‘Fela used the cover of Ikoyi Blindness to announce his change of middle name from Ransome, which he now considered a slave name, to Anikulapo, which means ‘he who carries death in his pouch.’ The front cover shows Ransome crossed out and Anikulapo added above it.
‘The cover also announced the Africanisation of Africa 70’s name, changing it to Afrika 70. In the title track, Fela draws attention to the economic chasm separating the haves and have-nots of Nigerian society, contrasting the get-rich-at-all-costs, self-obsessed residents of the prosperous Lagos suburb Ikoyi with the more community-minded, poor inhabitants of the Mushin, Maroko, Ajegunle and Somolu neighbourhoods.
‘On the flip, Slap Me Make I Get Money) rails against the upsurge in police and military personnel assaults on people in the streets of mid-seventies Lagos. Motorists were commonly pulled out of their vehicles and given a whipping for minor traffic offences; police and soldiers were getting away with flagrant corruption in broad daylight.’