The late musician and political activist, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, called Kalakuta Republic home. The community, which is situated at No. Six Agege Motor Road. Fela’s recording studio, nightclub, and a private clinic run by his younger brother Beko Ransome-Kuti were all located in Moshalashi, Lagos. Fela’s family and bandmates were also residing in the two-story yellow building.
The name “Kalakuta” was a parody of the Calcutta prison in India, where Fela served a sentence for possessing marijuana in 1974. Many people believed that Fela’s possession of marijuana was motivated by political reasons. Because of his hatred for the then-military government, which he thought had ruled Nigerians dishonestly, Fela declared Kalakuta an independent republic from Nigeria. The military government did not appreciate having a republic within a republic.
Outside the Kalakuta Republic, military personnel.
When Fela released the top-charting song “Zombie,” which made fun of Nigerian soldiers, his relationship with the military government deteriorated. The song received widespread attention, which enraged Olusegun Obasanjo’s military regime. Zombies won’t move unless you direct them to, according to a song line. E. , a zombie (fool) won’t move unless directed to.
On a fateful day, on February 18, 1977, two of Fela’s boys got into a heated argument with a military police officer over driving one of Fela’s cars without a front license plate. This ended their already tense relationship. Segun Adams and Segun Ademola, two of Fela’s boys, argued that the officer could not impound the car because it had a license plate at the back.
As the argument heated up, Fela’s boys got in their car and left. They were not allowed entry after some military personnel pursued them to the Kalakuta Republic. The military personnel became enraged by this and set fire to the generator that supplied power to Kalakuta Republic as well as cutting its electric fence before calling for reinforcements to fully invade the commune.
A thousand soldiers with machine guns followed shortly after. The soldiers brutally beat everyone inside Kalakuta Republic, including Fela and his brother, causing a stampede. Beko, Fela’s brother, asserted that they were almost killed in the assault. They assaulted and beat women.
Mother of Fela, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was assaulted and thrown from an upper floor window. The wounds she received during the assault ultimately caused her death. The soldiers set fire to the commune, which quickly burned to the ground.
Several innocent bystanders who ran past the flames with their arms straight in the air in a gesture of surrender but were clubbed anyhow by inebriated, red-eyed soldiers also ended up in the hospital. Millions of Naira worth of properties were destroyed. Fela and his family had a truly terrible day. The attack on the Kalakuta Republic was widely believed to be the culmination of Fela’s dispute with the military government.
But despite their assault, the Kutis refused to let the military leave. They sued the Nigerian military for N25 million. Tunji Braithwaite, the Kutis’ attorney, did an excellent job handling the case but ultimately lost to the military government on the grounds that the soldiers who attacked the Kalakuta Republic were unidentified soldiers. Consequently, the case was dropped!
Furious Fela carried a replica of his mother’s coffin to the Dodan military barracks and left it there after later losing his mother as a result of the attack. In 1980, he later issued a song titled “Coffin for Head of State,” in which he described the attack on Kalakuta and the passing of his mother.
The Kutis’ Certificate of Occupancy of the commune was revoked by Olusegun Obasanjo’s military government. A school bearing Fela’s original surname, Ransome-Kuti Memorial Grammar School, now stands where the Kalakuta Republic was once located.