Thread by @AfroBeatDiary

A thread on Festac '77 & how the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti turned down Thief Olusegun Obasanjo's request to perform in front of over 80,000 guest including foreign dignitaries from around the world.

The aftermath was a revenge visit by 1000 armed soldier to Kalakuta shrine.

Festac '77, also known as the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (the first was in Dakar, 1966), was a major international festival held in Lagos, Nigeria, from 15 January 1977 to 12 February 1977.

The month-long event celebrated African culture and showcased to the world African music, fine art, literature, drama, dance and religion.

Emissaries were continually sent to Fela Kuti but he stood his feet and instead, he play free show at the shrine and welcome foreign...

...guest who had originally came to see Anikulapo perform at the carnival as he was listed among the performing act.

The singular act got Olusegun Obasanjo angry & just 5 days after the end of Festac '77, precisely February 18, 1977, 1000 unknown solders visited & desecrated...

...Kalakuta shrine. Fela Kuti mom, Olufunmilayo Kuti was thrown from a story building & went into to coma from where she never recovered till she died. It was Armageddon! Several properties were destroyed, women raped, over 250 original mastered copy of unreleased songs burnt.

Fela himself was badly injured, he was beaten to pulp and was about to shot before a fellow soldier tell the trigger man not to shoot him that there is no way he would survive. It was where Fela adopted "Anikulapo" meaning "one who has death in his pouch" & cannot be killed.

For the love of music and culture, Fela Kuti still performs for people for free while he enjoys his weed but the aftermath of his recovery comes Zombie - "a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military."

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