Wendo Kolosoy
Encyclopedia
Antoine Wendo Kolosoy — known as Papa Wendo — was a Congolese
musician. He was considered the "Father" of Congolese rumba music
, a musical style blending rumba
, beguine
, waltz
, tango
and cha-cha
.
territory, Mai-Ndombe District
of western Congo, then under Belgian colonial rule
. His father died when he was seven, and his mother, a singer herself, died shortly thereafter. He was taken to live in an orphanage run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa
, and remained there until he was 12 or 13, expelled when the fathers disapproved of the lyrics of his songs. Wendo began playing guitar and performing at age 11.
Kolosoy became a professional singer almost by chance after having worked also as a boxer, sailor and longshoreman in Congo, Cameroon
and Senegal
. From 13 Wendo traveled as a worker on the Congo River
ferries, and entertained passengers on the long trips. Between 1941 and 1946 he traveled as a sometime professional boxer, as far from home as Dakar
, Senegal
.
and a play on the British Royalty theme of his band "Victoria Kin") which evolved into "Wendo Sor" and simply "Sor". He is most widely known as Wendo or Papa Wendo.
(then Leopoldville) with his Cuban style band Victoria Bakolo Miziki. He had met Nicolas Jéronimidis, a Greek businessman, on a steamer returning to Leopoldville from Dakar in 1946, and in 1947 Jéronimidis agreed to record Wendo's music for his new Leopoldville based record label Ngoma
.
Wendo and Victoria Bakolo Miziki released their first full record in 1949, "Mabele ya mama" which Wendo dedicated to his late mother.
religious leaders. Stories from the time even claimed that the song, if played at midnight, could raise the dead. The furor drove Wendo out of Kinshasa, and resulted in a brief imprisonment by the Belgian authorities in Stanleyville and his excommunication
from the Catholic Church. The combination of African lyrics and vocals with Afro-Cuban
Rumba
rhythms and instrumentation spawned one of the most successful African musical genres: Soukous
. Wendo's time on the ferries also contributed to his success as one of the first "national" artists of the DRC: he learned the music of the ethnic groups up and down the river, and later sang not only in his native tongue of Kikongo, but also in fluent Lingala and Swahili
.
records) featured much Cuban music, a style that was enjoyed by cosmopolitan Europeans and Africans alike. One writer has argued that this music, sophisticated, based on Africa music, and not produced by white colonialists especially appealed to Africans in general, and newly urban Congolese in particular. Greek
and Lebanese
merchants, a fixture in colonial Francophone Africa were amongst the first to bring recording and record pressing equipment to tropical Africa. Jéronimidis' "Ngoma" company was one of the first and most successful, and Wendo was his star artist. Jéronimidis, Wendo, and other musicians, barnstormed around Belgian Congo
in a brightly painted Ngoma van, performing and selling records. The music culture this created not only propelled Congolese Rumba to fame, but began to develop a national culture for the first time.
Although he never achieved comparable international success similar to that of Papa Wemba
or Zaiko Langa Langa
, he played throughout Africa, Europe and the USA and is recognized as one of the fathers of modern African music and an elder statesman of Congolese Soukous
. In reviewing the recent film on Wendo, a writer in the Kinshasa daily Le Potentiel
wrote that "One cannot speak of modern music without evoking the name of Wendo Kolosoy." Soukous musicians who have come after him have referred to the 1940s and 50s as "Tango ya ba Wendo" ("The Era of Wendo" in Lingala).
. The murder of Prime Minister Lumumba in 1961, followed by the 1965 seizure of power by Lieutenant General Mobutu Sese Seko
, soured Wendo on politics, music, and public life. He decided to stop performing, citing use of music by politicians as his reason.
When Laurent-Désiré Kabila
returned to power in 1997, he (and later his son Joseph Kabila
) supported Wendo in restarting his recording and touring career. Performing with old members of his Victoria Bakolo Miziki band and his "Dancing Grannies" backup dancers, Wendo toured across the Africa and Europe, recapturing audiences in a fashion similar to the Buena Vista Social Club
and Orchestra Baobab. Original members of Victoria Bakolo Miziki who returned to Wendo's reformed big band included Antoine Moundanda (thumb piano
), Joseph Munange (saxophone), Mukubuele Nzoku (guitar), and Alphonse Biolo Batilangandi (trumpet).
, DR Congo in 2004. The last known recording from that time, the album Banaya Papa Wendo was released on the IglooMondo
label in 2007. A compilation called The very best of Congolese Rumba - The Kinshasa-Abidjan Sessions was released in 2007 with Papa Wendo and two other Soukous
/rumba legends; Antoine Moundanda and the Rumbanella Band. In 2008, prior to his death, French filmmaker Jacques Sarasin released a biographical documentary about Wemba's life, entitled On the Rumba River.
He took ill in 2005, and ceased performing publicly. At the time he returned to his disgust with politicians, claiming that the Kabila family, who had resuscitated his career in 1997, had abandoned him financially. Wendo Kolosoy died on July 28, 2008, in Ngaliema Clinic in Kinshasa
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A state funeral in Kinshasa for Wendo is planned, and expected to be "amongst the biggest the city has seen."
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
musician. He was considered the "Father" of Congolese rumba music
Music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Describing the music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is difficult, due to vagaries surrounding the meanings of various terms. The country itself was formerly called Zaire and is now sometimes referred to as Congo-Kinshasa to distinguish it from the Republic of the Congo...
, a musical style blending rumba
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...
, beguine
Biguine
Biguine is a style of music that originated in Guadeloupe and Martinique in the 19th century.-History:Two main types of French antillean biguine can be identified based on the instrumentation in contemporary musical practice, which is call the drum biguine and the orchestrated biguine . Each of...
, waltz
Waltz (music)
A waltz, or valse from the French term, is a piece of music in triple meter, most often written in time signature but sometimes in 3/8 or 3/2...
, tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
and cha-cha
Cha-cha-cha (music)
The Cha-cha-chá is a style of Cuban music. It is popular dance music which developed from the danzón in the early 1950s.- Origin :As a dance music genre, cha-cha-chá is unusual in that its creation can be attributed to a single composer, Enrique Jorrín, then violinist and songwriter with the...
.
Early life
Wendo was born in 1925 in MushieMushie
Mushie is a town in, and a territory of Mai-Ndombe District, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It lies at an altitude of 1118 ft , on the northern bank of the Kasai River, along the section where the Kasai is known as the Kwa River, approximately 10 miles west of the Kasais confluence with the Fimi...
territory, Mai-Ndombe District
Mai-Ndombe District
Mai-Ndombe District is a district located in the Bandundu province, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo....
of western Congo, then under Belgian colonial rule
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
. His father died when he was seven, and his mother, a singer herself, died shortly thereafter. He was taken to live in an orphanage run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa
White Fathers
The missionary society known as "White Fathers" , after their dress, is a Roman Catholic Society of Apostolic Life founded in 1868 by the first Archbishop of Algiers, later Cardinal Lavigerie, as the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa of Algeria, and is also now known as the Society of the...
, and remained there until he was 12 or 13, expelled when the fathers disapproved of the lyrics of his songs. Wendo began playing guitar and performing at age 11.
Kolosoy became a professional singer almost by chance after having worked also as a boxer, sailor and longshoreman in Congo, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
and Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
. From 13 Wendo traveled as a worker on the Congo River
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
ferries, and entertained passengers on the long trips. Between 1941 and 1946 he traveled as a sometime professional boxer, as far from home as Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
.
Stage name
His birthname was Antoine Kalosoyi (also spelled Nkolosoyi), which he eventually regularised to Kolosoy. Later he was called "Windsor" (a homage to the Duke of WindsorDuke of Windsor
The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...
and a play on the British Royalty theme of his band "Victoria Kin") which evolved into "Wendo Sor" and simply "Sor". He is most widely known as Wendo or Papa Wendo.
"Father" of Soukous
In the mid 1940s, he began playing guitar around the capital KinshasaKinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
(then Leopoldville) with his Cuban style band Victoria Bakolo Miziki. He had met Nicolas Jéronimidis, a Greek businessman, on a steamer returning to Leopoldville from Dakar in 1946, and in 1947 Jéronimidis agreed to record Wendo's music for his new Leopoldville based record label Ngoma
Ngoma (record label)
Ngoma was one of the first record labels intended to provide local African music to the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The label was created circa 1948 by the Greek businessman Nicolas Jéronimidis, and was active until 1968....
.
Victoria Kin Orchestra
Imitating the bandleader Paul Kamba, Wendo and Me Taureau Bateko created the "Victoria Kin" orchestra, which later became "Victoria Bakolo Miziki", recording for Ngoma, but also other Congolese labels. Fronted by Wendo's echoing and soaring vocals, the group was also famous for its dancers, called "La reine politesse" directed by Germaine Ngongolo.Wendo and Victoria Bakolo Miziki released their first full record in 1949, "Mabele ya mama" which Wendo dedicated to his late mother.
Marie-Louise
His first international hit, in 1948, was "Marie-Louise", co-written with guitarist Henri Bowane. Through the publicity of "Radio Congolia", along with the controversy which followed the song (a back-and-forth between Wendo and Henri over Wendo's pursuit of a girl, thwarted by Henri's wealth, with salacious undertones), the song became a success throughout West Africa. With its success came trouble: the song had "satanic" powers attributed to it by CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
religious leaders. Stories from the time even claimed that the song, if played at midnight, could raise the dead. The furor drove Wendo out of Kinshasa, and resulted in a brief imprisonment by the Belgian authorities in Stanleyville and his excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
from the Catholic Church. The combination of African lyrics and vocals with Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
Rumba
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...
rhythms and instrumentation spawned one of the most successful African musical genres: Soukous
Soukous
Soukous is a dance music genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa...
. Wendo's time on the ferries also contributed to his success as one of the first "national" artists of the DRC: he learned the music of the ethnic groups up and down the river, and later sang not only in his native tongue of Kikongo, but also in fluent Lingala and Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
.
Congolese popular music
Wendo's success rested upon the burgeoning radio stations and record industry of late colonial Leopoldville, which often piped music over loudspeakers into the African quarters, called the "Cite". A handful of African clubs (closing early with a 9:30PM cerfew for non-Europeans) like "Congo Bar" provided venues, along with occasional gigs at the upscale white clubs of the European quarter, "La ville". The importation of European and American 78 rpm records into Africa in the 30s and 40s (called G.V. SeriesG.V. Series
The G.V. Series were a series of 10 inch 78 rpm Gramophone records produced in Europe and the United States from 1933 to 1958, and exported to colonial Tropical Africa. They are credited with introducing Afro-Cuban music into modern African popular culture...
records) featured much Cuban music, a style that was enjoyed by cosmopolitan Europeans and Africans alike. One writer has argued that this music, sophisticated, based on Africa music, and not produced by white colonialists especially appealed to Africans in general, and newly urban Congolese in particular. Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
and Lebanese
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
merchants, a fixture in colonial Francophone Africa were amongst the first to bring recording and record pressing equipment to tropical Africa. Jéronimidis' "Ngoma" company was one of the first and most successful, and Wendo was his star artist. Jéronimidis, Wendo, and other musicians, barnstormed around Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
in a brightly painted Ngoma van, performing and selling records. The music culture this created not only propelled Congolese Rumba to fame, but began to develop a national culture for the first time.
1950s
In 1955, Wendo, along with two other singer/guitarists (Antoine Bukasa and Manuel D’Oliveira) formed an all-star orchestra known as the "Trio Bow", recording new variations on the rumba and other dance musics for Ngoma, with hits such as "Sango ya bana Ngoma", "Victoria apiki dalapo", "Bibi wangu Madeleine", "Yoka biso ban’Angola", and "Landa bango".Although he never achieved comparable international success similar to that of Papa Wemba
Papa Wemba
Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949 in Lubefu . He is a Congolese rumba musician, one of Africa's most popular musicians, and prominent in World music.-Zaiko Langa Langa:...
or Zaiko Langa Langa
Zaiko Langa Langa
Zaiko Langa Langa are a seminal soukous band from DR Congo. The word "Zaiko" is a portmanteau for the lingala phrase Zaire ya bankoko, meaning "Zaire of our ancestors", where "Zaire" must be read as a reference to the river by that name, now called Congo...
, he played throughout Africa, Europe and the USA and is recognized as one of the fathers of modern African music and an elder statesman of Congolese Soukous
Soukous
Soukous is a dance music genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa...
. In reviewing the recent film on Wendo, a writer in the Kinshasa daily Le Potentiel
Le Potentiel
Le Potentiel is a Democratic Republic of the Congo daily newspaper published by award-winning journalist Modeste Mutinga. The Committee to Protect Journalists described it as "the only independent daily newspaper in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo"...
wrote that "One cannot speak of modern music without evoking the name of Wendo Kolosoy." Soukous musicians who have come after him have referred to the 1940s and 50s as "Tango ya ba Wendo" ("The Era of Wendo" in Lingala).
50 year hiatus
At the height of his fame, Wendo developed friendships with some of the DRC's future independence leaders, most notably Patrice LumumbaPatrice Lumumba
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...
. The murder of Prime Minister Lumumba in 1961, followed by the 1965 seizure of power by Lieutenant General Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997...
, soured Wendo on politics, music, and public life. He decided to stop performing, citing use of music by politicians as his reason.
"Because political men at the time wanted to use musicians like stepping stones. That is to say, they wanted musicians to sing their favors. Me, I did not want to do that. That's why I decided it was best for me, Wendo, to pull myself out of the music scene, and stay home."
When Laurent-Désiré Kabila
Laurent-Désiré Kabila
Laurent-Désiré Kabila was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from May 17, 1997, when he overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko, until his assassination by his bodyguards on January 18, 2001...
returned to power in 1997, he (and later his son Joseph Kabila
Joseph Kabila
Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...
) supported Wendo in restarting his recording and touring career. Performing with old members of his Victoria Bakolo Miziki band and his "Dancing Grannies" backup dancers, Wendo toured across the Africa and Europe, recapturing audiences in a fashion similar to the Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s...
and Orchestra Baobab. Original members of Victoria Bakolo Miziki who returned to Wendo's reformed big band included Antoine Moundanda (thumb piano
Thumb piano
The thumb piano is an African musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone common throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.-Description:Each note of a kalimba, mbira, etc. is a separate idiophone, and in orchestral terms, the instrument as a whole belongs in the bar percussion family...
), Joseph Munange (saxophone), Mukubuele Nzoku (guitar), and Alphonse Biolo Batilangandi (trumpet).
Later life
Kolosoy gave his last public appearance in KinshasaKinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
, DR Congo in 2004. The last known recording from that time, the album Banaya Papa Wendo was released on the IglooMondo
Igloo Records
The Igloo label was initially created in Belgium to cater for improvised and electro-acoustic music, but gradually specialised in modern jazz. It has released material by most of Belgium's jazz talent, including Philip Catherine, Nathalie Loriers, Diederik Wissels, Musicazur and Charles Loos as...
label in 2007. A compilation called The very best of Congolese Rumba - The Kinshasa-Abidjan Sessions was released in 2007 with Papa Wendo and two other Soukous
Soukous
Soukous is a dance music genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa...
/rumba legends; Antoine Moundanda and the Rumbanella Band. In 2008, prior to his death, French filmmaker Jacques Sarasin released a biographical documentary about Wemba's life, entitled On the Rumba River.
He took ill in 2005, and ceased performing publicly. At the time he returned to his disgust with politicians, claiming that the Kabila family, who had resuscitated his career in 1997, had abandoned him financially. Wendo Kolosoy died on July 28, 2008, in Ngaliema Clinic in Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A state funeral in Kinshasa for Wendo is planned, and expected to be "amongst the biggest the city has seen."
Discography
- Nani akolela Wendo? (1993)
- Marie Louise (1997) -- Indigo LBLC 2561 (2001)
- Amba (1999) -- Marimbi 46801.2 (2002) -- World Village 468012 (2003)
- On The Rumba River (Soundtrack) Marabi/Harmonia Mundi 46822.2 (2007)
- Banaya Papa Wendo IglooMondo (2007)
Compilations
- Ngoma: The Early Years, 1948-1960 Popular African Music (1996). Includes the original recording of "Marie-Louise", 1948 (Antoine Kolosoy "Wendo" / Henri Bowane)
- The Very Best of Congolese Rumba - The Kinshasa-Abjijan Sessions (2007) Marabi Productions
- The Rough Guide to Congo Gold -- World Music Network 1200 (2008)
- Beginners Guide To Africa -- Nascente BX13 (2006)