Zombie

Fela Kuti's "Zombie" is a scathing attack on the Nigerian military, using the image of the zombie to describe how its soldiers operate. Released in Nigeria by Coconut Records in 1976, with Africa 70 behind him, it was a smash with ordinary listeners and infuriated the military government, which is exactly what its long, relentless groove was built to do. The retaliation is thought to have been brutal. Around a thousand soldiers attacked the Kalakuta Republic, the commune Kuti had established. He was severely beaten and later claimed only a commanding officer's intervention saved his life. His elderly mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was thrown from a window and suffered fatal injuries. The commune was burned, and his studio, instruments and master tapes were destroyed. An official inquiry blamed an unknown soldier. Kuti answered in the only ways he knew: he delivered his mother's coffin to the main army barracks in Lagos, and wrote "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier". The song kept stirring trouble. In 1978 riots broke out in Accra during a performance of "Zombie", and Kuti was banned from entering Ghana. AllMusic has called the album his and Africa 70's most popular and impactful record, and in 2025 it became the first Nigerian album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Half a century on, it remains the clearest example of what afrobeat could be: dance music that a government feared enough to burn down a house over.