Kalakuta Republic was the name musician and political activist

Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...

gave to the communal

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...

that housed his family, band members, and recording studio. Located at 14 Agege Motor Road, Idi-Oro,

Mushin, Lagos Mushin is a Local Government Area in Lagos, Nigeria. It is located 10 km north of the city core, adjacent to the main road to Ikeja, and is largely a congested residential area with inadequate sanitation and low-quality housing. It had ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, it had a free health clinic and a recording facility. Fela declared it independent from the state ruled by the

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

after he returned from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1970. The compound burned to the ground on February 18, 1977, after an assault by a thousand armed soldiers. "Kalakuta" was a mockery of a prison cell named "Calcutta" that Fela inhabited. The name was originally derived from the infamous

Black Hole of Calcutta The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in Fort William, West Bengal, Fort William, Calcutta, measuring , in which troops of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawabs of Bengal, Nawab of Bengal, held British Prisoner of war, prisoners of war on the night ...

dungeon in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Before the attack on Fela's home, he made a record called ''

Zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

'', about the Nigerian military regime. In the song, soldiers are called

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

s for obeying orders blindly. One of the lines of the song, in

West African Pidgin English West African Pidgin English, also known as Guinea Coast Creole English, is a West African pidgin language lexified by English and local African languages. It originated as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders du ...

, says, "Zombie no go walk unless you tell am to walk". Fela was frustrated with the Nigerian army's rank and file that allowed corruption and

intimidation Intimidation is a behaviour and legal wrong which usually involves deterring or coercing an individual by threat of violence. It is in various jurisdictions a crime and a civil wrong (tort). Intimidation is similar to menacing, coercion, terro ...

of their communities by the corrupt and rich top brass, while blindly following orders to intimidate Nigerians. The song was popular in Nigeria, upsetting then-Head of State General

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...

. The military was unhappy with Fela's constant criticism and said it was unseemly to have a republic within a republic. Nigerian tabloids carried lurid but unverified tales of girls lured to the compound and corrupted by Fela's band members. During the attack at the Kalakuta Republic by the

Nigerian Armed Forces The Nigerian Armed Forces (NAF) are the Military, military forces of Nigeria. The forces consist of three service branches: the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, and Nigerian Air Force. The President of Nigeria functions as the commander-in-chief of ...

, Fela's mother Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas was thrown from a window of the second floor. She died after being in a coma for about eight weeks. Fela failed in his initial plan to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Kalakuta Republic sacking by marrying 27 of his back-up singers in a mass wedding ceremony at the office of his lawyer, Tunji Braithwaite. According to Fela, in Yoruba tradition, when a woman was in danger of being left destitute, it was the duty of a man in her community to marry her as a means of offering protection. Fela said he would not have marital relationships with all of the women as the tabloids suggested, but had married them as they could not find employment after the recording studio had been burnt down. Two days later, on February 20, 1978, he secretly married the 27 women popularly known as "Queens" at the defunct Parisona Hotel along Ikorodu Road in Lagos. In 2012,

Babatunde Fashola Babatunde Raji Fashola ( ; born 28 June 1963) is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who served as the federal minister of Works and Housing of Nigeria from 2019 to 2023. He was the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (Nigeria), minister of Pow ...

, the Governor of Lagos, began an initiative to rebuild the compound and turn it into a museum. The Kalakuta Republic Museum officially opened on October 15, 2012, in commemoration of Fela's 74th birthday. It contains displays of Fela's clothing, instruments and artwork, as well as a restaurant and hotel.

References

See also