{"id":3644,"date":"2021-12-31T23:25:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T05:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2021-12-31T23:39:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T05:39:11","slug":"hof-kuti-zombie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/hof-kuti-zombie\/","title":{"rendered":"Fela Kuti & Afrika 70’s ‘Zombie’ (1977)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Protest songs, those associated with a movement for social change, have existed at least since the psalms of grassroots Protestant religious revival movements in the United States. Two of the best-known protest songs – Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cMasters of War\u201d and Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u201cWhat\u2019s Going On\u201d- were by Americans. It is easy to fall into the trap of believing protest music is a quintessentially American art form. But one of the greatest protest albums of all time, Fela Kuti & Afrika 70\u2019s Zombie<\/em> (Coconut, 1977), comes from another continent entirely; Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formerly a British colony, by November of 1960,\u00a0 newly independent Nigeria enacted its own republican form of government. This system, however, was chaotic as there were sharp political and cultural divides among the nation\u2019s dominant ethnic groups: the Hausa in the north, the Igbo in the east, and the Yoruba in the west. By 1966, these tensions led to a coup by Igbo soldiers, resulting in the assassination of various military and political figures, including the Prime Minister. But the coup plotters struggled to form a central government, and Senate President Nwafor Orizu handed control to General Johnson Agulyi-Ironsi and the Nigerian Army. Under Aguiyi-Irons, the First Republic terminated, a military dictatorship strengthened its grasp, and the anti-Igbo pogrom began. The pogrom would result in the genocide of between 8,000 and 30,000 Igbos. Aguiyi-Irons was assassinated after six months in office and divisions just continued to deepen. By 1967, the Eastern part of the country declared independence and renamed itself the Republic of Biafra. The resulting Nigerian Civil War lasted 30 months and was one of the deadliest wars in modern history. Historians estimate casualties to be somewhere between one and three million. After crushing the Biafra rebellion, Nigeria experienced an oil boom. Despite the drastic growth in revenue, the Nigerian government did little to improve the living standards of the population at large. 1975 and 1976 brought two more coups. Things were out of control, oppressive and harsh for almost all Nigerians outside of a handful of elites.<\/p>\n\n\n

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