Fela Kuti will not be found postered throughout college dorms like Bob Marley, the token world music hero. Marley and his reggae deserve their fair share of glory, but so do Fela and his Afro-beat. Born in Nigeria, Fela grew up with a disdain for colonialism and social injustice, which comes through loud and clear in his artistic political consciousness. His scathing criticisms rose from a brew of James Brown funk, free jazz, juju, and highlife. With Fela, the African Diaspora came full circle. The American Black Power movement of the late ’60s, along with the associated music (R&B, soul, funk), strongly influenced Fela’s discourse of African pride and protest. Paradoxically, Fela relied upon the very Western influence to which he objected to create the genre now known as Afro-beat. He used the tools of the system to work against it. “Zombie” features one of Fela’s most potent political statements: the song mocks the mindless, omnipresent Nigerian soldiers. Fela and his back-up singers furiously chant in Pidgin English, “No brains, no job, no sense — joro-jara-jo [left, right, left] / Tell ‘am to go kill … Tell am to go quench [die],” while the thirty-piece band produces an impenetrable matrix of interlocking rhythms, horn riffs, and guitar picking. The song unveils the soldiers as cowards, pointing to the meaninglessness of the soldier’s uniform, their abuse of public funds, and rampant terroristic practices.
Shortly after the release of “Zombie” in 1976 nearly a thousand soldiers raided Fela Kuti’s home compound on suspect of marijuana use and out of retaliation for a conflict between Fela’s bodyguards and two soldiers. Fela, his family, band, and friends were all beaten and many of them were sexually abused, while the compound burned to the ground. But, Fela continued on his path of political protest through his music for the rest of his life, dying in 1997 of complications from A.I.D.S. The man deserves the worldwide recognition he has only begun to receive.
on suspect of marijuana use and out of retaliation for a conflict between Fela’s bodyguards and two soldiers. Fela, his family, band, and friends were all beaten and many of them were sexually abused, while the compound burned to the ground. Despite the government-imposed brutality, Fela continued on his path of political protest through his music for the rest of his life, dying in 1997 of complications from A.I.D.S. The man deserves the worldwide recognition he has only begun to receive.
Archived article by Andrew Gilman
Red Letter Daze Staff Writer