Zombies (which originally rooted in West African spiritual folklore)
Nigeria had emerged from a devastating internal conflict known as the Nigerian Civil War (or the Biafran War) (1967–1970) resulted in over two million of deaths (Albino Boy, Biafra (1969)).
The nation was controlled by military.
On February 1976, General Murtala Mohammed, was assassinated in a violent, failed coup attempt led by disgruntled army officers. Olusegun Obasanjo, his deputy, took over the regime.
Extremely paranoid about another coup or public uprising, Obasanjo’s administration clamped down on the population, deploying soldiers to the streets—and even into high schools—to maintain “discipline” and power.
The military functioned like an occupying army within its own borders.
Fela Kuti made the song as an act of protest of the soldier’s blind obedience.
While briefly jailed in 1974 for marijuana possession, Fela discovered his cell was nicknamed “Kalakuta” (which translates from Swahili to “rascal” or “rogue house”). Upon his release, he officially named his compound to signify a refuge for the outcasts and rebels of society.
The Kalakuta Republic was a self-declared, communal sovereign state founded by Fela Kuti in 1970 in a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria. It served as a recording studio, a free health clinic, a cultural commune, and a symbol of anti-government resistance.
Fela Kuti completely rejected the authority of the corrupt Nigerian military regime. To make it official, he built a barbed-wire fence around the large property and declared it entirely independent from the Federal Republic of Nigeria
At the time, Nigeria was ruled by a highly oppressive military dictatorship. Fela Kuti used his lyrics to accuse government soldiers of completely losing their humanity and free will, arguing they had been brainwashed into mindless robots who blindly executed the destructive orders of their superiors.
The song became an immediate, massive anthem across Nigeria. Everyday citizens began mockingly chanting “Zombie!” whenever they saw soldiers patrolling the streets, which deeply humiliated and enraged the ruling military junta.
On February 18, 1977, nearly 1,000 armed soldiers raided and destroyed the “Kalakuta Republic,” a communal compound Fela had established in Lagos. During the brutal assault, soldiers burned down his recording studio, destroyed his master tapes, severely beat Fela, and threw his 77-year-old mother (the pioneering feminist activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti) out of a second-story window. She later died from her injuries.
Fela famously retaliated by marching his mother’s coffin directly to the gates of the presidential barracks in a defiant act of protest.