Zombie

Lemi Ghariokwu, who designed the sleeve, traced it to 1976, when the military government ordered soldiers to horsewhip erring drivers and they did so, in his words, "with a fervour reminiscent of zombies". Fela, harassed himself, wrote the song. Ghariokwu said even soldiers from the nearby Albati Barracks loved the rhythm, while dancers used its reprise of the army bugle call to mock men they both feared and despised.

Over ostinato guitar, interlocking bass and horns, the voice does not enter until about five minutes in, mostly in Pidgin. A later passage mimics a parade-ground drill, each command answered with a taunt by the women singers, and it ends with a reprise and a saxophone coda. Jad Abumrad noted that, unlike most Fela songs, it does not build slowly but starts at full speed.

Anthem and aftermath

Civilians across Nigeria and its neighbours took it up. It was banned from the airwaves, people were reported arrested for playing it in public, and in 1976 schoolboys turned it on soldiers sent into their schools. Fela played it on saxophone from the roof of Kalakuta before the soldiers attacked on 18 February 1977, though how far the song provoked the raid is debated. A riot during Zombie at an Accra concert in 1978 got him banned from Ghana.

Femi and Seun Kuti have performed it, it is in the second act of Fela!, and Beyonce's band played it in a dance break at Coachella in 2018. The Art Ensemble of Chicago covered it in 1987, and Wizkid used its vocal refrain in Joro in 2019. The upload in the hypersongs web is the album recording, from the estate's official channel.