4 September 1984: The day Fela Kuti was arrested.
Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti was the Nigerian musician best known for his pioneering work on Afrobeat, a genre that combined West African music with jazz and funk rhythms. More than just a musician though, his life was also defined by the political activism that came hand in hand with his music.
Take one of his most famous songs. ‘Zombie’, Kuti’s 1976 album and its titular song were explicitly critical of the unthinking ways the Nigerian military behaved following…
