“Zombie — Fela Kuti’s 1976 track sparked a savage military response

Fela Kuti was never one to hold his tongue. Shirtless, cigarette in hand, he would dance onstage at his nightclub, the Shrine in Lagos, a crowd of band members behind him and a larger crowd of fans in front, as he performed his politically charged music each night. One song, however, was particularly severe in its critique of the Nigerian military he grew to despise — “Zombie”.

Kuti, the architect of Afrobeat, an eternally rebellious soul, travelled to London in 1958 to study medicine, but instead he enrolled in a course at the Trinity College of Music. During his five-year stint in the capital, he became engrossed in the local jazz scene and during this period formed his own band, Koola Lobitos, who gained limited success for their fusion of jazz and Ghanaian highlife. This blend, of African music and western jazz and funk, would define Kuti’s sound.

A second crucial fusion occurred following a trip to the US in 1969 where Kuti met and began to date Black Panthers member Sandra Smith. Throughout his 10-month stay, she introduced Kuti to the work of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver. Speaking later about their relationship to Michael Veal, author of a book about Kuti, he said: “She was the one who opened my eyes. For the first time I heard things I’d never heard before about Africa!” By the time of his return to Lagos in 1970, Kuti’s music had become political, his lyrics turning to biting social commentary.

The music of Kuti and his band Africa 70 began to encompass critiques of authoritarian rule and corruption along with wider continent-wide topics of the colonial mentality and the economic exploitation of Africa.

Sick of the government’s repressive rule, he declared himself free from the Nigerian state and his commune, the Kalakuta Republic, independent. It was a large house hosting roughly 100 of Kuti’s friends, family and bandmates and a recording studio, the air often thick with cannabis smoke.

Though he presented a headache for the Nigerian government, Kuti’s skirmishes with the state at this point were fairly limited — until 1976 and the release of “Zombie”.

The song begins with a pulsating guitar riff, followed by percussion, bass, Tony Allen’s funky, polyrhythmic drumming and horns, and then we wait, and wait, until Kuti begins. Around five minutes into the 12-minute track his jumpy pidgin English takes the song to another level, scathingly critical of the Nigerian military. His voice dances over the instrumental, taunting and mocking the soldiers whom he calls zombies, unable to “no go, unless you tell am to go” or “no go think, unless you tell am to think.” Kuti’s final word instructs listeners simply: “Dismiss!”

The Nigerian military responded with swift brutality. A thousand armed soldiers swarmed the Kalakuta Republic. Inside, they beat the men (Kuti himself was taken to hospital unconscious following the attack), raped women, and burnt the commune to the ground. Amid the violence, Kuti’s elderly mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was thrown down the stairs; she later died from her injuries.

Since its release, the song’s radical essence has been pushed onward primarily by Kuti’s two sons, Seun and Femi, both of whom have a stage presence that is remarkably similar to their late father’s. They are often seen performing “Zombie” and other of Fela’s hits live. Femi also curated a group of contemporary musicians to re-record a studio version of “Zombie” for a commemorative album following Fela’s death in 1997, gathering the likes of Roy Hargrove and Nile Rodgers for the tune.

A less straightforward cover/homage came from Wizkid, one of the biggest contemporary Afrobeats artists (the west African genre encompassing Afrobeat, dancehall, hip-hop and R&B), who adapted the chant in “Zombie”’s chorus “joro jara joro” for the chorus of his 2019 hit song “Joro”.

Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella show, the first from a Black female headliner, was a celebration of Black culture and history; she had her band play “Zombie” as a tribute to Fela Kuti. Mandolinist Chris Thile prefaced his sparky instrumental cover by stating that he “hears a message loud and clear in every exquisite layer of this composition”.

Fela Kuti is often called the African Bob Dylan, James Brown or Bob Marley — but ultimately he’s a one-of-a-kind, a dissident artist unique in both story and stature.

Credit: ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/zombie.html

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