As you walk into Ibiza, a dance club in the middle of Goma, the bouncer takes your temperature, and you have to wash your hands with a bleach and water solution. Then you walk past a little gazebo and ...

KINSHASA, Oct 6 – Perched on a corner of the stage at La Septente, an open-air club in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa, Manda Chante sings the lilting opening to “Independence Cha Cha” ...

Trumpeters from the Bana OK band play at La Septante club in the Kasa-Vubu quarter of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Courtesy/Reuters) The heady beats of Congolese rumba were hailed by ...

African music traveled to the New World with slavery, only to return to Africa in the 1930’s and 40’s via 78 rpm phonograph records, broadcast by Radio Congo Belge in Léopoldville (now Kinshasha), ...

Africa’s leading Congolese Rumba music is now on the list of the world cultural heritage of humanity after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) admitted the ...

You may think you don’t know anything about Congolese music. But if you’ve ever tapped your foot to the irresistible beat of the rumba, you’ve experienced a national tradition. Rumba originated in ...