Sam Mangwana is one of the prime innovators of Congolese rumba, which has animated dancers and listeners throughout Africa. Commonly known as soukous, Congolese rumba combines hip-swinging rhythms with lyrical guitars and vocals to create a music that reverberates to the West.
    Born in Kinshasa, Congo, of Angolan parents, Mangwana heard, as a child, the music of visiting artists from Cuba, France, Spain, Italy, and the United States. The Cuban musicians who passed through Kinshasa left a particularly strong impression, because the Congolese recognized their own African rhythms in the Latin beats of the tres (guitar) and keyboard players who performed son, which had originated in the Cuban province of Oriente during the slave trade.
    Extremely popular in Kinshasa, the Cuban music was re-Africanized as Congolese rumba through the artistry of such musicians as Joseph Kabasele ("Le Grand Kalle"), singer Tabu Ley Rochereau, and the revered guitarist Franco with his OK Jazz big band. In much of the rest of Africa, it enjoyed great popularity and was called "Congo music."
    Sam Mangwana grew up in this creative environment. While a student at the Salvation Army School in Kinshasa he approached Tabu Ley Rochereau, with songs he had written. Tabu Ley invited Mangwana to join his band, African Fiesta. He remained with Tabu Ley until 1968, then left to form a new band called Festia des Maquisards.
    After playing in Franco's band OK Jazz, Mangwana left for West Africa in 1976. He settled briefly in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he met with other former members of Tabu Ley's band and formed the seminal African All Stars. They speeded up the Congolese rumba, added touches of Afrobeat and highlife, and sang more of their songs in French. That produced a more "international" rumba which soon led directly to the Paris "soukous" sound. Mangwana soon went solo and toured throughout Africa, playing to audiences of 50,000 in stadiums and arenas. He toured the U.S. in 1991 with Les Quatre Etoiles, and recorded a very popular release called Rumba Music with several New York salseros. Mangwana has settled near Paris, where he busily writes songs of love, loss, political exile, and the environment, inspired by varied African musical cultures. His "Canto Mozambique," a salute to the Mozambiquean revolution, became a huge hit in 1983. Return to Rakumi Arts Homepage