As a student at the University of Lagos many decades ago, Fela's club, The Shrine, at Ikeja, Lagos, was a favourite haunt for me and several others like myself. I visited the Shrine many times. Once, standing close to the front of the crowd at the Shrine I was wearing a t-shirt with PUBLIC ENEMY boldly emblazoned on the front, when from the stage Fela himself picked me out from the crowd and made some sharp remark about my t-shirt, while pointing at me, causing the crowd to cheer. I was awestruck, lost in the moment and don't even remember exactly what he said, but this was the only personal interaction I ever had with him and I cherish that moment eternally.
"Upside Down and Zombie, both released in 1976, were made at the midpoint of an extraordinary three-year purple period during which Fela recorded 24 albums of new material. Upside Down was written by Fela to portray a worldly travelled African who searches the dictionary and finds the definition of "upside down" - a perfect description of the African situation. Upside Down is unusual in that it includes a second lead vocalist, Fela’s American friend Sandra Izsadore. Izsadore was a Black rights activist and introduced him to the writings of revolutionary thinkers such as Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton and more, who inspired Fela’s philosophy of Blackism." World of Echo
