Femi Kuti, one of the sons of late legendary Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti has recounted how soldiers burnt down his dad’s house in 1977.
Sharing a cover page of The PUNCH from 45 years ago in an Instagram post on Friday, he captioned the post; “TODAY IN HISTORY: 18TH FEBRUARY 1977: GOVERNMENT BURNT FELA’S HOUSE. WE SHALL NEVER FORGET. #YeniAKuti #bigbirdkuti #madekuti.
Speaking on how soldiers threw his grandmother, Madam Funmilayo Ransome Kuti out of the window, he said; “On that day, Fela’s mother, our grandma was thrown out of the window from the first floor, she died a year later from injuries, she sustained and never recovered from”.
According to reports, in 1977, Fela released “Zombie”, a mordant, unsparing attack on the Nigerian military and the culture that the institution had built and inculcated into its soldiers.
Using the zombie as a metaphor, Fela described Nigerian soldiers as a bunch of robots with no spine, waiting on orders from above as they marched like toy soldiers.
On the 18th of February 1977, over 1,000 soldiers gathered at Kalakuta, Fela’s abode at No. 14A Agege Motor Raod, Idi-Oro, Mushin.
The soldiers claimed that they had come in search of one of Fela’s boys who had fought a Lance Corporal over a traffic violation and then fled into the commune.
After they were refused entry into the compound, the soldiers pulled down the gates and went on a rampage.
They set about chasing and flogging everyone in sight, destroying property, including recording and performing equipment, stashes of recorded music and valuable records.
In a matter of hours, soldiers had ravaged the entire building to the ground. Some of Fela’s wives would allege that they had been raped.
Many would carry the scars of blows till their death. But in the most inhumane of their many competing actions, some of the soldiers climbed up to the second-storey room where Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, an Amazon if there ever was one, was living.
No one knows what transpired but as Yeni Kuti would later tell, they were in shock when they saw the Lion of Lisabi thrown out of a second-storey window.
Members of Fela’s entourage were detained in prison where, for some, the torture continued.
Eventually, nearly everyone regained their freedom.
