The Third Case of the Congolese Creation

As I've said before, I consider The Congo to be the true birthplace of indigenous popular music in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Although music was everywhere in Africa, there were only a handful of countries with recording studios in the 1950s. South Africa recorded jive and kwela jazz by non-white musicians, and early highlife was being recorded both in Ghana and Nigeria. At this time, however, all of this music was still fundamentally derivative of Western dancefloor jazz. 

In The Congo, by contrast, early recorded efforts followed Latin dancefloor music, particularly pachanga and rhumba rhythms from Cuba. (It should be acknowledged that this fact alone gives Congolese music more of an exotic and "indigenous" sound to gringo ears...)

I see the "Congolese Rumba" genre that emerged in the mid-50s as the first recorded music in Africa that transcended derivative models to constitute a truly original and localized African popular music. This music was also the first popular music to be broadly recorded in local dialects rather than in English, French, or other colonial languages. Above all, it was a tremendous source of cultural pride for the Congolese people during the Independence Era, and this new sound was admired and emulated across the continent. 

Today's show features a ton of music that is new to the show. We'll start with early rootsy sounds from The Congo, including some straight covers of Latin tunes. Then we'll hear as local influences mingle with Latin sounds to create the new genre of Congolese Rumba. By the 1970s, rumba fell out of style... so The Congo produced another new genre that would sweep the continent:  this time it is Soukouss. We will send today's show out on a dream-cloud of Soukouss elegance.