In February 1977, Fela Kuti released "Zombie," a song mocking the Nigerian military as mindless. A thousand soldiers responded by storming his Lagos commune, the Kalakuta Republic. They beat the residents, burned the compound to the ground, and threw Fela's 77-year-old mother out of a second-floor window. She died of her injuries a year later. Fela delivered a replica of her coffin to the military barracks, then recorded an album called "Coffin for Head of State." The government's official explanation for the raid was that it had been carried out by "unknown soldiers."