1974

On 30 April, police raid Fela’s house looking for weed. Possession is punishable by up to ten years in jail and cultivation by death. Failing to find any (!) they raid again a week later. This time they try to plant a joint on Fela but he manages to grab it and swallow it. He is taken to Alagbon Close police headquarters and locked in a communal cell the prisoners jokingly call Kalakuta Republic (“kalakuta” is Swahili for “rascal”). Fela is kept in the cell for three days while the police wait for evidence to drop into his slop bucket. But his cellmates engineer a 'feces switch' and Fela is pronounced innocent. On his release he renames his house Kalakuta Republic. Fela tells the story on the albums Alagbon Close (released in 1974) and Expensive Shit (released in 1975). Alagbon Close is the first of Fela’s albums with a sleeve designed by Ghariokwu Lemi, whose work becomes an integral part of the Afrobeat message.

On 23 November, Kalakuta is raided by a much larger body of police. Fela tells the story of the attack on the album Kalakuta Show (released in 1975). In December, Fela co-produces and plays on albums recorded live at the Shrine by the Ghanaian bands Hedzoleh Soundz and Basa-Basa Soundz, who are managed by Fela’s business associate, the Accra club owner and tour booker Faisal Helwani.