Soukous (also known as Lingala and Congo) is a dance music^[1] musical genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa. "Soukous" (a derivative of the French word secousse, "shake"^[2]) was originally the name of a dance popular in the Congos in the late 1960s, an African version of rumba. Although the genre was initially known as rumba (sometimes termed specifically as African rumba), the term "soukous" has come to refer to African rumba and its subsequent developments.

Soukous is called Congo music in West Africa, and Lingala in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – referring to the Lingala language of the region from where it originated. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, where Congolese music is also influential, it is usually referred to as Rumba. In the 1980s and early 1990s, a fast-paced style of soukous known as kwassa kwassa – named after a popular dance, was popular. A style called ndombolo, also named after a dance, is currently popular. Soukous also mixes styles from zouk music.

History[link]

Cuban music has been popular in sub-Saharan Africa since the mid twentieth century. To the Africans, clave-based Cuban popular music sounded both familiar and exotic.^[3] The Encyclopedia of Africa v. 1. states:

"Beginning in the 1940s, Afro-Cubban [son] groups such as Septeto Habanero and Trio Matamoros gained widespread popularity in the Congo region as a result of airplay over Radio Congo Belge, a powerful radio station based in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa DRC). A proliferation of music clubs, recording studios, and concert appearances of Cuban bands in Léopoldville spurred on the Cuban music trend during the late 1940s and 1950s."^[4]

Congolese "rumba"[link]

Congolese bands started doing Cuban covers and singing the lyrics phonetically. Eventually they created their own original Cuban-like compositions, with lyrics sung in French or Lingala, a lingua franca of the western Congo region. The Africans adapted Cuban guajeos to electric guitars, and gave them their own regional flavor. The Congolese called this new music rumba, although it was really based on the son.

The following example is from the Congolese "rumba" "Passi ya boloko" by Franco (Luambo Makiadi) and O.K. Jazz (c. mid-1950s).^[5] The bass is playing a tresillo-based tumbao, typical of son montuno. The rhythm guitar plays all of the offbeats, the exact pattern of the rhythm guitar in Cuban son. According to the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, the lead guitar part "recalls the blue-tinged guitar solos heard in bluegrass and rockabilly music of the 1950s, with its characteristic insistence on the opposition of the major-third and minor-third degrees of the scale."^[6]

"Passi ya boloko" by Franco (c. mid-1950s). From top: lead guitar; rhythm guitar; bass guitar.

Congolese "rumba" eventually evolved into soukous.^[7] The horn guajeos of Cuban popular music were adapted by soukous guitars.^[8] In a densely textured seben section of a soukous song (below), the three interlocking guitar parts are reminiscent of the contrapuntal structure of Cuban music, with its layered guajeos.^[9]

Seben section of a soukous song. From top: solo guitar; mi-solo guitar; accompaniment guitar.

The big bands[link]

Antoine Kolosoy, also known as Papa Wendo, became the first star of African rumba, touring Europe and North America in the 1940s and 1950s with his regular band, Victoria Bakolo Miziki.^[10]

By the 1950s, big bands had become the preferred format, using acoustic bass guitar, multiple electric guitars, conga drums, maracas, scraper, flute or clarinet, saxophones, and trumpet. Grand Kalle et l'African Jazz" (also known as African Jazz) led by Joseph Kabasele Tshamala (Grand Kalle), and OK Jazz, later renamed TPOK Jazz (Tout Puissant Orchestre Kinshasa, meaning "all-powerful Kinshasa band") led by "Franco" (Francois Luambo Makiadi) became the leading bands. One of the musical innovations of Franco's band was the mi-solo, (meanin "half solo") guitarist, playing arpeggio patterns and filling a role "between" the lead and rhythm guitars.^[11]

1960s–1970s[link]

In the 1950s and 1960s, some artists who had performed in the bands of Franco Luambo and Grand Kalle formed their own groups. Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr. Nico Kasanda formed African Fiesta and transformed their music further by fusing Congolese folk music with soul music, as well as Caribbean and Latin beats and instrumentation. They were joined by Papa Wemba and Sam Mangwana, and classics like Afrika Mokili Mobimba made them one of Africa's most prominent bands. Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr Nico Kasanda are considered the pioneers of modern soukous.

While the influence of rumba became stronger in some bands, including Lipua-Lipua, Veve, TP OK Jazz and Bella Bella, younger Congolese musicians looked for ways to reduce the rumba influence and play a faster paced soukous, inspired by rock n roll.^[12] A group of students calling themselves Zaiko Langa Langa came together in 1969. The energy of their music, and the high-fashion sense of the singers and dancers, inspired by founding vocalist Papa Wemba, made them very popular. Pepe Kalle, a protégé of Grand Kalle, created the band Empire Bakuba together with Papy Tex, and they soon became Kinshasa's most popular youth band, equaled only by Zaiko Langa Langa.

Other greats of this period include Koffi Olomide, Tshala Muana and Wenge Musica. Soukous now spread across Africa and became an influence on virtually all the styles of modern African popular music, including highlife, palm-wine music, taarab and makossa.

The spread to East Africa in the 1970s[link]

As political conditions in Zaire, as Congo DRC was known then, deteriorated in the 1970s, some groups made their way to Tanzania and Kenya. By the mid-seventies, several Congolese groups were playing soukous at Kenyan night clubs. The lively cavacha, a dance craze that swept East and Central Africa during the seventies, was popularized through recordings of bands such as Zaiko Langa Langa and Orchestra Shama Shama, influencing Kenyan musicians. This rhythm, played on the snare drum or hi-hat, quickly became a hallmark of the Congolese sound in Nairobi and is frequently used by many of the regional bands. Several of Nairobi's renowned Swahili rumba bands formed around Tanzanian groups like Simba Wanyika and their offshoots, Les Wanyika and Super Wanyika Stars.

In the late 1970s, Virgin records got involved in a couple of projects in Nairobi that produced two acclaimed LPs from the Tanzanian-Congolese group, Orchestra Makassy and the Kenya-based band, Super Mazembe. One of the tracks from this album was the Swahili song Shauri Yako (meaning "it's your problem), which became a hit in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. About this same time, the Nairobi-based Congolese vocalist Samba Mapangala and his band Orchestra Virunga, released the LP Malako, which became one of the pioneering releases of the newly emerging world music scene in Europe. The musical style of the East Africa-based Congolese bands gradually incorporated new elements, including Kenyan benga music, and spawned what is sometimes called the "Swahili sound" or "Congolese sound".

The 1980s and the Paris scene[link]

Soukous became popular in London and Paris in the 1980s. A few more musicians left Kinshasa to work around central and east Africa before settling in either the UK or France. The basic line-up for a soukous band included three or four guitars, bass guitar, drums, brass, vocals, and some of them having over 20 musicians. Lyrics were often in Lingala and occasionally in French. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Parisian studios were used by many soukous stars, and the music became heavily reliant on synthesizers and other electronic instruments. Some artists continued to record for the Congolese market, but others abandoned the demands of the Kinshasa public and set out to pursue new audiences. Some, like Paris-based Papa Wemba maintained two bands, Viva La Musica for soukous, and a group including French session players for international pop.

Kanda Bongo Man, another Paris-based artist, pioneered fast, short tracks suitable for play on dance floors everywhere and popularly known as Kwassa kwassa after the dance moves popularized by his and other artists' music videos. This music appealed to Africans and to new audiences as well. Artists like Diblo Dibala,Jeannot Bel Musumbu, Mbilia Bel, Yondo Sister, Tinderwet, Loketo, Rigo Star, Madilu System, Soukous Stars and veterans like Pepe Kalle and Koffi Olomide followed suit. Soon Paris became home to talented studio musicians who recorded for the African and Caribbean markets and filled out bands for occasional tours.

Ndombolo[link]

The fast soukous music currently dominating dance floors in central, eastern and western Africa is called soukous ndombolo, performed by Dany Engobo, Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabele, Koffi Olomide and groups like Extra Musica and Wenge Musica among others.

The hip-swinging dance to the fast pace of soukous ndombolo has come under criticism amid charges that it is obscene. There have been attempts to ban it in Mali, Cameroon and Kenya. After an attempt to ban it from state radio and television in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000, it became even more popular. In February, 2005 ndombolo music videos in the DR Congo were censored for indecency, and video clips by Koffi Olomide, JB M'Piana and Werrason were banned from the airwaves.^[13][14][15]

See also[link]

• List of Soukous musicians
• Sebene
• Music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Musicians from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Music of Africa

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Gary Stewart (2000). Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-368-9. 

External links[link]

• Soukous at the Open Directory Project
• The Sound of Sunshine: How soukous saved my life
• Rare recording (1961) of rural finger style Soukous guitarist Pierre Gwa with home made guitar

Kanda Bongo Man, born 1955 in Inongo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a prominent soukous musician.^[1]

Kanda Bongo Man become the singer for Orchestra Belle Mambo in 1973, developing a sound influenced by Tabu Ley.^[2] His solo career only started to take off after moving to Paris in 1979, where his music started to incorporate elements of then-vibrant zouk music (originating in the French West Indies). His first solo albums, "Iyole" in 1981 and "Djessy" in 1982, were hits.

He is most famous for the structural changes he implemented to soukous music. The previous approach was to sing several verses and have one guitar solo at the end of the song. Kanda Bongo Man revolutionized soukous by encouraging guitar solos after every verse and even sometimes at the beginning of the song. His form of soukous gave birth to the kwassa kwassa dance rhythm where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.

Like many African rumba and soukous musicians before him, Kanda Bongo Man also had an entourage of musicians. Many of Kanda's musicians later moved on to start their own solo careers. Most notable of these was Diblo Dibala. Known as "Machine Gun", Diblo Dibala was a vital part of Kanda Bongo Man's lineup on several albums, including "Kwasa Kwasa" and "Amour Fou".

Kanda Bongo Man still tours in Europe and the United States. On July, 2005 he performed at the LIVE 8: Africa Calling concert in Cornwall.

Discography[link]

• Iyole (1981)
• Djessy (1982)
• Amour Fou (1984)
• Malinga (1986)
• Lela Lela (1987)
• Sai Liza (1988)
• Kwassa Kwassa (1989)
• Isambe Monie (1990)
• Zing Zong (1991)
• Sango (1992)
• Soukous in Central Park (1993)
• Sweet (1995)
• Welcome to South Africa (1995)
• Francophonix (1999)
• Balobi (2002)
• Swalati (2003)
• (2009)
• Non-Stop Feeling (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Soukous.com Kanda Biography^{[dead link]}
• Official website

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2011)

Diblo Dibala, often known simply as Diblo, is a Congolese soukous musician,^[1] known as "Machine Gun" for his speed and skill on the guitar. He was born in 1954 in Kisangani. He moved to Kinshasa as a child, and aged 15 won a talent competition which led to him playing guitar in Franco's TPOK band. Dibala remained with the group for only a short period, going on to play with Vox Africa, Orchestra Bella Mambo and Bella Bella, in which band he first played with Kanda Bongo Man.

In 1979, he moved to Brussels, and in 1981 he joined Kanda Bongo Man's band in Paris. Their first album, Iyole (1981), was a success. Diblo became a sought after session guitarist, working with Pepe Kalle and many other soukous musicians.

In the mid 1980s, he formed his own band, Loketo (meaning 'hips'), with singer Aurlus Mabele. A few years later, that band broke up, and in 1990 he formed a new group, Matchatcha, which is still active after a number of personnel changes.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Diblo at AfricanMusic.org
• Diblo at AfricaSounds.com

This biographical article about a person from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article on an African musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e