Fela Kuti - Everything Scatter - LP [ Record ]

The lyric of "Everything Scatter" portrays Nigeria’s conflicted society through metaphor and microcosm: an argument supposedly taking place among the passengers on a bus going past Kalakuta Republic. One of the passengers voices the military regime’s accusation that Fela and his followers are political troublemakers, prostitutes, weed smokers and hooligans. Another person defends Fela, saying it is better to be a troublemaker than a sell-out. The rest of the passengers take sides and pandemonium ensues, causing the driver to take the bus to a police station. “Uniform start to yab,” sings Fela, “(saying) bring me the Fela people, make I lock am and charge am for court, before I shut am big mouth for am, before I hand am to mosquito.” Fela’s use of “mosquito” refers to the malarial swamps close to which some Nigerian prisons were sited and also to that name being used to describe policemen.