Which Fela Kuti song likened soldiers to zombies?
By 1977 Fela Anikulapo Kuti had turned his Lagos compound, Kalakuta Republic, into a self-proclaimed nation with a free clinic, pirate radio mast and 24-hour Afrobeat rehearsals. His single “Zombie” mocked Nigeria’s soldiers as mindless pawns—“Attention! Quick March!”—and taxi drivers blasted cassette dubs despite radio bans. At dawn on 18 February roughly 1 000 troops surrounded Kalakuta. Tear-gas canisters flew over the wall; the recording studio burned, and Fela’s 77-year-old mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was hurled from a first-floor window, injuries that proved fatal.
Fela, beaten unconscious, spent days in jail, then retaliated with “Coffin for Head of State,” recording the track overnight while his lips were still swollen. He delivered his mother’s coffin to army headquarters, sparking global headlines. European labels pressed the song; customs officials smashed many copies at Lagos port, inadvertently raising its contraband value. Today his son Seun tours with Egypt 80, projecting footage of the raid behind blistering horn lines. UNESCO’s 2023 intangible-heritage citation credits Afrobeat’s global spread to Fela’s fusion of polyrhythms and political satire—proof that state violence can amplify the very dissent it seeks to silence.
