Fridge Notes
Music linernotes album music fela-kuti

4 Things to Know About Fela Kuti's Zombie and the Military Reprisal

  1. The song Zombie directly attacked the Nigerian military by comparing soldiers to mindless zombies, using the term as a derogatory metaphor for blind obedience.
  2. The military responded violently, sending around 1,000 soldiers to raid Fela’s Kalakuta Republic commune in 1977.
  3. During the raid, Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was thrown from a window and later died from her injuries.
  4. The attack was a brutal attempt to silence Fela, but it instead cemented his status as a defiant voice against government oppression.

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