Fela Kuti, Zombie | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 127th edition of Throwback Vibez (2025), we recollect and reflect on “Zombie” by Nigerian Afrobeat musician extraordinaire, Fela Kuti. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 127^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2025), we recollect and reflect on “Zombie” performed by Fela Kuti.

“Joro, jara, joro, zombie wey na one way.” Word. Nigerian Afrobeat progenitor Fela Kuti (1938 – 1997) released a surefire masterpiece with “Zombie”.  The 12 ½ minute song is the opener on Kuti’s 1976 album, Zombie. Written and produced by Kuti and performed with his band, Africa ’70,  “Zombie” features an extended instrumental intro featuring marvelous guitar riffs, sick percussion, and an active bass line. Kuti performs a bluesy, colorful, gritty saxophone solo for the ages. When all the horns play, they are assertive, aggressive, and turned up to the nth degree.  The articulation is on point.  A dazzling trumpet solo arrives around the 3:40 mark. The first vocals don’t appear until the 5:20 mark. 

“Zombie” features repetitive lyrics, performed in a call-and-response style.  These repetitive lyrics aren’t empty or for nought, but rather, thought-provoking, in the spirit of protest. Two notable definitions of zombie include a will-less and speechless human … held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated, and a person held to resemble the so-called walking dead. Dead is the key word. Zombie is used metaphorically; it’s giving Kadavergehorsam. In “Zombie,” Kuti criticizes the Nigerian military. In the first verse, he sings, “Zombie o, zombie (Zombie o, zombie) /… Zombie no go go, unless you tell am to go (Zombie) / Zombie no go stop, unless you tell am to stop.” The soldiers follow their orders relentlessly without dissent or protest. “Tell them to go straight, na joro, jara, joro / No break, no gear, no sense, joro, jara, joro,” he asserts in the second verse, adding, “Go and kill! (Joro, jaro, joro) / Go and die! (Joro, jaro, joro) / Go and quench! (Joro, jaro, joro) / Put am for reverse! (Joro, jaro, joro).” As with any song, the chorus is a big deal, with repetition of the titular word continuing by the (response):  

“Attention! Quick march! (Zombie)
Slow march! Left turn! (Zombie)
Right turn! About turn! (Zombie)
Double up! Salute! (Zombie)
Open your hat! Stand at ease! (Zombie)
Fall in! Fall out! (Zombie)
Fall down! Get ready! (Zombie).”

Repetitive those lyrics are, they are a key part of “Zombie.” Distinct synthesizer ostinatos appear at 9:16.  The vocal outro appears before the 10-minute mark, uttering the most important word of the song, “zombie.” Kuti delivers an expressive, electrifying, and playful saxophone solo, followed by dramatic horns that conclude this juggernaut. “Zombie” is phenomenal.  It is one of the most powerful protest songs of all time, and its scathing review of the military didn’t go unnoticed… his Kalakuta Republic commune was attacked, and his mother was killed.