Fela Kuti – Zombie LP

Description

The fury stirred up among the Nigerian police and military by Felas confrontational Alagbon Close (1974) and Kalakuta Show (1976), and the beatings and harassments Fela and Africa 70 suffered as a consequence, were as nothing compared to the reprisals following 1976s Zombie. Within months of its release, a brutal army attack left Felas Kalakuta Republic compound burnt to the ground and many of its residents, including Fela, assaulted and seriously injured. On the title track, over an urgent, quick-march accompaniment from Afrika 70, Fela and the backup singers ridicule the mindset of men in uniform. Attention! Quick march! Slow march! Salute! sings Fela, Fall in! Fall out! Fall down! Go and kill! Go and die! Go and quench! Each phrase is followed by the women singers taunting response, Zombie! Fela continues: No brains, no job, no sense joro jara jo; tell am to go kill joro jara jo; tell am to go quench joro jara jo (meaning, no brains, no job, no sense left right left; tell him to go kill left right left; tell him to go die left right left.) The armys response was terrible… On 18 February, 1977, around 1,000 soldiers, most of them armed, swooped on Kalakuta. They cordoned off the surrounding area, broke down the wire fence around the communitys buildings, and battered their way into the central structure. Occupants were stripped and barbarously abused: particularly unfortunate men had their testicles beaten with rifle butts; particularly unfortunate women were raped (another had her nipples crushed between stones). Fela was badly beaten, sustaining a fractured skull and several broken bones. His mother, then aged 77, was thrown out of a window, fracturing a leg and suffering deep trauma. The army then set fire to the compound and prevented the fire brigade reaching the area. The blaze gutted the premises, destroying six Afrika 70 vehicles, all Felas master tapes and band equipment, a four-track recording studio, all the residents belongings and, for good measure, the free medical clinic run by Felas brother, Dr Beko Ransome Kuti (who was also severely beaten in the attack). The first journalists to arrive on the scene were assaulted by soldiers. Inquisitive passers-by were similarly set upon. The army didnt want any witnesses.