1981

In February, Fela invites the Ghanaian magician and healer, Professor Kwaku Addaie (aka Professor Hindu) to Lagos, and names him as his spiritual adviser. Fela renames Afrika 70 as Egypt 80. Fela and Egypt 80 tour Europe during the spring. In December, Fela is charged with taking part in an armed robbery in Ikeja, Lagos. The charge is absurd and Fela’s lawyer gets it dismissed, but not before Fela is beaten by the police – so severely that years later he says that, of all the many times he was beaten, this was only occasion when he actually feared for his life.

Fela releases Coffin For Head Of State, the album which recounts the story of his 1979 march on outgoing Nigerian head of state General Obasanjo’s headquarters, calling out Obasanjo’s responsibility for the death of Fela’s mother following the army’s 1977 attack on Kalakuta Republic.