(Fr. République Démocratique du Congo) [formerly Belgian Congo, Zaïre].
Country in Central Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, with an area of 2,344,885 km2 and a population of 51·75 million (2000 estimate). Recognized as The Congo Free State in 1884, it was annexed to Belgium in 1908 as the Belgian Congo. It became independent in 1960 and was renamed Zaïre in 1971. In 1997, following Laurent Kabila’s defeat of the government of Mobutu Sésé Séko, the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (fig.1).
II. Main rural musical traditions.
III. Modern urban developments
ALAN P. MERRIAM/KISHILO W’ITUNGA (I), ALAN P. MERRIAM (II), ALAN P. MERRIAM/KISHILO W’ITUNGA (III, 1), KISHILO W’ITUNGA (III, 2–3), KAZADI WA MUKUNA (III, 4)
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Archaeological excavations undertaken over several years in the Lupemba region, situated along the Congo river in the marshy lakeland area of Kisale and Lupemba in the middle of Katanga province, has shown that these parts have been inhabited since the 9th millennium bce. However, no remains of musical instruments preceding the Congolese Iron Age (i.e. before c200 ce) have survived.
The set of seven copper bells described by Jacques Nenquin (1963, p.233) dates from the Iron Age of the ‘Kisalain period’ (8th–9th century ce), as does the metal whistle mentioned by Hiernaux (1971, p.16). Most of the metal bells found in archaeological excavations undertaken by Pierre de Maret from 1974 onwards date from the ‘classic Kisalain period’. One of these bells has been dated at between 1165 and the 14th century (de Maret, 1978, ii, p.276). According to Gansemans, the lamellae found near some of these bells could have been part of lamellophones (Gansemans and Schmidt-Wrenger, 1986, p.12). This hypothesis would contradict the present, widely held belief that the lamellophone is a recent instrument. The newer theory is supported by two early descriptions of the instrument. The first, made by Brother Santos, appears to date from 1586, and the second, by Bonani, from 1722, according to François Borel quoting a manuscript of Audard (Borel, 1986, p.7).
For later periods, ethnohistory and travel writings provide plenty of information. A study of the portrait statues of the Kuba Ndop kings, for instance, has shown how the royal drums of the 17th to 19th centuries were tensioned and decorated. Four kings (Mbo Mboosh, 17th century; Misha Reylyeeng [Mishap I] and Kot aMbul, 18th century; and Mbop aKyeen, 1900) are shown with one of these instruments beside them, symbolizing a reign of peace and prosperity.
For the same period (17th to 19th centuries), among the Lega people of Kivu, allusions to music in oral history and an analysis of names of ancestors (that is, the names featuring in genealogical trees with meanings referring to a musical instrument, genre or institution) have led to the following conclusions: the drum and trumpet were in use in the 18th century, and so was musical accompaniment to rites such as the ceremony celebrating the birth of twins or special children, circumcision, and certain adult initiation ceremonies. However, musical instruments such as the raft zither of the interlacustrine area, the stick zither from the African coast of the Indian Ocean and certain types of lamellophone were not introduced to the Lega until some time between the middle and the end of the 19th century (Kishilo W’Itunga, 1994 ‘Essai sur les elements … ’).
Early visitors to the Congo often commented on the music they heard there, although their remarks usually concentrated on descriptions of musical instruments. The Portuguese traveller Duarte Lopez, who visited the kingdom of the Congo in 1578, wrote (as recorded by Pigafetta) that the people used ‘three principal sounds in war’: kettledrums, a type of iron gong struck with ‘rods of wood’ and horns made from elephant tusks. He continued:
Touching their marriage or other feasts, they celebrate them by singing love ballads and playing on lutes of curious fashion. These lutes in the hollow and upper part resemble those used by ourselves, but the flat side, which we make of wood, they cover with skin, as thin as a bladder. The strings are made of very strong and bright hairs, drawn from the elephant’s tail, and also from palm-tree threads, which go from the bottom to the top of the handle, each being tied to a separate peg, either shorter or longer, and fixed along the neck of the instrument. From these pegs hang very thin iron and silver plates, fitted to suit the size of the instrument, which make various sounds, according as the strings are struck, and are capable of very loud tones. The players touch the strings of the lute in good time, and very cleverly with the fingers.
Others through the centuries wrote accounts of music, but the observations were from varied outlooks. Andrew Battell, an English captive of the Portuguese in Angola from 1590 to 1610, spent some time as a hostage of the Jaga people of the interior. He commented of their funeral songs, ‘every month there is a meeting of the kindred of the dead man, which mourn and sing doleful songs at his grave for the space of three days’. Captain J.K. Tuckey, commander of an ill-fated expedition up the Congo river in 1816, wrote ‘they are … fond of singing … They have songs on love, war, hunting, palm wine, and a variety of subjects.’
Men such as Livingstone, Cameron and Stanley wrote of their adventures in the 1870s and 80s; they always included information on music and musical instruments, although still adopting a patronizing attitude. These men were, however, moved by Congolese music, as is evident in some of Stanley’s descriptions. By the early 1900s ethnographic compilations had appeared, among them the series on Congo peoples edited by Van Overberg. Each volume in his Collection de monographies ethnographiques included a section on music and musical instruments in which all the quotations that could be found were arranged in logical order. At the same time, early ethnographers were undertaking fieldwork. Among the data of men such as Emile Torday were first-hand and sometimes fairly extended accounts of music, though musical instruments continued to receive the most attention.
In 1902 the Musée du Congo (now the Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika or the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale), Tervuren, began publishing illustrated volumes on its collections; one of its earliest publications concerned music and musical instruments. The authors wrestled with problems of the relationship between song and dance, aesthetics, and whether or not harmony was present in the music. There was some discussion of differences in musical style within the Congo, of music specialists and of whether men or women were the principal singers. Most valuable in this book was the extensive treatment of musical instruments and the photographs of more than 300 of the 443 examples owned by the Belgian museum at that time. The monograph established a tradition of interest in musical instruments, which has led to the publication of a large amount of data and thousands of detailed photographs.
The questionnaire organized and administered by Gaston Knosp in 1934–5 was in the same tradition. It asked for information on musical instruments and, to a lesser degree, vocal music and was distributed to government officials of the Belgian Congo, of whom 71 replied. The results were filed in the Musée du Congo and remained unpublished until 1968.
The first strictly ethnomusicological research in the Congo was a survey in widespread areas of the country undertaken in 1951–2. At about the same time, Leo Verwilghen, a priest, began a comprehensive recording programme, and other individuals, most of them non-specialists, were encouraged to record by the government research organization, the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale. In 1951 Colin Turnbull began an investigation of ‘pygmy’ music, and in 1953 and 1954 Jean-Nöel Maquet undertook field research among the Pende (Phende) and Cokwe (Chokwe). Merriam did an intensive study of music in a Songye (Songe) village in 1959–60.
Important ethnomusicological research has been done by the ethnomusicology department of the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Zaïre (IMNZ), an institution created on 11 March 1970. Directed by Benoît Quersin, the department has managed to collect many tape recordings, chiefly among the Mongo. Very little of this work has been published, with the exception of a few 33 r.p.m. discs and CDs.
In addition, the music department of the Institut National des Arts (INA) has a small research facility with the cassette recordings of traditional music, although not made on professional equipment. As well as these tapes, the student dissertations accumulated over more than 20 years constitute a rich scientific heritage, although their quality is uneven. The 33 r.p.m. disks recorded by Hugh Tracey for ILAM (the International Library of African Music) also provide valuable material. The number of research workers who combine the collection of music with continuous analysis is not nearly adequate for such a large country.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §II: Rural & religious music
There have been no stylistic studies of the music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a whole, although the area has figured in general music mappings of Africa. In a tentative division of Africa into music areas in his article ‘African Music’ (1959), Merriam included almost all of the country in a Central African music area. While the music of this part of Africa was sharply differentiated from that of the areas around it, in particular those to the south, east and north-east, it was postulated that differences in the music of the ‘West Coast area’ to the north-west, were more of degree than of kind. Merriam suggested that as more information became available, ‘it may … be necessary to group the West Coast and Central Africa areas together’, a view that now seems correct.
There is a clear distinction between the music of the Bantu peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that of the ‘Pygmies’, who live in numerous scattered areas of the country, notably in the Ituri Forest region. This division seems a basic one and is the most distinctive that can be made regarding the country’s traditional music.
Discussion of the music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is further complicated by the fact that some 250 different groups of people are known to have lived in the area in 1900. Vansina has suggested that the country’s cultures be organized into those of the northern savanna, the equatorial forest, the southern savanna and the African Graben or Rift valley in the eastern part of the country. Another means of division is that based on the major and minor culture clusters of the peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Such clusters comprise groups of people who live together, share a common way of life and recognize common bonds uniting them; among the most important clusters are the Kongo, Mongo, Kuba (Bushoong), Lunda, Luba, Lega and Mangbetu-Zande. However no correlation of musical styles and culture clusters can yet be established.
Although their origin is unknown, ‘pygmies’ are considered by many experts to be one of the world’s oldest peoples, and they are usually also considered to be the earliest inhabitants of the region. They were pushed back by Bantu invaders and eventually restricted to the dense tropical forest. They are now a marginal population found in the regions of Kibali–Ituri, Kivu, Tanganyika, Lualaba, Tshuapa, Sankuru and Ubangi, and it is estimated that there are still 80,000‘pygmies’ in the country. The best-known group is the Mbuti of the Ituri Forest region, with a population of about 40,000.
Mbuti (Lese) music is primarily vocal, with percussive accompaniment of banja (pairs of concussion sticks), ngbengbe, epopo and koko (wooden clappers) and hand-clapping, foot-stamping and body-striking. Other instruments include the piki and segbe (wooden whistles) and molimo (wooden trumpets), all used apparently for signalling rather than for musical purposes. Likembe, drums and xylophones are borrowed from Bantu neighbours.
‘Pygmy’ vocal music is characterized by yodelling and by descending melodic lines, which are often disjunct. A dense texture is achieved in partsongs by hocketting with a variety of voice qualities, and by polyphony. Up to three leading voices may overlay the choral parts. Other traits of ‘pygmy’ music are repetition by echo or ornamented imitation; the augmentation, diminution and extension of intervals; the use of tritonic, tetratonic and, most often, pentatonic scales; the superimposition of diverse rhythmic structures above a rhythmic ostinato; polyrhythm; and canon and improvisation. These musical characteristics are shared to a large extent by ‘pygmy’ groups in other parts of Africa; if, indeed, ‘pygmies’ are of ancient origin, their music may represent an ancient style absorbed by later Bantu arrivals.
Turnbull suggested from his work with the Ituri Forest Mbuti, that the most important general aspect of Mbuti life is the relationship beween the people and the forest, and the knowledge that song attracts the attention of the forest and pleases it. ‘Pygmy’ songs are sacred because they all concern the forest. Four major types of song exist: hunting, honey-gathering, puberty and death songs (laments). Minor types include lullabies, play songs and elephant-hunting songs. Hunting and honey-gathering songs involve both men and women and are sung during these activities. Puberty songs primarily concern women and young people of both sexes. They ‘are first learnt and sung at puberty but may be sung at other important times similarly critical to growth, birth and marriage’. Laments are sung on the death of an adult but may also be sung at other times of crisis that threaten life, such as sickness or poor hunting times. Turnbull said:
An examination of Mbuti song form not only reveals areas of concern to the Mbuti, such as their food-getting activities, life and death, but it also reveals the concern of the Mbuti for cooperative activity. Each type of song requires a group of people to sing it, and if there is a solo it is sung over a chorus, and the solo is passed around from one individual to another. This is similar to the Mbuti rejection of individual authority and their concern for dispersing leadership as widely as possible. There are certain parts of certain songs that are sung by youths, hunters or elders, strictly according to age, and song form thus reinforces Mbuti concern for the age differential as an important element of their social structure. The songs are most frequently in round, or canon, form, and the hunting songs, in order to heighten the need for the closest possible cooperation (the same need that is demanded by the hunt itself), are sometimes sung in hoquet.
All songs share the important power of being able to ‘awaken’ the forest and draw its attention to the immediate needs of its children.
Other sounds have specific associations for the Mbuti; a sudden noise is ‘strong’ and bad, and an isolated hand- or arm-clap or loud shout brings immediate silence to a camp. Whistling is ‘strong’ but not bad; it is used to call for silence when necessary. The forest is full of sound which the Mbuti must interpret and make use of; Turnbull stated that ‘if the forest stops “talking”, … it is a sign that something is very wrong and alerts the Mbuti to imminent danger’.
See also Pygmy music.
While there is extensive literature on Bantu music, most of it is vague and often romantic. The few professional studies devoted to music often concentrate on the musicological analysis of specific songs and omit discussion of their characteristics. The general statements that can be made about the music of the Bantu peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are true of the music of Bantu Africa. The emphasis on rhythm is shown by the simultaneous use of two or more metres, the dominance of percussive ideas, the ‘metronomic’ division of time into regularly spaced beats and the off-beat phrasing of melodic accents.
Bantu melody is usually in binary form and strongly marked by the division between solo and chorus. Combinations of notes in 3rds are common. Singers use an open, resonant vocal quality, though a persistent attempt at a burred or buzzing tone is notable in both vocal and instrumental performance. Bantu music is often repetitive textually; emphasis is placed on improvisation and a kind of litany form is used. The voice is traditionally accompanied by instruments.
More specifically, Maquet indicated the following characteristics in his discussion of Pende songs: short phrases, strong rhythm, tuning similar to that of the West but with ‘neutral’ 3rds, theme and variation form, with the reprise of motifs one tone higher or lower than in their original statement, solo–chorus form, polyphony usually in 3rds, and polyrhythms.
North of the savanna, Pende are the Ekonda. They are a subgroup of the Mongo peoples who inhabit the heavily forested central Congo basin. Their music is complex with an especially characteristic style. The bobongo is a combined song and dance form performed in honour of a person who has died, and to drive away any spirits of the dead in the vicinity. Merriam described the musical devices used in this kind of performance:
Two or more soloists, singing against the chorus in thirds, or, rarely, in unison, is typical; perhaps as typical is the presentation of a major soloist supported by a second soloist singing a totally different, but complementary line. These two leaders are projected against the chorus, which contributes yet a third line; in some cases a third soloist is added, and not infrequently the chorus itself is split into two parts, each taking a different melodic line. Thus an intricate polyphony is established which reaches four parts and, on occasion, five. Characteristic also is the use of the boyeke [a rubbed, notched stick used as accompaniment] introduction which establishes the rhythm and tempo for the song; the closings almost invariably take the form of a held note followed by a drop of a minor third which is quickly released. The use of grunts as a rhythmic accentuation is also important. Many devices are used to build climaxes; among them are increase in tempo, increase in rhythmic complexity, an increasingly rapid-fire delivery of texts, more involved polyphony and harmony, an increase in the number of parts represented, and a clever use of small climaxes followed by a relaxation of tension, which is then built up again from a slightly higher level than before.
These characteristics are found not only in the bobongo, but also in short songs of the Ekonda.
While knowledge of the structural characteristics of Bantu music in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is slender, virtually nothing is known about musical concepts and behaviour. The only group that has been studied from this angle is the Songye of the eastern Kasai, and something is now understood of the distinctions between musical and non-musical sounds, of the sources from which music has been drawn, the sources of music ability and other conceptual subjects. Although song texts have been collected, little is known about the effect of language tone on melody. Some understanding of this problem is provided by Carrington’s extensive studies of drum and gong signalling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and by less detailed studies of ocarinas among the Songye and whistles among the Pende.
The functional nature of Bantu music in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been stressed. Song accompanies ceremonial, paddling, mourning, birth, marriage, warfare, fishing, planting, harvesting and scores of other activities. Studies of art and aesthetics. However, have been neglected; many writers have simply assumed that these play a part in the music, while others have ruled out the possibility. Similarly, uncritical writers have emphasized an unending cycle of song in daily life. However, although music does play a strong part in Bantu culture, it is by no means omnipresent. The importance of music-dance relationships has been emphasized, but there is insufficient information for significant comment.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §II: Rural & religious music
Much more research has been done on this aspect of Congolese music than on any other. Besides the monographs on musical instruments, there are descriptions in special articles and general ethnographic accounts. The monograph (1902) on the collection of musical instruments in the Musée du Congo was the first of several volumes devoted to the subject, including Boone’s works on xylophones and drums, and Laurenty’s separate studies of chordophones, lamellophones, aerophones and slit-drums. These monographs were all based on the museum’s collections, but the authors also took account of other sources of information.
Boone’s monograph on xylophones (1936) set the general format, although new methods, techniques and problems were included as they appeared. At the time of publication, there were about 800 xylophones in the museum’s collections; Boone studied their form and attempted to construct an evolutionary sequence based on their transformations. She distinguished two major areas of distribution: the homogeneous Kasai–Katanga region (fig.2a), characterized by pierced gourd resonators with vibrating membranes, a variable number of keys of graded length and ascending tuning; and the less homogeneous Ubangi–Uele area, which comprises four subregions. Successive works published by the museum are similar, and conclusions are given on the distribution of instruments.
All the peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo use drums, which may be divided into three major types: those in which the drumhead is nailed to the body (2c), those in which the drumhead is attached by thongs or laces and those in which a combination of these two is used. Chordophones include ground bows, musical bows, harp zithers, stick zithers, board zithers, trough zithers, ten types of pluriarc, seven types of harp, and lutes. The distribution of chordophones is sharply delineated by the Congo and Lualaba rivers; harps and zithers are found to the north of the Congo and east of the Lualaba, while the pluriarcs are found to the south of the Congo and the west of the Lualaba in the Congo basin. Similar divisions occur in the distribution of xylophones and drums, confirming what is known of culture clusters and their history.
22 kinds of lamellophone are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though in some areas they are unknown; they are most common in the Lower Congo, Kwango, Kasai, Lulua, Uele and Ubangi regions. Their distribution does not apparently correspond directly with that of other instruments, although coincidences occur. Slit-drums are found everywhere, and their distribution is roughly the same as that of xylophones and certain other instruments. Idiophones not previously mentioned include pairs of concussion sticks, bells, gongs, rattles and scraped sticks.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §II: Rural & religious music
GEWM, i (‘Central Africa: an Introduction’; M. Kisliuk)
J.K. Tuckey: Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaïre, Usually Called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816 (New York, 1818)
F. Pigafetta: Relazione del reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade, tratta dalli scritti e ragionamenti di Odoardo Lopez, Portoghese (Rome, 1591; Eng. trans., 1597/R as A Report of the Kingdome of Congo)
H.M. Stanley: In Darkest Africa (New York, 1890)
E.D. Ravenstein, ed.: The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh, in Angola and the Adjoining Regions (London, 1901)
[E. Coart and A. de Haulleville]: Notes analytiques sur les collections ethnographiques du Musée du Congo: Les arts, i (Brussels, 1902)
E. Torday and T.A. Joyce: Notes ethnographiques sur des populations habitant les bassins du Kasai et du Kwango oriental (Tervuren, 1922)
O. Boone: Les xylophones du Congo belge (Tervuren, 1936)
A. Lamoral: ‘Renaissance de la musique bantoue’, Zaïre, i (1947), 819
J.F. Carrington: A Comparative Study of Some Central African Gong-Languages (Brussels, 1949)
O. de Bouveignes: ‘Native Music in the Belgian Congo’, The Arts in Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, ed. S. Chandler (Brussels, 1950), 74
O. Boone: Les tambours du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urandi (Tervuren, 1951)
R.A. Waterman: ‘African Influence on the Music of the Americas’, Acculturation in the Americas … XXIXth International Congress of Americanists: New York 1949, ed. S. Tax (Chicago, 1952), 207–18; repr. in Music as Culture, ed. K.K. Shelemay (New York, 1990), 17–28
A.P. Merriam: ‘African Music Re-examined in the Light of New Material from the Belgian Congo and Ruanda Urundi’, Zaïre, vii (1953), 244
P. Collaer: ‘Notes sur la musique d’Afrique centrale’, Problèmes d’Afrique centrale, no.26 (1954), 267
A.M. Jones: ‘African Rhythm’, Africa, xxiv (1954), 26–47
J.-N. Maquet: ‘La musique chez les Bapende’, Problèmes d’Afrique Centrale, no.26 (1954), 299
J.-N. Maquet: Note sur les instruments de musique congolais (Brussels, 1956)
B. Söderberg: Les instruments de musique au Bas-Congo et dans les régions avoisinantes (Stockholm, 1956)
H. Burssens: Les peuplades de l’entre Congo-Ubangi (London, 1958)
A.P. Merriam: ‘African Music’, Continuity and Change in African Cultures, ed. W.R. Bascom and M.J. Herskovits (Chicago, 1959), 49
A.P. Merriam: ‘The Concept of Culture Clusters Applied to the Belgian Congo’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, xv (1959), 373–95; repr. in Music as Culture, ed. K.K. Shelemay (New York, 1990), 35–57
J.S. Laurenty: Les cordophones du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi (Tervuren, 1960)
A.P. Merriam: Congo: Background of Conflict (Evanston, IL, 1961)
J.S. Laurenty: Les Sanza du Congo (Tervuren, 1962)
A.P. Merriam: ‘The Epudi: a Basongye Ocarina’, EthM, vi (1962), 175–80
C.M. Turnbull: Wayward Servants: The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies (New York, 1965)
J. Vansina: Introduction à l’éthnographie du Congo (Brussels, 1965)
J. Vansina: Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, 1966)
P. Collaer: Enquête sur la vie musicale au Congo belge 1934–1935 (Questionnaire Knosp) (Tervuren, 1968)
F. Gillis: ‘The Starr Collection of Recordings from the Congo (1906) in the Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University’, Folklore and Folk Music Archivist, x/3 (1967–8), 49–62
J.S. Laurenty: Les tambours à fente de l’Afrique Centrale (Tervuren, 1968)
A.P. Merriam: African Music on LP: an Annotated Discography (Evanston, IL, 1970)
A P. Merriam: ‘The Bala (Basongye) Musician’, The Traditional Artist in African Societies, ed. W.L. d’Azevedo (Bloomington, IN, 1973/R), 250–81
J. Hiernaux, E. de Longree and J. Buyst: Fouilles archéologiques dans la vallée du Haut-Lualaba (Tervuren, 1972–92)
P.C. Kazadi: The Characteristic Criteria in the Vocal Music of the Luba-Shankadi Children (Tervuren, 1972)
P.C. Kazadi: ‘Trends in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music in the Congo-Zaïre’, Musikkulturen Asiens, Afrikas und Ozeaniens im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. R. Günther (Regensburg, 1973), 267–84
J.S. Laurenty: La systématique des aérophones de l’Afrique Centrale (Tervuren, 1974)
R. Kishilo W'Itunga: ‘Structure des chansons des Lega de Mwenga’, Revue zaïroise des arts, no.1 (1976), 7–22
B. Schmidt-Wrenger: Rituelle Frauengesänge der Tshokwe: Untersuchungen zu einem Säkularisierungsprozess in Angola und Zaïre (Tervuren, 1976)
C. Katende: Instruments de musique de Gandajika (Zaïre) (Bandundu, 1978)
P. de Maret: Chronologie de l’âge du fer dans la dépression de l’Upemba en République du Zaïre (Brussels, 1978)
A. Vorbichler: ‘Die Funktion von Musik, Gesang und Tanz in der Oral-literatur der Balese-Efe, nord-ost Zaïre’, Afrika und Übersee, lxi (1978), 241–57
N. Kazadi: ‘Chants de possession chez les Baluba du Kasayi (Zaïre)’, Ethnographie, cxxi/1 (1979), 61–91
C. Wymeers: Ritualisme et fonction des tambours en Afrique interlacustre (Rome, 1979)
E. Anciaux de Faveaux and P. de Maret: ‘Vestiges de l'âge du fer dans les environs de Lubumbashi’, Africa-Tervuren, xxvi/1 (1980), 13–19
J. Gansemans: Les instruments de musique Luba (Tervuren, 1980)
B. Schmidt-Wrenger: ‘Umrisse einer afrikanischen Musikkonzeption: Terminologie und Theorie der Tshokwe Musik’,Africa-Tervuren, xxvi/3 (1980), 58–65
J. Gansemans: ‘La musique et son rôle dans la vie sociale et rituelle Luba’, Cahiers des religions africaines, xvi/31–2 (1982), 181–234
D. Vangroenweghe: Bobongo: la grande fête des Ekonda (Berlin, 1983)
D. Vangroenweghe: Essai d’étude d’un nsambo (Ekonde, Zaïre) (Paris, 1983)
F. Borel: Les Sanza (Neuchâtel, 1986)
J. Gansemans and B. Schmidt-Wrenger: Musikgeschichte in Bildern-Zentralafrika (Leipzig, 1986)
J.S. Laurenty: La répartition géographique des aérophones de l’Afrique Centrale (Tervuren, 1990)
D. Demolin: ‘Les rêveurs de la forêt, polyphonies des pygmées Efe de l'Ituri (Zaïre)’, Cahiers de musiques traditionelles, vi (1993), 139–51
R. Kishilo W'Itunga: ‘Essai sur les éléments d'archéologie musicale en Afrique Centrale: cas de l'ethnie Lega du Zaïre’, Sons originels: préhistoire de la musique, ed. M. Otte (Liège,1994), 243–58
R. Kishilo W'Intunga: ‘Le folklore et les principales formes d'inspiration artistique au Zaïre’, Le folklore et la culture du future: Cairo, 1994, i, 3–16
R. Kishilo W'Intunga: ‘Terminologie musicale et instruments de musique chez les Balega’, Sons originels: préhistoire de la musique, ed. M. Otte (Liège,1994), 259–74
L. Tshaila: ‘De la représentation du vécu à la thérapie musicale: à propos du mfung-a-miti et du nkir des Ding du Zaïre’, Cahiers de la musique traditionelle, vii (1994), 121–40
E. de Dampierre, ed.: Une esthétique perdue: harpes et harpistes du Haut-Oubangui (Paris, 2/1995)
J.S. Laurenty: L’organologie du Zaïre (Tervuren, 1995)
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
3. Music of Cultural Animation.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III: Urban music
The first Western contacts came from explorers, traders, travellers and missionaries; the last, at an early date, attempted to substitute Christian hymns for traditional music, sometimes with considerable success. In 1937 Anschaire Lamoral, a priest, founded the Chorale Indigène d’Elisabethville from among his students at the Mission Bénédictine St-Jean. In the late 1930s, Joseph Kiwele, who was attached to the Chorale, revised and rewrote the score to an epic poem, Chant en l’honneur des Martyrs de l’Uganda, which had been composed and set to music in 1921 by l’Abbé Stephano Kaoze. The music was based upon traditional melodies and performed by the Chorale. In 1944, Kiwele composed the Cantate à la gloire de la Belgique to celebrate the end of World War II; this work, accompanied by drums, was given an open-air performance in Elisabethville by 1200 Africans. Such activities led to the composition of the well-known Missa luba, first performed by Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin, a choir of children and teachers formed in the Kamina area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1953 by a priest, Guido Haazen. The mass is said to be based on traditional melodies of the Luba, Kasala and Bena Lulua peoples; drums and rattles are used in what is essentially a popular music idiom. The Missa luba has been a model for subsequent Christian-African music.
More recently, the recognition by the Pope on 30 April 1988 of the ‘Zaïrian Rite’ of the Mass has conferred legitimacy on works created since Vatican Council II and has given extra momentum to efforts to implant the Christian message. Composers have become numerous and their styles diverse: there are chants of Gregorian or traditional inspiration, and even some inspired by variety shows. However, most of this sacred music is the result of creation by individual composers and does not adapt earlier melodies or rhythms.
The field of religious music has been extended. Such music is played at funeral ceremonies even where there was no previous tradition of funerary songs. It also accompanies celebratory ceremonies such as weddings. Religious music is broadcast daily by the national radio and televison stations, which have given it considerable space in their programmes.
Beginning in 1971 the former conservatory, now the Institut Supérieur and part of the university, has offered not only a training in Western art music but courses in the playing of traditional instruments (the xylophone, lamellophone, harp etc.). The repertory of the Experimental Orchestra includes compositions and arrangements by some of its members.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III: Urban music
After the establishment of professional ballet and theatre in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has proved necessary to adapt or create music to suit such performances. The same has been the case for the few films that have been made in the country, mostly by Dieudonné Ngangura.
The National Ballet was set up after the visit of the Guinean Ballet in November 1972. The admiration it aroused in the political authorities led to a plan to follow the example of Guinea. Audio and video recordings of various musical spectacles of the traditional type were made all over the country. The best dancers and musicians of existing ethnic choreographic groups were recruited. However, within the new ballet company these artists excelled only in the works of their own ethnic groups. The new ballet company thus became a music school teaching traditional music and dance. The first show staged, Lianya, brought together some 30 well-known songs and dances from the following ethnic groups: the Ekonda, Mongo, Pende, Nyarwanda, Nianga, Yombe, Bunda, Kongo, Boma, Lulua and Luba (Mananga, 1977, pp.49–84).
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III: Urban music
The traditional ritual of welcome in rural areas reserved for provincial or colonial dignitaries, which comprised songs, dances and ululations, was turned by the Mobutu régime into an ideological spectacle known as ‘Music of Cultural Animation’. These spectacles were designed to animate party meetings and to convey the ideas and messages of the head of state. They were an amalgamation of various kinds of spectacle, including ‘choruses in movement, a succession of songs and slogans, sketches … animation ballets, collective creations … dramatic forms, popular shows, the poetic montages of animation’ (Kapalanga, 1989, pp.261–2), all with musical accompaniment. Most of these songs and dances were taken from the traditional repertory, with modifications to the original words. Animation music set a fashion and was imitated in Rwanda, Gabon, Chad and the Central African Republic. With the movement towards democracy, its practice was severely restricted.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III: Urban music
Musique congolaise moderne, the urban music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is recognized throughout the world as one of Africa's most representative styles of guitar-led urban music. Throughout Africa, this music is best known as ‘Congo music’ or simply ‘guitar music’. In the 1980s, it began to be incorrectly referred to outside Africa as soukous, a term first used in the 1960s to designate a variant of the Congolese rumbadance characterized by the quasi-circular motion of the hips from traditional Luba mutwashi dances.
(i) The formative years in Kinshasa.
(ii) The first generation of bands.
(iii) The second generation of bands.
(iv) The third generation of bands.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III, 4: Modern urban developments, Popular music.
Before and after the colonial period, explorers, missionaries and armed forces introduced foreign musical instruments to Africa, bringing changes to the musical expressions in newly founded urban centres. In some of these, the use of foreign musical elements (instruments, dances, harmonic implications etc.) resulted in the decline and downplay of traditional musical genres, as well as changes in the attitudes of African musicians to their own music. In Kinshasa, for instance, this gave rise to an urban musical expression that fed on traditional music for its content yet relied heavily on foreign musical instruments as a medium of interpretation. This phase of guitar music history lasted from the 1930s to 1965.
Like many cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa started as a migrant workers’ camp. This seasonal status began to change in 1929 with the implementation of the Stabilization Policy by major exploitative companies in the country, whereby workers were hired for a renewable three-year period and were allowed to have their families accompany them. The Stabilization Policy helped transform workers' camps into detribalized centres, which in turn grew into urban nuclei, with the introduction of the necessary infrastructure of schools, hospitals and secondary support services.
To satisfy their need for manpower, companies attracted workers from within the country and elsewhere, voluntarily or by force. One result of these hiring practices was to introduce a sizeable West African population into Kinshasa, collectively called ‘haoussa’ by the Congolese. The concentration of West Africans brought changes to the social fabric and musical activities in Kinshasa, where haoussa organized themselves into social groups. One of these groups, the Association des Originaires du Cameroon, du Dahomey et du Togo (CAMDATO), also known as ‘the Coastmen’, was the most influential. It provided a model for Congolese social groups beginning in 1939 with L'Harmonie Kinoise, an all-male group, followed in 1943 by Diamant, an all-female association.
To minimize the cost of entertainment required at events such as weddings, baptisms or the closing of a mourning period (organized by an association on behalf of its members), each social group maintained a musical ensemble composed primarily of brass instruments. As a result, the brass band tradition and its repertory flourished in Kinshasa from the 1940s to the end of the 1960s. After adapting Ghanaian Highlife and European waltzes and polkas, Congolese musicians applied their knowledge of brass technique to the interpretation of traditional melodies and original maringa and agbayatunes.
Little is known about the rhythmic pattern of agbaya music, as it lost its popularity to the maringa before the establishment of recording companies in Kinshasa (1947). Those who danced and witnessed the performance of agbaya describe it as a repertory of couple dances performed without touching the partner. The term agbaya is probably a Congolese mutation of a Ghanaian word interjected while dancing at social gatherings of the haoussa in Kinshasa. Unlike the agbaya, maringa music was preserved on sound recordings, such as the Anthologie de la vie africaine (1958) by Herbert Pepper and the Sound of Africa series (1958) by Hugh Tracey. Traces of the maringa can be found in many tribal repertories, particularly in the areas around centres of economic exploitation. Among the Luba-Shankadi (Samba), for instance, the maringa is a children's song. In Katanga, the maringa was a mixed dance performed in a circle without partners, whereas in Kinshasa it was a couple dance. Its characteristic feature – hip movements shifting the body weight from one leg to another – is similar to that of the rumba. The maringa rhythmic pattern is illustrated in ex.1.
By the late 1940s, the brass band tradition had reached its peak and began to be overshadowed by Latin American sounds introduced to the populace through travelling musical groups, imported 78 rpm recordings and radio broadcasts such as those of Radio Congolia. During its eight and a half years of broadcasting to the black population (1939–48), about a third of Radio Congolia's air time (60–90 minutes per day) was devoted to musique congolaise moderne. The radio station became instrumental in promoting urban music in its embryonic state, also broadcasting successful local bands and individual musicians live from the studio.
These live broadcasts stimulated the rise of troubadour-like musicians, singing maringa tunes to their own accompaniment on traditional musical instruments (the likembe, lamellophone and xylophone) or foreign instruments such as the accordion and guitar, accompanied by one or two musicians playing rhythmic patterns on an empty beer bottle and a rectangular frame drum called patenge. The troubadour period, commonly known to Congolese as tango ya ba-wendo, reached its peak in the 1950s with the artistry of Mwenda Mukanda Bantu (Mwenda Jean Bosco, d 1991), Anatole Kaseya, Antoine Mundanda, Paul Kamba and Antoine ‘Wendo’ Kolosoy, to name a few. The guitar, which was still being learnt by local musicians, provided the harmonic accompaniment of I–IV–V–I progressions played in a picking style called Palm wine, which was introduced in Kinshasa by the haoussa.
The dissemination of Latin American musical expression led to the demise of the brass bands in favour of the new instrumentation of string instruments (lead guitar, rhythm guitar and double bass), wind instruments (preferably the clarinet and trumpet) and an assortment of percussion instruments (conga drums, maracas, guïros and claves). L'Harmonie Kinoise survived by adapting its instrumentation, in 1949 changing its name to La Joie Kinoise and under the leadership of the vocalist Kabasele ‘Grand Kale’ Tshamala (Kabasele Joseph, b 1930, d 1983) making its first official appearance in Kinshasa in 1953 under the name African Jazz. Within a ten-year period, several other Latin American-modelled ensembles were created, notably O.K. Jazz (1956), Rock-a-Mambo and Ry-Co Jazz (1958).
The popularity of the new style of music was sustained by radio broadcasts and nurtured in outdoor beer gardens (known as ‘bars’). By the end of the 1960s, bars had become the meeting-ground for musical traditions, the crossroads of cultural activities and laboratories for musical experiments. The increase in the number of bars throughout the country, coupled with recording studios, stimulated an increase in the number of new ensembles using Latin American instrumentation. Bars provided stages shared by ensembles with a diversity of musical expressions in major cities and in small detribalized centres in the interior. Often foreign tunes heard on the radio were quickly learnt by rote and played at night in the bars. One of the most influential tunes was the 1939 melody El Manisero by Moises Simons, made popular in Kinshasa by gramophone recordings, radio broadcasts and travelling Cuban ensembles. El Manisero became a fixed part of local bands' repertory (ex.2).
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III, 4: Modern urban developments, Popular music.
The rise of the first generation of musical ensembles modelled after Cuban ensembles began in Kinshasa contemporaneously with the introduction of Latin American dance forms (cha-cha-cha, charanga, mambo, merengue, rumba, patachanga and others) with their musical elements (rhythm, vocal production, singing style) and extra-musical practices (e.g. stage presentation, clothing, ‘latinization’ of artists' names). For more than a decade (1953–1965), the popularity of these imported musical models was nurtured throughout the country by radio broadcasts and the newly established recording studios.
From 1948 to 1960, recording companies provided musical instruments to promising young local musicians, hiring European professionals to strengthen their studios and to serve as instructors for young Congolese, in order to create a pool of local musicians capable of accompanying maringa and rumba music on European instruments (guitar, saxophone, clarinet and flute). Musicians identified themselves with the studio (often Greek-owned) where they received their training and recorded. Several first-generation musicians began their careers as studio musicians, occasionally playing in ensembles created by musicians from the same studio. As they gained fame through recordings and performances in bars, some ensembles broke their ties with the studios and became independent. Two of the most significant ensembles that came into existence in this way were African Jazz (1953), which was composed of musicians from the Opika studios, and O.K. Jazz (1956) composed of musicians from the Loningisa studios.
Of the diverse musical instruments (accordion, guitar, violin, kazoo and others) experimented with during the formative years, the guitar was adopted as lead instrument for its flexibility in adapting to the various nuances of traditional musical instruments and style. Rhythm guitar provided the accompanying harmonic framework, often in palm wine style, in which the double bass outlined the bass line of the harmonic progression while following the clave pattern. To this, the lead guitar added melodic interludes and ornamental melodic improvisations, while wind instruments provided melodic embellishments in the interludes and in an all-instrumental section called sebene.
Although the musical style of the first generation bands is rooted in imitating and interpreting 1950s Latin dance music, its focus also shifted back to the maringa, which could easily be interpreted with the newly acquired instrumentation and adapted to traditional rhythmic combinations. The new instruments provided harmonic possibilities and a different timbre, although their function was at first limited to that of the traditional instruments they replaced. In order to emulate the xylophone sound on the guitar, for instance, Congolese musicians modified the instrument by replacing the d string with an additional e' string and tuning it to d pitch. Known as mi-compose, this tuning is still used in the rhythm guitar to accompany tunes from the Luba tradition.
The shift in musical style gave rise to two stylistic trends, characterized by the lead-guitarist's playing technique. Lwambo ‘Franco’ Makiadi (1936–89) played melodies and their improvisations in parallel 6ths while Kasanda ‘Dr. Nico’ wa Mikalayi (d 1984) avoided harmonic implications in his melodic improvisations. These two stylistic camps continue to co-exist, in spite of the introduction of a new guitar style called mi-solo or mediane, between the lead and rhythm guitars. The advent of the electric guitar introduced new functions for the instrument in the band, primarily involving accompanying the borrowed traditional dances.
Schematically this structure can be represented as follows: A, instrumental prelude; B, verse; C, instrumental interlude; B', the repetition of the verse with a change in the final cadence of the section; leading into D, the refrain, where elements of the verse undergo call-and-response treatment between the lead singer and the chorus, the latter of which is often composed of two to four individuals singing in harmony; and E, instrumental improvisation, which is sometimes referred to as the sebenesection. D' is the coda section, often based on material derived from the refrain section.
The structure of Congolese rumba music provided a wide range of possibilities for changes and modification in the improvisation section, where composers introduced new rhythmic and melodic elements. Among the most prominent varieties of rumba have been: soukous (1966), kiri-kiri(1969), cavacha and ekonda sacade (1972), mokonyonyon (1977), n'goss and its variant zekete-zekete (1977–87), kwasa-kwasa (1986), madiaba (1988), mayebo (1990), mayeno (1991), sundama, kintekuna (1992), moto (1994) and ndombolo (1997).
Unlike the original rumba form borrowed from Latin America, Congolese rumba continues to be governed by a set of traditionally defined aesthetic norms, drawing upon compatible rhythmic formulas, dance steps and body movements from the musicians’ respective ethnic groups. For example, mokonyonyon, introduced in 1977 by singer Shungu Wembadio (Papa Wemba) and his ensemble Viva la Musica, contains movements from the traditional dance of his Tetela ethnic group. Similarly, the movements of ekonda sacade, introduced in Kinshasa by the singer Lita Bembo (1972) and the Stukas ensemble, and those of sundama popularized by the Swede-Swede ensemble, are derived from traditional Mongo dances. The kwasa-kwasa dance, presented to the public in 1986 by the Empire Bakuba ensemble, is reminiscent of a Kongo social dance.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III, 4: Modern urban developments, Popular music.
By 1975, urban music was dominated by a second generation of musicians and ensembles. Unlike the first generation of musicians, who initiated their careers under studio conditions, these players started as street musicians, who generally could not afford to purchase an instrument and practised instead on homemade guitars and drums. These conditions contributed to a style characterized by several factors: the supremacy of rhythm over melody; the prominence of rhythmic patterns borrowed from the traditional music of the composer's ethnic background; instrumentation in which wind instruments are deliberately omitted; compositional structure in which the sebene is proportionally longer than the singing section; and an emphasis on dancing rather than topical message songs.
One of the most celebrated ensembles was Zaiko Langa-Langa, which dominated the urban musical scene during its first ten years (1974–84) and was regarded as the index of the musical style of its generation. Zaiko Langa-Langa developed the characteristic rhythmic motif associated with second generation bands (ex.3), dance movements, stage presentation, and the atalaku, who initially called dance movements, but whose role was later expanded to incorporate elements of comedy and social commentary.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III, 4: Modern urban developments, Popular music.
The musical style of the third generation of bands is based on the second generation and has been affected by the Kinshasa recording industry's demise, which triggered the migration of a large number of musicians and ensembles to Europe and other African capitals, thus undermining band structures and dismantling ephemeral ensembles. Musicians such as vocalists Shungu ‘Papa Wemba’ Wembadio and Bialu Jean-de-Dieu, lead guitar players Dali Kimoko, Diblo Dibala, Bamundele ‘Rigo Star’ Ifuli and Mose Sesengo ‘Fan Fan’ Kunsongi have achieved stardom as individual artists, recording and touring with make-shift ensembles composed of freelancers. At the peak of the third generation period, which coincided with the twilight of the Second Republic (1994), lead guitar players were in great demand, as the role of the guitar had become more challenging than before, involving capturing the rhythmic aspects of various ethnic musics to accompany new dances. The demise of the Zaiko ensemble in 1984 opened an undeclared competition between third generation ensembles, resulting in an innovation of an array of dances (e.g. kwasa-kwasa, madiaba, mayeno, sundama, isankele and moto), introduced within the short span of a decade. In 1997, marking the beginning of the Third Republic with Laurent Kabila's liberation of the country from Mobutu's reign, a new dance called ndombolo was added to the never-ending list of dances for which musicians are expected to provide appropriate accompaniment.
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, §III: Urban music
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