Why Fela Kutiâs Afrobeat is still shaking the planet
A new BBC documentary pays tribute to the remarkable life of Fela Kuti, the Nigerian musical rebel who gave birth to Afrobeat. Kevin EG Perry talks to Kutiâs son Femi and grandson Made about their mission to continue the familyâs radical legacy.
On 18 February 1977 a thousand soldiers from the Nigerian army stormed a communal compound in Lagos that outlaw bandleader Fela Kuti had declared his own independent state: the Kalakuta Republic. They brutally beat Kuti, burned his home and studio to the ground and threw his mother Funmilayo from a second floor window, injuring her so severely that she died within weeks. What sparked all this carnage? A song called âZombieâ.