Femi Kuti Recalls How Soldiers Allegedly Burnt Fela’s House 45 Years Ago
Femi Kuti, one of the sons of late legendary Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti has gone down memory lane to recall the burning of Fela’s house by soldiers in 1977.
The Afrobeat singer shared the cover page of The PUNCH from that day, 45 years ago on his Instagram page.
He captioned the photo, “TODAY IN HISTORY: 18TH FEBRUARY 1977: GOVERNMENT BURNT FELA’S HOUSE. WE SHALL NEVER FORGET. #YeniAKuti #bigbirdkuti #madekuti.”
Femi also recalled how soldiers threw his grandmother, Madam Funmilayo Ransome Kuti out of the window.
“On that day, Fela’s mother, our grandma was thrown out of the window from the first floor, she died a year later from injuries, she sustained and never recovered from,” he concluded.
According to reports, In 1977, Fela released “Zombie”, a mordant, unsparing attack on the Nigerian military and the culture that the institution had built and inculcated into its soldiers.
Using the zombie as a metaphor, Fela described Nigerian soldiers as a bunch of robots with no spine, waiting on orders from above as they marched like toy soldiers.
On the 18th of February 1977, over 1000 soldiers gathered at Kalakuta, Fela’s abode at No. 14A Agege Motor Raod, Idi-Oro, Mushin.
There are varying reports of what had instigated this visit.
The soldiers claimed that they had come in search of one of Fela’s boys who had fought a Lance Corporal over a traffic violation and then fled into the commune.
After they were refused entry into the compound, the soldiers pulled down the gates and went on a rampage.
They set about chasing and flogging everyone in sight, destroying property, including recording and performing equipment, stashes of recorded music and valuable records.
In a matter of hours, soldiers had ravaged the entire building to the ground. Some of Fela’s wives would allege that they had been raped.
Many would carry the scars of blows till their death. But in the most inhumane of their many competing actions, some of the soldiers climbed up to the second story room where Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, an Amazon if there ever was one, was living.
No one knows what transpired but as Yeni Kuti would later tell, they were in shock when they saw the Lion of Lisabi thrown out of a second-story window.
Members of Fela’s entourage were detained in prison where, for some, the torture continued. Eventually, nearly everyone regained their freedom.
