50 years on, Fela’s legendary ‘Zombie’ album still resonates in Nigeria

By Ope Adetayo

When in 1976 teenager Yunusa Yau and his friends grew tired of Nigerian soldiers’ high-handedness in their school, they turned to a satirical song — “Zombie,” by Fela Kuti, the title track of his album released that year.

By then, the military had been in power for a decade, following a coup. A brutal civil war killed at least three million people, rocking the fledgling democracy of the resource-rich nation after independence from Britain in 1960.

The military ruler, Olusegun Obasanjo, had sent soldiers to high schools across the country to enforce discipline, a measure of how successive juntas ruled the country.

Fela was constantly sparring with the authorities, through open-air sessions of searing commentary at his clubhouse, subversive lyrics and confrontation with officers.

But with the release of “Zombie,” the gloves were off.

“Zombie no go turn, unless you tell ’em to turn (Zombie) / Zombie no go think,