Songs as archives

This article explores the historical threads linking two significant tragedies in Nigeria’s history: the ‘Kalakuta Inferno’ of 1977 and the ‘Lekki Massacre’ of 2020. Examining popular music as a vital repository of historical narratives demonstrates how events are historicized, linked, memorialized, and contested through songs. The Kalakuta Inferno refers to the violent attack by the Nigerian military on the late Nigerian musician and activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Kalakuta Republic commune, while the Lekki Massacre describes the deadly assault by Nigerian soldiers on peaceful demonstrators at the Lekki Toll Gate during the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality. This article confronts the divergent narratives of ‘what happened’ versus ‘what was said to have happened’ by examining reports and commentaries about the events and Fela Kuti’s songs—‘Sorrow, Tears and Blood’ and ‘Unknown Soldier’—which were composed in response to the Kalakuta attack. It highlights how Fela’s songs reflect, reaffirm, and relive painful histories of state-sponsored violence while embedding complex, multilayered meanings within the broader sociopolitical landscape of Nigeria that resonate far beyond its borders. ‘Sorrow, Tears and Blood’ (1977) and ‘Unknown Soldier’ (1979) gained contemporary relevance on social media and the Nigerian consciousness after the massacre, serving as Fela’s posthumous commentary and a conceptual framework for understanding the 2020 event within Nigeria’s histories of state-sponsored violence.