A new stage threatens the already rich history of Congolese rumba: within a few months, Unesco will examine the file jointly submitted by the authorities in two Congos so that this popular African music becomes part of humanity’s intangible heritage and joins reggae among others. or tango. This candidacy, which was drafted during the very serious international colloquium on rumba in March 2020, has not only a symbolic dimension; it also reflects the awareness of a cultural richness to be valued, defended and protected, described as “an element that is very representative of the identity of the Congolese people”.
A link between the two states and their capitals Kinshasa and Brazzaville, which meet on each bank of the Congo River, the Congolese rumba, has an impact that goes beyond the musical framework. Impossible to disconnect it from the dances that come with it and constantly renew itself, or from its clothing component, which is worn to its paroxysm by the representatives of Sape (Society of ambianceurs and elegant people) and its prince, the singer Papa Wemba. It also blends into the graphic arts, as highlighted by the Beauté Congo exhibition 2015 at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Somewhere between lifestyle and aesthetics.
Its international influence, and first and foremost on the scale of the continent, is due in part to extra-artistic factors that favored its development from the first part of the 20th century. “We must thank all these foreigners who have started production companies here,” assures Septuagan singer Bumba Massa, referring to the founders of the various labels that created ex nihilo the local record industry in Léopoldville, the former name Kinshasa from the time of Belgian colonization – with a structured distribution network throughout the country!
Rumba birth certificate
The recording studios that appeared in the aftermath of World War II, with the technology of the time, are working at an intense pace: after almost ten years of activity, more than 2,000 references are listed at 78 rpm. On the Ngoma catalog, run by the Greek trader Jeronimidis! With Marie-Louise, by Wendo Kolosoy and Henri Bowane, he had a success in the late 1940s that was considered Rumba’s almost official birth certificate.
If these pioneers play an important role, the musical fermentation they are is an expression of a process that began in the previous decade. In Brazzaville, in the French colony, the Congo Rumba Orchestra, led by a Caribbean musician or the group Victoria Brazza by Paul Kamba, participates in this artistic emulation, which is the result of a favorable context. The development of the colonies promotes trade and at the same time the mixture of populations, who bring their instruments (guitar, accordion …), their repertoires; budding urbanization is transforming everyday life.
The radio stations are displayed. In Léopoldville, loudspeakers are installed on certain streets, in the market … Loudspeakers read the administration’s press releases there, but music is present from the beginning and it occupies an increasingly important part of the programs. When the daily transmission time increases. “In the mid-1950s, the interactive dimension of programming reinforced the impression, both Europeans and Congolese, that colonial radio had gone to African listeners. In fact, responding as closely as possible to Congolese tastes and their permission to take ownership of” their radio “, RCBA [Radio Congo belge pour Africains, NDR] had originally created the program “Disques requested by listeners”, recalls the academic Charlotte Grabli in her article “The city of the listener: radio, Congolese rumba and the right to the city in the native city of Léopoldville (1949 -1960)” Published 2019 in Cahiers d’études africaines.
Cuban music
Among these records is local production, but also and above all a series of 78 revolutions per minute called GV, marketed by La Voix de son maître for tropical markets: mostly Cuban music, which The Peanut Vendor / El Manisero has meanwhile become a classic and qualified as “rumba fox-trot” on the record puck.
These songs are very popular in the Congolese tropics, where their kinship with local music is obvious, explained by slavery as the link often made between the blues of Mali and the Mississippi. Could not his name be derived from the word nkumba, which in Kikongo means “navel”? Yet it is by reusing it, by integrating sounds picked up here and there, that the artists from Léo and Brazza draw the contours of Congolese rumba.
The electrification of the instruments, from 1953 and the song Mama é, brings about a first major development. That year also saw the debut of African jazz by Joseph Kabasele, known as Grand Kallé, which became the flagship of Rumba as it gave another visibility.
It follows decolonization with the timeless Independance Cha Cha, which crosses borders. Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, guitarist Dr. Nico, singer Tabu Ley Rochereau imagined himself in the ranks of what we used to call the first room primary school, as it trained young instrumentalists and singers.
Franco, the greatest
The second school, in chronological order, is that of Franco, “the man who to this day passes for the greatest guitarist and composer of Congolese rumba and who in a less Anglo-centered music history would have his place with BB King, Chuck Berry and Little Richard “, writes David Van Reybrouck in his remarkable book Congo, une histoire, Prix Médicis Essay 2012.
OK Jazz, created in 1956, then renamed TP OK Jazz, is a company that is thriving as it is productive, at the beginning of another talent pool until its boss disappeared in 1989. On the Brazzaville side, the capital Bantus played a similar role in the 1960s . On both sides of the river, examples of success whet some appetite, so that orchestras come and go at a rapid pace between true-false rivalries and opportunities.
This permanent turnover has even become one of the hallmarks of the small world of Congolese rumba, likely to take surprising proportions: when singer Sam Mangwana joined OK Jazz after working for the competition, namely the African Fiesta du “Seigneur” Taboo Ley (first African singer-songwriter at Olympia 1970), the case is brought to the office of the Minister of Culture!
At the musical level, new mutations intervene during the 1970s: the sebene, instrumental part on which the tempo accelerates, activated by the guitarists, takes a central function in the pieces that are extended by a few minutes; atalakus vocal animations provide a different form of energy; the brass disappears and percussion is heard more. Representative of this trend, Zaïko Langa Langa, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2019, is the third Congolese space base school.
Soukouset ndombolo
Soukous era begins, a variant of rumba where excellent Pepe Kalle, Aurlus Mabele or Papa Wemba. This in turn made his group Viva La Musica a music academy. In the 1980s and 1990s, it followed the advent of electronic drums and keyboards that still changed the situation and resulted in ndombolo, another variant of rumba, at the turn of the millennium, which opened the door to Werrason, JB Mpiana and Barbara Kanam, one of the rare women who has excelled in Congolese music with Mbilia Bel, Tshala Muana and Abeti Masikini.
At the microphone, a phenomenon invades the songs: the dedications or libangs, an exercise of name-dropping performed in exchange for compensation for the one whose last name is mentioned. In this area, the very popular Koffi Olomide, cantors of romantic rumba, has everything like a master. And his Quartier Latin Orchestra, which he sold in 2000 at the Palais omnisports de Bercy in Paris in front of almost 18,000 spectators, has acquired two of the most accomplished artists in Kinshasa for more than a decade: Fally Ipupa and Ferré Gola, who have modernized rumba as their seniors with current urban sounds, but have also multiplied the acoustic live performances since 2020, without hesitation interpreting their songs to the sound of their only guitars.
“Music must evolve. Each generation imagines a different way of making rumba. All these changes are fads that disappear after a while. And we always return to their origins”, philosopher Bumba Massa, who has passed these periods and driven a return to sources since 1990 with the group Kékélé and its personal album. Knowing how to regenerate is also synonymous with creative freedom. Because with Congolese rumba there are no boundaries.
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