Chapter 4 Urban Inventions -- a New Old Sound Emerges

The development of urban musics proceeded through several successive stages. In my reading of the music’s history, these stages all involved the fusion of diverse styles; they differed in the degrees to which one element or another predominated. In hearing the power differential between the competing voices, we can tune in to the changing levels of assimilation and rejection. The extent to which the greater politico-artistic process made use of both inclusion and exclusion requires a detailed, close listening to the soundscape.

Christian Singers, Agbaya, and Fanfares

In the Belgian Congo, a good education implied instruction in mathematics, French and music.⁶⁹ Schools played a strong role in the configuring of musical tastes of young, educated Kinois, the inhabitants of Léopoldville. The first Christian chorales formed in mission schools in the beginning of the 20th century. These ensembles were inter-ethnic, foreshadowing in that regard the urban popular music ensembles of the rest of the century.⁷⁰ Many famous musicians would get their start as Christian singers: Joseph Kabasele (a.k.a. Grand Kallé), Vicky Longomba, Roger Izeidi, and others. Most early migrants were commended by the missions as “good Christians,” a label important for placement in schools and jobs, if they shunned rural musical practices.⁷¹ This musical blackmail would not succeed as had been hoped. Instead of discarding their musical heritage as the missionaries had prayed they would, these men and women used their training to syncretize, effectively circumventing the suppression of African (read: rural, traditional) musics. The availability of instruments, such as woodwinds and brass, and tutelage in schools and mission groups produced the first wave of musicians of the new urban styles. They were by and large from an educated class, and the first ensembles were formed by men in the same profession, kalaka (clerks) for example.⁷² Brazzaville office employees Paul Kamba and Bernard Lebel Massamba founded Victoria Brazza in 1942.

The 1920s is remembered for the popularity of the agbaya, performed in a circle, without partners, by shifting the weight from leg to leg, swinging the arms and clapping the hands. One or two dancers would solo until the end of the refrain or a strong cadential moment, at which point two dancers would meet at their navels with pelvic motions.⁷³ It was accompanied by a guitar or likembe, a lamellophone.⁷⁴ This instrument goes by many names around the continent: mbira, sanza, karimba and kalimba to name a few. Little is known or remembered about the rhythmic pattern or melodic composition of agbaya music, since it disappeared before recording technology arrived in the Congo. One possible influence on agbaya was the palm-wine guitar of West Africa. As mentioned above, there was a strong presence of West Africans and Caribbeans in the Lower Congo cities. Outside of the mission-sponsored activities, music was exclusively a leisure activity, performed after hours. It appears that workers from Sierra Leone and Liberia had introduced their distinctive guitar style by the first decade of the century.⁷⁵

A possible ingredient in the choreography of agbaya was the circle dance. Kazadi notes the night-time performance of the mbenga and lutuka among the Baluba of the Kasai region of the DRC, circle dances that provided opportunity for courting. The historical prevalence of such dances makes it plausible that they played a seminal role in the early urban syncretic musics.⁷⁶

The origin of the word agbaya is uncertain, but the explanation Kazadi and Daniel Pwono propose leads to an insightful discussion of the origins of early Congolese urban music. It has been suggested that it is an imitation of the Ewe term agbadza, perhaps exclaimed during dancing.⁷⁷ Considering the impact the musical practices Ghanaian immigrants had on the social life of 1920s’ Léopoldville, it merits serious consideration. The name agbaya was given to all social dances, regardless of ethnic origin, until approximately 1925.⁷⁸ It seems, however, that this term was not used anywhere but in Léopoldville, pointing to its origin in the international urban milieu.

Among the earliest innovations was the incorporation of different instruments into musical practices. The likembe had served as the primary melodic instrument up through the 1930s, but it was gradually replaced as musicians experimented with new instruments. Certainly in mission schools, where, as noted, many musicians got their start, the likembe was demeaned as a primitive instrument. European brass and reed instruments were taught, and a style of music called fanfare developed out of this education. In popular, extra-curricular milieux accordions and guitars gradually replaced the likembe, due to their ability to closely imitate the melodies and rhythms of the likembe. Accordions were heard by 1902 in Brazzaville, possibly earlier in Léopoldville.⁷⁹ Exactly when the guitar was first used in Congolese music is less clear. The most likely terminus post quem for its appearance in Africa appears to lie somewhere around 1500.⁸⁰ I am speaking here of the so-called Spanish guitar, which began to make its presence felt on Congolese music by the 1930s. Kazadi theorizes that it came to the Congo through Angola from Portugal.⁸¹ Another possibility is that it may have come west from the from the Indian Ocean, along the Arab trade routes. During the first half of this century, guitars were more common in the region of Katanga in the southeast of DRC, which may explain why the early stars of new Congolese pop music, like Jean Bosco Mwenda wa Bayeke and Losta Abelo, hailed from there.

Another of the first urban, syncretic genres of music to appear was that of the brass bands, also called fanfares. Archival photographs show that these groups featured a tuba, baritone, trumpets, cornets, flugle horns, clarinets, saxes, and a bass drum.⁸² The fanfare phenomenon flourished after World War I in conjunction with the social groups, and according to Kazadi, their repertoire derived from combining West African and European idioms.⁸³ I believe the Congolese musicians were receiving instruction in European waltzes, polkas and military music from the schools and European-sponsored clubs, while simultaneously learning from the West Africans styles like Ghanaian highlife in their free time. An example of direct transfer between West Africa and the Congo is Adou Elenga's 1951 recording of "Tout le monde samedi soir" (audio ex. A1).⁸⁴ This song is a rendition of a coastal West African hit, popular from Senegal to Nigeria.⁸⁵ Elenga's version, called a highlife by Ngoma, is for solo guitar. The combination of strumming and picking shows influences of both the palm-wine style of the Kru and Krio of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and also the two-finger style from Shaba and northern Zambia. He sings in French and Lingala. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the recording I heard was transferred from a shellac disc found in the collection of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Company.

Few could afford the foreign instruments used to play the European music, but fortunately the youth clubs sponsored by the missions began making them available. In Brazzaville, clubs like the Patronage Saint-Louis, established in 1907, alumni associations of the Catholic and public schools open from the mid-1930s, and L’Union Educative et Mutuelle de la Jeunesse de Brazzaville, established in 1942, provided opportunities for youth to learn how to play musical instruments and learn European and American harmonies and notation. The clubs also sponsored bands in which anyone could play.⁸⁶ With the growing popularity of Latin music the fanfare tradition began to fade, disappearing in the late 1950s and early 1960s.⁸⁷

Maringa

When the elite dance halls in Brazzaville were playing the most popular European dance steps, including the “highly fashionable Cakewalk,” the masses were enjoying the maringa.⁸⁸ The maringa may have been created in Loango (DRC), or in another of the new urban centers in either Congo in the early to mid-1920s.⁸⁹ However, Herbert Pepper observed the maringa of the Vili and Pongwe in Libreville, Gabon.⁹⁰ The name was also used in Sierra Leone.⁹¹ As with "agbaya," it is difficult to settle on an etymological history for "maringa." Judging from where the dance made its first appearance, it is highly possible that the term resulted from encounters with migrant communities from across the Atlantic, most likely from Francophone territories. Haiti had a music genre called mering from the first half of the 19th century, a possible nominal antecedent.⁹² The maringa dispensed with the circle of the agbaya. Instead, it was a partnered dance with hip movements and a shifting of weight from leg to leg in a manner reportedly similar to the rumba. The instrumentation was the melody instrument, either a likembe, an accordion, or a guitar, accompanied by a rhythm section of bottle-cum-knife and some kind of drum, either a crate, a patenge (a square frame drum), or one of the ngoma type (a cylindro-conical drum), played with two hands and the right heel, which was pressed on the hitting surface to change the tension and voice of the drum.⁹³ Two typical maringa rhythms are shown below (figure 1).

Fig. 1: Maringa rhythms⁹⁴

$ [cggh ch cggh ch|c c c c] (time line, played on bottle and knife)

$ [ycjj ch ycjj ch |ycjj ch ycjj ch](patenge counter pattern)

The earliest music groups had three or four members, with the guitar and drum as their basic structure to which anything else available could be added.⁹⁵ In 1935, youth from the Colonie scolaire de Boma formed the first ensemble in the Belgian Congo, a maringa group. They and other similar groups played mandolin, banjo, guitar, violin, accordion and patenge. Orchestre Excelsior, formed by Coastmen in Boma in 1940, also used piano.⁹⁶ In 1954 a maringa ensemble based in Léopoldville operating under the name Congo Excelsior Club (whose relationship with the above is unclear) had eleven members, playing violins, brass and woodwinds, an accordion, maracas, bass drum and cymbals.⁹⁷ With this eclectic collection of instruments these maringa ensembles synthesized foxtrot, waltz, polka, quadrille, tango, bolero, swing and, of course, the myriad of regional musics known to the musicians.⁹⁸ The maringa's enduring strength was directly related to its adaptability; it became a flexible framework into which Congolese musicians could assimilate foreign musics and instruments. Three main versions of the maringa were popularized in the 1930s: one incorporating the polka, one the polka piqué, and one the quadrille. When they added violins and brass they created other variants, such as the sebene, ebonga and biguine.⁹⁹ The musics learned from the Coastmen and West Indian soldiers stationed in Brazzaville were similarly given a maringa treatment. This inclusivity enriched the melodic possibilities of maringa by expanding its tone palette.¹⁰⁰

The maringa was the first movement, the first expression of the urban community, to write the nation. The use of foreign and familiar instruments acknowledged the place of the Congo in an increasingly interconnected world, as did the incorporation of rhythms from other repertoires. Equally important was the maringa's community-building effect that ran counter to the missions' attempts at splintering traditional communities and creating enclaves that would promote their own goals. The maringa provided urban migrants with outlets for their need to gather, reconnect and express their changing identities. It entered the lexicon, as shown by Kanza: “One ‘went to the Matanga,’ [a large, upbeat wake, held after mourning has ended] to designate traditional, customary social gatherings, but one ‘went to the Maringa’ when speaking of events less customary that took place in specific places.”¹⁰¹

The troubadour tradition of Antoine Wendo Kolosoy, Léon Bukasa, Adou Elenga and Henri Bowane (guitarists), Antoine Mundanda (likembe-ist), and Camille Feruzi (accordionist) coexisted with the new orchestras into the 1950s. As the concept of ensembles displaced the troubadour tradition, most of them became leaders of their own ensembles. Sometimes they joined together, as in the case of Trio B.O.W., co-led by Bukasa, Manuel d’Oliveira and Wendo, formed in 1953. Their era, known as Ntango ya baWendo (“Time of the Wendos”), declined when maringa music was swept away by the Latin craze.

Rumba Lingala

They (the freedom fighters) rediscovered the old songs -- they had never completely lost touch with them -- and reshaped them to meet the new needs of their struggle. They also created new songs and dances with new rhythms where the old ones were found inadequate.¹⁰²

Thanks to 78s and the wind-up Edison, the 1930s heard the sounds of Cuban bands like Orquesta Aragon, Septeto Habanero and Septeto Nacional on both sides of the River.¹⁰³ The following steps became popular in the following decades: Dominican merengue, Haitian mering, the beguine from Martinique, the tango from Argentina, Brazilian samba, and the Cuban cha-cha, bolero, and mambo. But the forms of Latin music that cut the widest swathe in the Congos were the Cuban son montuno and Cuban rumba, the latter being the rhythm most heavily influenced by African rhythms.¹⁰⁴

Rumba Lingala emerged as a defined genre in the Lower Congo (Boma and Matadi) and Stanley Pool (Léopoldville and Brazzaville) regions in the 1940s. Due in part to the rumba’s appearance at the 1932 Chicago World Fair, it had become respectable to many Europeans. Machito and his Afrocubans, Orquesta Broadway, and Johnny Pacheco's band, among other ensembles, introduced audiences in New York to Latin dances, sparking an international craze. These dances reached the Congos on records and in person when the colonial governments hired them to entertain the colonial officers. The first band in Brazzaville to play Latin American music was Orchestre Congo-Rumba, started in 1934 by Jean Réal, a French man from Martinique.¹⁰⁵ Ensembles followed the "Haitian model" of guitar, cornet, sax, patenge and two singers.¹⁰⁶ The first African-led bands to incorporate rumba into their repertoire were established in 1942: In Léopoldville, Américain, Martinique, Odeon and Victoria Léo; in Brazzaville, Melo-Congo and Victoria Brazza.¹⁰⁷ Other groups from the mid-1940s include the Congo Bar's house band Kin Jazz and Jean Lopongo’s Mabokoji Group. These bands, along with Excelsior, are regarded as the first orchestres, or dance bands, ensembles with multiple vocalists, woodwinds, brass, chordophones and percussion. Typically these ensembles played for the following occasions: mourning, births, baptisms, family parties, marriages, as well as for popular amusement.¹⁰⁸ The Congolese scholar of music Lonoh Malangi Bokelenge states that before the arrival of Europeans to the Congo, dance bands such as these did not exist; local musical organizations were the norm.¹⁰⁹

Bands adapted to the new music by changing their instrumentation. They replaced the tuba with the upright bass; substituted a full percussion section of congas, maracas, claves, güiros, etc. for the bass drum; added lead and rhythm guitars; and added or retained a clarinet or other wind instrument. Their early works were often covers of Latin classics, such as the son-pregón “El Manisero” (“The Peanut Vendor” -- audio ex. A2),¹¹⁰ which became a staple of dance bands.¹¹¹ Bokalanga's rumba "Mazole Vanga Sanga," recorded on Loningisa 1953-1954, begins with "Mani-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i," a direct quote from "El Manisero" (audio ex. A3).¹¹² Songs were often sung in French or Spanish. The newly structured ensembles sometimes changed their names to reflect their "modernization." L’Harmonie Kinoise, for instance, became La Joie Kinoise in 1949. La Joie Kinoise, under the leadership of singer, interpreter and composer Joseph Kabasele Tshamala, later changed its name to African Jazz for its first official appearance in Kinshasa in 1953.¹¹³ Musicians also Latinized their names to demonstrate their hipness. François and Francis became "Franco," Edward "Edo," Nicolas "Nico," and Balozi "Baroza."¹¹⁴ The rise of this type of dance band and the integration of Latin themes signified the birth of modern Congolese music, Rumba Lingala.¹¹⁵

The lyrics of many early cha-chas, boleros, pachangas and merengues were sung in a pidgin Spanish, copied from the recordings the musicians were imitating. Even in original compositions singers would often insert Spanish. In an interview with Kazadi, Franco said, "Well, nobody understood Spanish. Nevertheless, we took a dictionary and searched for words that would sound good and we used them regardless of their true meaning."¹¹⁶ "Maria Antonia," recorded by Pholidor and Bana Loningisa 1955-56, is an example of the "Rumba Española," a rumba sung in an untranslatable "Spangala" (audio ex. A4).¹¹⁷

The use of Spanish diminished in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The following description by Comhaire-Sylvain is informative. Firstly, it underscores the point about linguistic interpolation I have been making; secondly, it addresses the popularity of several varieties of music during the period; thirdly, it corroborates something I have been able only to infer, that is what people were buying before 1948, when the earliest extant local recordings were made.

Many recordings were being sold in Kinshasa in 1945. Those with success were dance music. Contrary to Spirituals which were not being sold, American jazz tunes were very much appreciated and often imitated by Congolese bands. Local composers sometimes adapted Lingala words to tunes which were enjoyed the most by the population. South American and Afro-Cuban music were also popular and several Congolese singers adorned their own works with Spanish words. ¹¹⁸

Defining Rumba Lingala is not easy. Firstly, neither the beginning nor the end of its period can be clearly marked. Secondly, it was performed differently by different groups. Thirdly, it changed drastically over time. We can simplify the task by focusing on the period 1948-1960 and examining it as performed on the main record labels and by its primary practitioners. I have chosen 1948 as a starting point, because the first recordings of Congolese music available today were made that year. My analysis ends in 1960 with independence.

The new form was popularized first by the collection of artists recording for the labels Ngoma, Opika, Loningisa, and CEFA (see further on media in chapter five).¹¹⁹ The artists on Ngoma included Antoine Wendo Kolosoy, Manoka "De Saio" Suleyman, Camille Feruzi, Manuel d'Oliveira, Georges Edouard, Léon Bukasa, Antoine Mundanda, Camille Mokoko, Adou Elenga, Victor Mokoko, Bosele François, and Luampasi Albert. Most of these artists had been working for the label's owner as musicians, even before Ngoma had been established. Once a proper label, the studio formed Beguen Band, a house band whose notable members included Balozi alias Tino Baroza, Depiano, Pierre “Delafrance,” Fariya wa Yembo alias Franck Lassan, Edo Paulin, Albino Kalombo, K.P. Flammy and Roitelet.

Early stars on Loningisa included Henri Bowane, Paul Ebengo alias Dewayon, Jean Bokelo, Kalima Pierre, Honoré Liengo, Adikwa, Pholidor, Bemi, Pembellot alias Tino Mab, and the members of Bana Loningisa, the house band. Bana Loningisa included Luambo Makiadi alias Franco, Dessoin, Daniel "De la Lune" Loubelo, Jean-Serge Essous, Edward "Edo" Nganga, Pandi Saturnin, Landot Rossignol, and, from time to time, Roitelet. It was this 1955 line-up of Bana Loningisa, plus Vicky Longomba and minus Roitelet, that in 1956 recorded for Loningisa under the name O.K. Jazz.

Opika boasted Zacharie Elenga alias Jhimmy "the Hawaïan guitarist," Paul Mwanga, Charles "Dechaud" Mwamba, Andre "Damoiseau" Kambite, Tino Baroza, Honoré Liengo, Gobi, Soudain, Eboma, Tanko, Basile and its greatest star, Joseph Kabasele. Information about CEFA has been more difficult to find, but sources show that Vicky Longomba and possibly Roitelet recorded on that label.

Artists tended to stay with one label, but some, like bassist Roitelet, guitarist Honoré Liengo and singer Vicky, who left CEFA for Loningisa, moved around. Each house seems to have employed one or more Europeans who wanted to play Rumba Lingala. Ngoma organist Pilaeïs, CEFA guitarist Bill Alexandre, Opika saxophonist Candrix, Ngoma organist Gilbert Warnant, Lonongisa/CEFA organist Sarti (who may in fact have been Gilbert Warnant) and the under-identified Jacques Pelzer all collaborated with Congolese musicians. Alexandre and Candrix are particularly remembered for their musical contributions. Alexandre brought the first electric guitar to Léopoldville, a Les Paul, and its sound so impressed listeners that it was dubbed the "talking guitar." He is credited with introducing Franco to the runs of sixths that later became his signature style.¹²⁰

This European clique of musicians acted as an interculture of affiliation between the subculture of rising Congolese Rumba Lingala musicians and the supercultural European-controlled mediascape. They also helped bridge the two musical supercultures, African and European. As fusion artists they introduced European techniques and instruments to Congolese musicians, who were eager to experiment. It is curious then, given their interaction, that no European musician appears in any of the labels' photographs. Did the prohibition of Africans' performing before white audiences restrict joint media appearances? Or was it the marketing decision of the labels' executives? Perhaps they decided that they wanted to promote Rumba Lingala as music by Africans for Africans. If so, this would have indirectly contributed to the definition and construction of the Congolese nation.

Perhaps it was the aurally and physically evident African influence in the rumba that made it initially popular in the Congo. Cuba and the Congo were anything but two “fully formed and mutually exclusive cultural communities” colliding.¹²¹ The rumba itself sprang from the mixture of the folk musics of the Spanish slavers and the African captives brought to Cuba, seventy percent of whom were from the Congo basin.¹²² The Spanish and Portuguese idioms contributing to the musical traditions of the Americas were also influenced by the North African Moors occupying the Iberian peninsula in the eighth century. These African impressions imprinted the music of Cuba with an indelible mark easily read and copied by future Africans.

What was called Rumba Lingala was related to but not identical to Cuban rumba. After examining Cuban rumbas and Congolese rumbas, I see rhythmic resemblance only in the clavé beat. In the Congo the term "rumba" seems to have been applied to any music with a clavé beat, even if there were no other formal similarities. Eventually the name was applied to all music with a Latin tinge, even if it more closely resembled a maringa in rhythm. A reinterpretation of the name thus accompanied the assimilation of the music. Kazadi asserts that the decision to retain the name rumba was a studio decision, based on the word's commercial appeal.¹²³

Rumba Lingala's signature rhythm, according to my analysis, is a duple meter. Its clavé beat (fig. 2) is articulated by percussion, guitar, horn, or organ. For comparison, figure 3 shows a timeline found in many parts of West Africa, and figure 4 shows the Cuban clavé beat .

Fig. 2 $ {ounEeeE}

Fig. 3 $ {eEeEeEEeEeEE}¹²⁴

Fig. 4 @ {oun’Eeq}¹²⁵

As I hear these rhythms, the rest between the grouping of three and the grouping of two gives a feeling of a dragging, holding, then catching up. In its faster form the Rumba Lingala clavé beat may enunciate just the slide, by eliding the first two pulses (fig. 5).

Fig. 5 @ {qn}

Variations occurred, in which beat 3 becomes 1, resulting in figure 6.

Fig. 6 $ {EeeEoun}

Another variation, used in medium tempo songs, is shown in figure 7.

Fig. 7 $ {neEneE}

The lull of the rests preserves the “sliding” feeling, which the right foot outlines at the top of the square in the ballroom version of Cuban rumba.

Even this neat delineating of the Rumba Lingala rhythm is not without its problems, for several tracks called rumbas by the record label exhibit other rhythms. Moreover, the slower rhythm (fig. 2) could be stretched to cover two measures.

The bass guitar emphasized the clavé beat and provided the harmonic framework, typically a I-(IV)-V-I progression (fig. 8). Maracas (fig. 9) and drums (fig. 10) filled out the rhythm section.

Fig. 8¹²⁶ ¯=4=(=G¶=I¶=K==D´=F´=H==) bass

Fig. 9 $ \ ch ch ch ch \ ch b \ maracas

Fig. 10 $ [ s u e c ch ] drums

$ [ s u e cjjj ch ]

The guitars were tuned D-G-D-G-B-D, called the "Hawaiian" open tuning. Musicians used a capo to change keys, and vibrations of the open strings against it produced a highly desirable buzzing effect.¹²⁷ This buzzing timbre is found in many parts of Africa; in the Congo region the keys of likembes are fitted with bits of metal, which buzz when the keys are plucked. The square wave, or signal distortion, of amplified guitars, which Rumba Lingala musicians began experimenting with in the early 1950s, produces a similar timbre.

Most singing is syllabic, with melismatic inflections at the end of lines, many of which use a rhetorical call of "mamá, é." The harmonies are usually thirds, though Kazadi notes the occasional octave or fifth, used for special effect.¹²⁸ Three types of call and response recur: between singer and chorus; between singer and instrument; and between instruments of different sections. Pieces exhibit a combination of homophony and polyrhythm. Melodic interest is concentrated in a single part with subordinate accompaniment, but rhythmic texture is denser and more differentiated across the various instruments. Horns often punctuate, interspersing with vocal lines, rather than carry the melodic line, except when used antiphonally with the lead singer or chorus. Improvisation generally consists of variations of a motif, often involving a third. The lead guitarist of African Jazz, Dr. Nico, played in higher registers and often improvised by moving up and down the scale step-wise through arpeggios on a single string or parallel third movement on two. Franco of O.K. Jazz preferred intervals of thirds and sixths on the mid-range strings, and his improvisations, which especially in later years featured variations on a series of repeated riffs, exploited the guitar's rhythmic capabilities. In his hands it became a voice conversing with other instruments in the percussion section.

During this era composers did not use modulation. Songs began and ended in a single key. From the beginning of Rumba Lingala, songs were by and large composed with multiple sections. The first was an introduction, in which typically everyone sang and played. The second section was often a sort of solo portion, called the sebene, which in some ways resembled the montuno portion of the Cuban son montuno form.¹²⁹ Throughout songs, but especially during the sebene, musicians shout slogans. They often refer to the particular rhythm and dance of the song. As the sebene developed the special role of the animateur was created, whose job it was to incite the dancers with cries of "Kwassa kwassa!", "Kiri kiri!", "Moto!", "Zekete zekete!", etc. During the early years, shouted slogans were sonic signatures of a sort. For example, Edo Nganga was known to shout "Baila!", Rossignol "Caramba!", Kabasele "Chauffez!", and Bowane "Krr . . . wamoluka landa bango!" ("Krr . . . searchers, follow them!"). Dewayon was known to call out words and phrases in Indoubil, a slang combining Congolese and European languages, such as "Nzo nzoku mabe!"¹³⁰ Notice the play of Lingala, Spanish, French and Indoubil. During this stretch the dancers would try out new steps.

Later compositions took on two or three distinct sections. The first was an introduction, where the lyrical and melodic motifs were presented in a slow to medium tempo. The sebene would begin with an obvious increase in tempo and perhaps a change in key. Singing might or might not continue. If so, a third, purely instrumental section could close out the song. The sebene grew longer and became the highly anticipated portion of a composition. Since the middle 1980s many bands, such as Kanda Bongo Man's group, Pepe Kallé's Empire Bakuba, Les Quatres Étoiles and Soukous Stars, have dispensed with the introduction altogether. Others, such as Wenge Musica, Shaba Kahamba's Les Esprits Saints and Mose Se Fan Fan's Somo Somo Ngobila seem now to be returning to the two-part format. In the early days of Rumba Lingala, however, the songs usually had a formal organization of A-B-A, where the sebene (B) differed very little in tempo or melody from the A sections.

I hear the adherence to a single tonality, the preference for close harmonies, and the use of call and response as a desire for unity. Expressions of agreement are privileged over those of dissent, those of harmony over those of dissonance, of inclusion over exclusion. The characteristic sweetness of Rumba Lingala, even of Congolese music up to the present, achieved by singing in upper registers and falsettos, the rounded timbre of the amplified guitars, the tight harmonies and the limited improvisation, eschews conflict, encourages agreement. It also makes up for the hardships of everyday life.

Musicians drew together local musical characteristics, such as singing in thirds, polyrhythm and homophony, and foreign elements, in instrumentation, harmonic progression and Spanish, in order to syncretize the dissonant environments and resolve the existential tension of the two colliding world systems. They sought to make a space where everyone could create, participate and identify. The syncretism shows both a nostalgia for a lost life and an excitement for the present and future. The sebene section is the time to celebrate the new identity in the company of the group, for the dancers to show that they belong. It is the time for the musicians to demonstrate their facileness with the world they have created -- their instruments and music -- thereby making it more attractive to everyone else.

Another characteristic of Rumba Lingala is the high degree of repetition in compositions. Short phrases in horn, guitar, percussion and vocal parts are repeated many times. As technological advances enabled longer recordings, the repetition increased. This feature lends itself well to dancing, as a stable base is needed to work the choreography and is characteristic of many of the rural music traditions in the Congos. I hear more than the simple transfer of a musical practice: Repetition can be a form of hyperbole, and in the case of Rumba Lingala, I think it is. Motifs are introduced and repeated with variations. The motifs express on the surface musical tendencies, and below the surface ideological tendencies. The exaggeration of repetition is what Max Paddison called a "stylistic device employed to highlight these tendencies and bring them vividly into consciousness."¹³¹ Their repetition is an effort to wear down the opposition, erode the system, break out of the confines of colonialism.