I don’t usually write reviews, I have only decided to write this one because I consider it disturbing to attribute fake quotes to people that can’t defend themselves. I deeply love Congolese music and I admire and respect the legacy of Grand Kalle, Franco Luambo, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Roitelet Moniania and many other superb Congolese musicians and I can’t tolerate seeing their honor and legacy being slandered.
According to scholarly work about Congolese music by Manda Tchebwa, Kazadi Wa Mukuna and Andre Yoka Lye Mudaba, urban modern Congolese music or what we know as Congolese Rumba was born in Leopoldville, around the 1940–50s, out of the combination of several influences such as French music mainly from the movies of Tino Rossi, Ghanaian Highlife music, indigenous Congolese music, an intertribal popular African dance music called Maringa, and Cuban music. This last one came to Leopoldville (around the 1940s) in the form of a specific series of 78 rpm shellac records from the His Master Voice collection called the “G.V”. The G.V. record series contained mostly Cuban and Latin songs with rhythms such as Cha Cha, Bolero, Guaracha, Guaguanco, Merengue, etc. Soon, the Congolese musicians fell in love with Cuban music and started playing it. At the beginning, Congolese musicians recorded songs trying to mimic those Cuban rhythms that came with the G.V.. Later, little by little, the flavors of Cuban music mixed with all the other influences and gave birth to a new style, Congolese Rumba.
This is how Congolese Rumba was born.
The main hypothesis in Mr. Antha’s book is that, around the 1950s, Congolese musicians started recording Cuban rhythms and incorporating Cuban musical styles in Congolese urban music, not because they freely fell in love with Cuban music but because they were obliged by the Belgian administration. According to Mr. Antha, the Belgian administration decided that Cuban music genres were profitable. So, they obliged the Leopoldville music label owners and their musicians to record a minimum monthly quota of Cuban music or face justice. Mr Antha calls these quotas “musical cash crops”. Supposedly, these Leopoldville-produced Cuban records were going to be sold outside of Congo to enlarge a particular European record label empire.
This is an extraordinary claim that does not fit at all with the narrative of the already significant body of scholarly work about Congolese Rumba. I know, as a friend, most of the scholars and journalists that have written about Congolese Rumba such as Clement Ossinonde, Manda Tchebwa, Jean Pierre Nimy, Kazadi Wa Mukuna, Gary Stewart, Yoka Lye, Alastair Johnston, Ken Braun. None of them has ever mentioned something similar to what Mr. Antha tries to advance in his book.
Also, and contrary to Mr. Antha's claims, during the 1950s, the sales of Congolese records outside of Congo were never significant enough to enlarge any record label economically.
Unfortunately, Mr. Antha does not present any hardcore evidence to support his theory. There are no official documents from the Belgian administration that support his theories. There are no official documents from the main Leopoldville studio labels (Esengo, Loningisa, Opika) to provide proof for his claims.
To support his theory, Mr. Antha relies on a myriad of testimonies of some of the most famous Congolese musicians ever, such as Franco Luambo, Joseph Kabasele “Grand Kalle”, Tabu Ley Rochereau and Augustin Moniania “Roitelet”. Unfortunately for us, there is no way to confirm these testimonies since all the musicians quoted by Mr. Anthe are dead now.
The problem for Mr. Antha is that there are many audio and video recorded interviews with Franco Luambo and Tabu Ley Rochereau. Although some of these interviews are long and exhaustive, there is not even one interview where Franco or Tabu Ley mention what Mr. Antha has quoted them saying.
Furthermore, one of the other musicians quoted in Mr. Antha’s book is a friend of mine, Moniania Roitelet.
I met Roitelet in Kinshasa while making a documentary film. I have spent several afternoons with Roitelet and I have interviewed him on film many times. He never ever mentioned something along the lines of what Mr. Antha claims. I actually asked Roitelet several times why Congolese musicians started doing Cuban rhythms? His answer was always the same: “Because, at that time, everybody loved Cuban music in Leopoldville, and the musicians loved it too. So, we started playing it.”
For my documentary film, which is about Congolese Rumba, I have interviewed, on film, more than 40 musicians and Congolese Rumba experts, I have even met with the sons and daughters of the Leopoldville studio owners of the 1950s and, again, nobody has ever mentioned what Mr. Antha tries to advance.
So, unless Mr. Antha provides solid evidence to support his extraordinary claims, this book is advancing a false theory that only serves to stain the legacy of Congolese Rumba by making it a byproduct of forced labor.
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