Figure 2.15. Koffi Olomide is one of the most famous Congolese soukous stars. This video was played every day several times in our local restaurant bar in Kinondoni. To this day prominent and active, Koffi is deeply loved especially by people over 40 in Tanzania, even though he sings mostly in Lingala and French
Figure 2.13. Samba Mapangala was one of the Congolese soukous artists that emigrated to Kenya for better prospects for a music career. His song "Vunja Mifupa" is sung in Swahili and French. Hear the sebene part starting 3:18.
CONGOLESE RUMBA & SOUKOUS
Congolese rumba or simply rumba is a style of music that derived from Cuban son and developed in the Congos and later spread all around the continent. Even though rumba is originally the term for another Cuban music style, it was used to market son music internationally and soon became a definitive term for all Cuban and Latin music in the Congos (Stewart, 2000, p. 20-21). From Cuban influences of mostly son, but also salsa, merengue, and biguine, Congolese musicians created their own guitar-driven Congo rumba that become very popular around the '50s and '60s. The household names of the golden age of Congolese rumba include artists like Franco Luambo and Le Grand Kallé. Popularity was so intense, that the music crossed borders and become one of the most prominent influences of popular music in the whole of Africa, especially in the East. ’70s and ’80s saw the rise of many new artists like Papa Wemba, Kanda Bongo Man and Koffi Olomide, and the style of soukous. Soukous is sometimes used synonymously with Congolese rumba, but generally, it refers to the newer faster rumba-rooted music from the Congo. The story of Congolese rumba and soukous has been demonstrated extensively by Gary Stewart in his book Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos (2000). In the neighboring countries of Kenya and Tanzania, artists and bands performing similar kind of music started to emerge, some of them because of migrating Congolese musicians. The most prominent ones include Marijani Rajab, Simba Wanyika (later Les Wanyika and Super Wanyika Stars), Samba Mapangala, Shirati Jazz, Morogoro Jazz Band, Mbaraka Mwinshehe, Them Mushrooms, and Remmy Ongala to name a few. Congolese pop music influenced local styles like Benga of the Luo people in Kenya and later forms of taarab of the Swahili coast and Zanzibar. (on benga, see Barz, 2001; on taarab, see Askew, 2002).
The influence of Congolese rumba in Kifimbo’s music is most clear in the songs that have a Sebene part ("Nataka Kucheza", "Money Money Pesa"). Sebene is a bridge part in Congolese rhumba and soukous with a certain rhythm where two or more guitars take the lead improvising on a certain repetitive theme. Sebene is intense, and as a sound very characteristic for Congolese rumba and soukous (Christgau, 2001).
OTHER AFRICAN INFLUENCES
Other African influences, like West African afrobeat and high-life can be heard in the present-day Tanzanian afro-fusion also. Drummer of Kifimbo’s band, Kikombe mentioned African influences other than Tanzanian in our conversation about the style of music at hand. Especially he mentioned West African music and said that he is quite fond of kora, the West African string instrument. He also explained the effortlessness of fusing different African music styles stating simply ”...you know, we all are Africa" (Membe, Yahaya, Pelkonen, 2019). This attitude of hybridity seems to be quite instinctive for the afro-fusion musicians in Dar es Salaam. All kinds of elements and rhythms considered broadly African are effortlessly fused. Influences from outside of Africa are common as well. These include styles like blues, funk, rock, hip hop, and (as in Kifimbo’s case most importantly) reggae, which will be the subject of the next section.
This kind of pluralism I felt in Tanzania in all things. Coming from the small northern relatively very homogenous country, the endless variation in everything is confusing and quite fascinating. While in Finland we have three languages, five million people, a few different animals and a taste in design that relies on simple forms and a restrained amount of colors, Tanzania has 122 languages, 55 million people, an endless amount of different animals and insects and hyper colorful fashion and design of most complex detail. Maybe hybridity is easier to understand for people from a region with such diversity. Then again the variation in detail is very common in music can be found in all prominent styles, not least in rock music with all its subgenres, predecessors, and derivatives. In the African multilingual and multitribal cultural context, it is easy to see why so many styles and genre names did develop, especially from the point of view of politics of nations that had recently gained independence. Music is an important part of building identity (Garfias, 2004, p. 18) and so it has probably been very important in building the national spirit. An interesting comparison is that in the same period, the 1960s while Latin influences and guitar incited many new genres to emerge in Africa, rock’n’roll and guitar were doing the same thing in Europe, but instead of emphasizing the indigenization of the new style in their homeland, the young people in Europe, living in a long time independent countries and probably bored of the national ethos, wanted to identify with the American/global culture of rock’n’roll (Slobin, 1996, p. 6). Both movements share two things: music as an indicator of identity, and guitar.
In this Tanzanian case the guitar-driven 60’s, 70’s and 80’s popular music of the East African region plays a big role, including styles like Congolese rumba, Soukous, Benga, etc., often referred to in Swahili as zilizopendwa or zilipendwa (”that which was loved”- oldies goldies). Zilipendwa is a combination of western, especially Latin American and Caribbean music and local East African culture. This kind of fusion was quite common in countries all around Africa in the ’60s and ’70s, which for many countries was also the time of early independence and first national mass culture (Emielu, 2011, p. 384-385, Dorsch, 2010, p. 132-133). Naming of these styles can be confusing at times, for there are many different popular music styles in Africa that resemble one another in terms of instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums, percussion, brass), harmony (f.e. I - IV - I - V or I - IV - V - IV), and rhythm (son and 6/8). I hear strong resemblance in African popular music styles called rumba, soukous, lingala, benga, dansi, jazz (in East African context), taarab, kalindula, makossa, palm wine, high life and so on. All African countries have different names for their old pop, and sometimes tribes and language groups might have also their own forms and names for them.
Figure 2.11. Music video for "Nataka Kucheza" from our album, shot in Bagamoyo. Notice the sebene part at 2:42. See "Congolese rumba & soukus" at the bottom of this page for information about sebene
Figure 2.16. With his band Shirati Jazz, Daniel Owino Misiani was the pioneer for Benga music of the Luo people, who are situated in Kenya and Tanzania. Benga is a combination of Luo traditional rhythms and Congolese guitar style. This song from 1975 is called "Safari Ya Garissa", and it is sung in Luo language.