divorced Auntie.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:31.257)
And without a word, I left the country.

found out they had a warrant out for my arrest talking about I didn't pay taxes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:47.835)
the god damn liars that they are, they did eventually take it and get my home. They took it. They took it all.

and they can have it. Same thing the music industry did, pirating my music all over the place, never wanting to pay me what I was worth.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:12.143)
You heard about my song for women?

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:18.073)
This is the plight of the black woman in America.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:35.885)
I named them Aunt Sarah, Saffronia, Sweet Thing.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:47.214)
and peaches.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:57.476)
Hmm.

I need a damn cigarette.

Let me get a break. What do you want to ask me? What do want to know?

Adesoji Iginla (33:10.168)
The question I would want some sort of answer to is, when did race consciousness first enter your conversation at home? Because I believe when you left Trient for New York, at that particular point in time, race had not really been center stage at home. So.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:34.967)
Well, I can tell you that story.

Adesoji Iginla (33:38.144)
OK, go on.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:40.717)
I'm playing at a recital.

I'm six years old.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:53.017)
This was to happen later in life as well.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:58.734)
And all of these white people sitting in the front row, taking off all the seats. And my mother, my parents came and found a place and they sat in the front. And they were told no, they had to go to the back.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:21.749)
All these people came to hear the child prodigy and they told my people whom I came out of they had a sin in the back.

Adesoji Iginla (34:23.534)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (34:35.202)
this one.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:37.475)
And that was my first memory of racism.

Adesoji Iginla (34:43.404)
Hmm. OK.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:46.541)
I was six years old and I said, my parents have to sit here.

Later in life it happened again. And I said, if my mother can sit where she can see my hands, I just would play. And I meant every word of it. I meant every daggone word of it. But that was.

Adesoji Iginla (35:11.895)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:16.399)
the beginnings of understanding this racial cloud that always hovered around us. What? You know what? We don't want to live with you.

We just want our space and you leave us alone. Leave us alone. That's all we want.

They won't even do that.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:49.092)
I wanna share with you the lyrics of that song, that full woman that I was telling you about. And you know, when you come to see me play, when you come to hear me, you get all of me. You get some piano playing, you get some singing, and you're gonna get my monologue too. Or you can leave.

Adesoji Iginla (36:18.008)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:20.473)
that goddamn Andy said I was messing it up because I would not stick to commercial tunes to just entertaining the white people. And do you know that when I released Mississippi Goddamn

These people, and I'm being generous calling them that, is racist. They had protests.

They didn't protest the KKK. They didn't protest the FBI. They protested me. They didn't protest the people who killed those young girls, their lives short. They didn't protest that. They protested me for telling the truth. What kind of people are those?

I don't want to live next to them.

Adesoji Iginla (37:28.366)
So do I, Biz?

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:28.571)
And he had to go. And he had to go. So this is just some of the lyrics of the song.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:37.249)
tempted to break out into song. My skin is black.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:44.535)
My arms are long.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:50.775)
My hair is wooly. My back is strong.

strong enough to take the pain? Inflicted again and again.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:17.039)
What do they call me?

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:24.889)
My name is Aunt Sarah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:34.895)
My skin is yellow.

My hair is long.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:43.907)
Between two worlds I do belong.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:54.415)
But my father was rich and white.

He forced my mother!

Late one night.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:10.713)
And what do they call me?

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:15.801)
My name is Saffronia.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:25.389)
My skin is tan. My hair is fun.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:34.967)
My hips invite you. My mouth like wine.

Whose little girl am I?

anyone who has money to buy.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:55.865)
What do they call me?

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:01.634)
My name is SwiftBang.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:11.447)
My skin is brown.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:17.527)
My manner is tough.

I'll kill the first mother!

I see. My life has been rough. I'm awfully bitter these days.

because my parents were slaves.

What do they call me?

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:48.731)
They call me Peaches. Do you know what women, black women have experienced in this here, the United States of America? I left, I had to leave, I had to leave. I left. I left, went to Barbados. I lived in Liberia for three years. It was the best time of my life.

The President's daughter gave me a house on the beach!

You know, Liberia, that's where the African Americans, as they called us now, Negroes who couldn't stay in America, they went to Liberia. That nightlife was something else. my God. One night. I was in my room. I got up on that.

Adesoji Iginla (41:26.158)
you

Adesoji Iginla (41:37.944)
Sure did.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:52.047)
Table?

I stripped, I took every piece of clothing off and I just, I just danced.

The next morning I said, my god, they're going to kick me out of the country.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:12.495)
But the president, he actually came the following night hoping to catch an encore.

Adesoji Iginla (42:17.707)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:22.619)
HNNNN

Adesoji Iginla (42:23.79)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:29.808)
You know.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:34.563)
I was engaged when I was in Liberia.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:42.401)
I was engaged to the father of the prime minister.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:49.403)
He was 70 years old. But you know.

Adesoji Iginla (42:51.79)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:05.047)
It wasn't meant to be.

He and 13 other men.

We're Tied to poles.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:22.499)
and shot to death on the beach.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:35.941)
You know I have a video of his killing?

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:43.033)
And every once in a while I will still watch it.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:52.74)
all over the world.

hard for a black person to find a place of peace.

Now, you know I told you I had a daughter.

Adesoji Iginla (44:05.003)
Lisa.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:06.639)
I'd left her in the United States, but I sent for her. When I got the house on the beach, I sent for Lisa. And I'd run out of money, so I had to start traveling to make some money. And I had a family that she would stay with most of the time. But when I was back at home, she would stay with me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:31.821)
I'm a true teller. I tell the truth. You take all of me, just as I am. Everything.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:42.329)
I love my daughter dearly.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:46.917)
But I was not a good mother.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:54.107)
Lisa talks about it in one of the documentaries about me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:01.453)
I hurt my daughter. I took the same beating that I got from my no good husband.

And I beat my daughter.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:21.839)
when she was 14?

She got on a plane and she went back to the United States. She went back to live with her father.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:37.295)
and she talks about how her father used to beat her and I was her safe space and then she comes to stay with me.

Beat her.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:55.238)
We were estranged for many years. She had a child. I hadn't even seen my grandchild.

But later, after I was diagnosed with manic depression and bipolar disease, they put me on this medication.

It helped her understand why I had become that monster in her life. I never wanted to.

Adesoji Iginla (46:29.966)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:32.005)
But that medication?

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:39.003)
I'm supposed they gave me a second chance to continue with my music.

but it also had an effect on my motor skills, they said, over time, and on my speech. So if you watch some of my later interviews, don't judge me, don't judge me. You gotta take me as I am, everything.

Adesoji Iginla (47:01.037)
Yeah.

it comes to the egg.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:13.499)
So I lived in Liberia.

And then I had to leave. And I lived in Switzerland for some time, and I lived in the Netherlands, and I also lived in France. Now, there is some people who say that at one point I was so poor I was homeless. And then there's a documentary that maybe shows me, you know, yes, I suppose.

Adesoji Iginla (47:43.8)
Test tube.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:47.021)
I was never homeless. Never, never, not me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:55.034)
I always found a way.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:59.768)
In the 1990s, I did settle in France and that is where I ultimately died.

after battling breast cancer for quite some time.

Adesoji Iginla (48:09.367)
Adesoji Iginla (48:16.568)
So you were neighbors with James Baldwin.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:22.755)
No, with Malcolm X.

Adesoji Iginla (48:26.145)
in France.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:27.451)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (48:34.274)
Because he said, and I quote, this is the world you have made for yourself, Nina. Now you have to leave it. So I suppose the question would be, did you live that life?

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:45.945)
The hardest person I ever had to live with, it's myself.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:58.263)
One time they asked me what I thought about the civil rights movement as if it still existed. I said, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? What civil rights movement? They killed them. They killed them all. You can only suffer so much loss. My heart was shattered. I was in pieces. How many of us did they kill? How much can we take?

They're burning my records, they're protesting me. They're upset because I'm speaking my truth. You want me to just come and smile at you? I didn't leave America, America left me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:47.695)
This whole country I tell you, full of lies. Full of lies. Full of lies. And I'm not going to pretend as though it's different.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:01.084)
Over my lifetime, I released over 40 albums.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:11.193)
We don't know, because they steal so much they say somewhere between 1 to 2 million records I sold in my lifetime.

Then I died. You can't even watch a movie without hearing my song. They play my music all the time. All the time. You know they used one of my songs for Chanel number five. That was good. I did get paid from that.

Adesoji Iginla (50:27.799)
Exactly. Shocking.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:41.743)
Since I died, my catalog, they say, has sold over 10 million units.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:50.331)
Do you, can you imagine? I know that you've been talking with other women. I know you've heard this story before. After the Curtis Institute of News for Music rejected me, changed the trajectory of my life, I never recovered from that blow.

Adesoji Iginla (51:10.478)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:16.411)
After I die.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:20.847)
Don't you know?

that the Curtis Institute for Music now decided to honor me.

Adesoji Iginla (51:28.142)
We do the whole of it.

Adesoji Iginla (51:35.746)
The rejecters don't.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:39.449)
Why? Why now? Why? Because I made it in spite of you. Now you want to act like you have something to do with it and to take some kind of credit. Is that to make you feel better? Is that to whitewash who you are?

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:58.276)
I was inducted into the, so I died in 2003. Do you know what I asked them to do with my remains? You wanna know, don't you?

Adesoji Iginla (52:09.07)
Great tale, great tale, great tale.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:11.949)
I said, cremate me and take my ashes back to Africa. My ashes are over seven countries in Africa. That's my home. Don't bring me back to the United States of...

in 2018 after they protested me and burnt my albums, after the FBI had collected all the information they could find on me, after they had damn near driven me crazy with their psychological warfare, after they had killed all my friends.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:02.209)
and just sabotaged the entire civil rights movement. After all of that, the United States of America honored me with a stamp in 2023. my God. I don't want your damn stamp. I want the liberation of my people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:24.569)
I am not home in America. Africa is where I go to breathe.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:33.551)
So now there are all these people writing and singing and telling stories, some true, some not. Books about me. Of course, you must always start with what I said about myself.

My autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, which came out in 1992.

There's another book Princess Noir the tumultuous reign of Nina Simone

Adesoji Iginla (54:10.478)
Two, three.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:12.377)
Why don't you try to live my life, see how it turns out for you?

Adesoji Iginla (54:14.862)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:17.785)
by Nadine Cojadas. Nino Simone, The Biography, written by David Brum Lambert. What Happened, Miss Simone? by Alan Light. Nina Simone's Gum, A Memoir of Things Lost and Found. I didn't tell you this story. You want to know this story?

Adesoji Iginla (54:37.816)
Go on.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:40.641)
in Europe and I see one of the record executives who was not paying me my royalties.

Adesoji Iginla (54:49.951)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:52.581)
Can I grab my gun?

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:56.601)
Dr. King preached all that non-violence thing. I said, I said, we need to be violent. I said, we need to burn some things up. I said, we need to poison some waters. We need to fight back. I took my gun and I went into the restaurant after him and I shot. Yes, I shot him. I tried and he's lucky I missed. And then they grabbed me and said, what are you doing? I said, I told him to pay me my rent.

Adesoji Iginla (55:18.87)
Peace.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:26.505)
and he said no, and so he was gonna pay with his life.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:32.793)
You can only push a person so far. How much can a person take?

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:42.486)
Anyway, me and Nina's poetry written by Monica Bland. We have Nina Simone by Carrie Acker. You can look them up. So many people have written. And do you know that damn Andrew Stroud, he wrote a book about me too. Everybody wanting to take a piece, a piece, a piece, a piece.

Adesoji Iginla (55:57.622)
It's a book as well.

Adesoji Iginla (56:04.942)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:08.901)
feel like singing a song. Do you know how it feels to be free? I just wanna feel free. You know what freedom is? You know what it is to feel free? To feel free is to have no fear. No fear, no fear, no fear.

You have me talking so much, I need a cigarette.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:40.131)
And of course, they're the documentaries.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:46.339)
It's not what they put in there. You gotta pay attention. It's how they curate it and how they weave it together.

Adesoji Iginla (56:50.83)
It's been seven.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:59.003)
You have to listen to my music to feel me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:06.511)
and never stop believing in God. I believe God is God, God is Allah, God is, you know I practiced yoga for 20 years. God is everywhere. Doesn't have to be just one thing.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:23.951)
damn honor honorary degree from Curtis. I'm so mad.

Well, but then Armhurst College and Malcolm X Colleges also gave me honorary degrees as well. People call me Dr. Simone as they should. As they should. Why not? And then there are all the artists that have been influenced by me. I love that, that young sweet thing, Lauren Hill.

Adesoji Iginla (57:54.85)
So right here, microphone.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:55.364)
Nina Simone defecating on your microphone. Yeah!

She understands you don't go to play till you're ready. They criticize her like they criticize me. But artists like your Jay-Z, your Kanye West, Talib Qualey, Timbaland, Flying Lotus, Aretha Franklin, Davis, all of these people, they were all influenced by me. Of course I was influenced by people too. And that's okay. That's what we should do.

Adesoji Iginla (58:28.012)
Very good, Badoo.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:34.403)
In 2000, I was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. They didn't recognize my music when I was alive. Inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Mississippi goddamn was added to the National Recording Registry. I mean, it ain't data.

Adesoji Iginla (58:54.35)
or it's true.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:01.039)
See, these people will have you confused if you're not careful.

Adesoji Iginla (59:05.62)
Uzo, run amok.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:08.323)
You don't love me? The same song that caused you to abandon

Korea came crashing down, my money drying up. Now it's in the National Recording Registry, the same song? What changed?

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:32.54)
And then of course I was an inductee in 2021 in the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. And then the Rolling Stone. They ranked me number 21 of their 200 greatest singers of all time. Now that's something to laugh at because I was trained to be a classical pianist.

Adesoji Iginla (59:55.0)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:00.06)
Yanis

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:02.287)
that God had a gift and God had a plan. And I used my phone, do you know that because of the darkness of my skin, because of the broadness of my nose, because of my fullness of my lips, and because I had such a deep register, there were some who...

whispered and questioned. Is a man singing or is it a woman singing?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:55.871)
I my life as full as I could under the circumstances with all the heartache and the pain.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:15.885)
I was low many times.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:20.795)
too many times.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:26.863)
Depression like fire lapping at the edges of my sanity.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:47.439)
But I was authentically me.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:52.59)
I was me.

So today.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:03.323)
I have a statue on Trade Street in Tyrone, North Carolina. Went up in 2010.

There's a Nina Simone street in the Netherlands. This little black girl, this little dark skinned black girl from a poor family. And there are plaques and scholarships in my name at the Curtis Institute.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:21.867)
online.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:35.643)
I played the Village Gate, I played Carnegie Hall, I played the Newport Jazz Festival, I played the, you know I marched with Dr. King, I was part of the Selma rally. That Selma march, I was there. I played the Montreal Jazz Festival in Switzerland, I played the Olympia Theater in Paris, France, I played the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:13.392)
My weapon. My weapon.

What's my music?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:25.689)
What is your weapon?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:31.417)
And do you have the courage to use it? Now it might consume you. They're sacrifices. But what is your weapon?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:43.419)
I'm done.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:44.59)
Well, mean you've taken

your time on the stage to remind us that music can be a puppet, the piano your podium.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:05.098)
One would be reminded that your legacy is not just musical, it was ideological, and it was resistance personified from six years old, even up to your last breath. Asking for your ashes to be spread in Africa will be seen as defiant to those who sought to cage your spirit within the shores of the United States.

Thank you for coming through.

And to our audience, I hope you've engaged and will do further research with regards to Midsimon's legacy. And be reminded that this series focuses on women and their contribution to the act of resistance during this ongoing struggle because it never stops. It's an ongoing thing.

And in that light, next week, we will be looking at the lives and times of Ama Atta Aido. It's probably a name that most of you have never heard before, but next week, you shall see who she is. Again, the name is Ama Atta Aido. And to Miss Simone, I would say thank you very much for coming through. And any last words for?

your teaming fans out there.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:47.675)
I spell on you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:49.615)
Because you're mine.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:53.764)
You're mine.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:55.052)
Yes. No, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And to our audience, thank you very much for coming and contributing. Typing in the chats, it's an essence of the realization that this thing is not for, it's not just us two, but it's a continuous thing and.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:57.605)
Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:23.448)
Hopefully you take it further. Like, share, subscribe. Join our Patreon. The least you could at least do is subscribe. But until next week, when we will be at the lives and times of Ama Atta Aido, it is good night and God bless.