​CHRONICLE 4: Papa Wemba, Rhumba and the Making of African Worlds

CHRONICLE 4: Papa Wemba, Rhumba and the Making of African Worlds

by

Egara Kabaji

I promised that I would work on a documentary during my stay here in Bayreuth. My host, Professor Gilbert Ndi Shang, and I have agreed to do a documentary on Papa Wemba and the meaning and growth of rhumba music. In the process, I have found myself reflecting more deeply on questions of creativity and how people make and remake the worlds they inhabit. This has allowed me to explore the theme of worldmaking, which is central to the intellectual work of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth.

There is another dimension that makes this experience particularly meaningful to me. Professor Ndi Shang and I share a deep passion for Congolese rhumba. We can spend time discussing its rhythms, musicians, history and place in African cultural life. It is fascinating how a shared interest can bring two people from different backgrounds into a common intellectual and creative space. Don’t you think so?

I think fate has a way of connecting people with the same passion. We have travelled different intellectual roads, but our love for rhumba has brought us together. What began as a shared interest has become a creative collaboration. We are not simply producing a documentary about Papa Wemba and the growth of rhumba. No. We are also exploring how music creates relationships and connects people across geographical and cultural boundaries.

This collaboration has made me think more deeply about the power of music. What is it about rhumba that makes people identify with one another? How does music travel across borders and become part of the cultural lives of communities far removed from its place of origin? These questions have taken me to the heart of worldmaking.

When I listen to Congolese rhumba, I do not hear music as entertainment alone. I hear a cultural language through which people express emotions and preserve memories. I think rhumba creates a social space for musicians and audiences to participate in a shared experience. The dancer, the singer, the guitarist and the audience are all part of the performance. Each contributes to the world that comes into being through the music.

The seben, for instance, is not merely an instrumental interlude in a song. It is an invitation to participation. The guitar takes over, the drums intensify the rhythm, the atalaku animates the performance. At this point, dancers respond with movements that are both individual and collective. The audience is no longer simply listening. It becomes part of the performance. In that moment, music creates a temporary world in which people share rhythm and a sense of belonging.

This is one of the things I have come to appreciate while working on the documentary. Rhumba is a multi-layered cultural text. Its meaning is not carried by lyrics alone. It is also communicated through guitar arrangements, dance, costume, gesture, performance and audience response. The body becomes an instrument of expression while fashion becomes a statement of identity. And, yes, the stage becomes a space where individuals and communities imagine who they are and who they might become.

Papa Wemba occupies a particularly important place in this cultural world. His contribution cannot be understood only through his songs. His association with Zaiko Langa Langa, the formation of Viva La Musica and his distinctive sense of style reveal an artist who understood performance as a complete cultural experience.

Through La Sape, he helped make dressing and personal presentation part of a larger artistic identity. Clothing is not simply about covering the body. It is about making a statement, claiming visibility and creating an image of oneself.

Papa Wemba’s story also invites me to think about the relationship between individual creativity and collective cultural traditions. Papa Wemba did not emerge in a cultural vacuum. He inherited a musical world shaped by earlier masters such as Grand Kallé and Tabu Ley Rochereau. He also became part of a generation that sought to renew Congolese music through new sounds and performance styles.

This is another dimension of worldmaking. Every generation inherits a world, but it does not have to reproduce it exactly as it found it. It can reshape and expand it. Musicians draw from what came before them while introducing new styles and possibilities. The result is a cultural world that is constantly being remade.

The documentary we are working on has also drawn my attention to the geography of rhumba. Congolese music did not remain confined to Kinshasa or the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has travelled to distant places and has become part of the everyday cultural experiences of people across Africa and beyond.

The movement of this music across borders demonstrates that cultural influence does not always follow political or economic power. Sometimes a guitar or a song can connect people more effectively than formal institutions. The guitar crossed borders, carrying sounds and styles that audiences elsewhere adopted and made their own. In the process, rhumba has become part of a wider African cultural conversation.

I find this particularly significant in the context of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence and its theme of worldmaking. Africa is often represented in global narratives through conflict, poverty and the extraction of natural resources. The Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular, is frequently discussed in relation to its minerals and persistent conflict. Yet the country has also given Africa and the world an extraordinary musical heritage.

Congolese rhumba is one expression of that heritage. It demonstrates the capacity of African communities to create cultural forms that travel, influence others and generate new possibilities of belonging. It challenges the tendency to view Africa merely as a place from which the rest of the world extracts resources. Africa is also a source of ideas, sounds, artistic innovation and cultural knowledge.

Working on the documentary has also made me reflect on the way societies remember their artists. Papa Wemba died in Abidjan in April 2016, but his music continues to circulate. His life was complex. An honest account of his legacy cannot be reduced to admiration alone. He was an artist with extraordinary talent and contradictions. His story includes moments of generosity and achievement, as well as controversy and personal difficulties. But isn’t that what life is for all of us?

I am increasingly persuaded that remembering an artist requires us to confront the complexity of the person rather than construct an unblemished monument. The music may outlive the musician, but the human being behind the music remains part of the story. The documentary therefore seeks to explore not only what Papa Wemba created but also the cultural world within which he lived and worked.

The process has also made me appreciate the importance of intellectual curiosity. Professor Ndi Shang's interest in Papa Wemba and rhumba, including his journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo to encounter the musician's world, raises an important question. Why should a scholar travel to understand a musician? What kind of knowledge can be found in a guitar, a dance, a song or the lived experiences of a musical community?

For me, the answer lies in recognising that knowledge is not produced only in lecture rooms, libraries and academic publications. It is also embedded in artistic practice and everyday cultural experience. Music is a site of knowledge, and the musician is a cultural thinker. The dancer interprets the rhythm through the body, while the audience participates in the creation of meaning.

This is why our documentary is more than an account of the history of Congolese rhumba. It is an inquiry into how artistic expression produces knowledge and creates worlds. It is also a practical demonstration of how two people who share an intellectual and artistic interest can collaborate across their different experiences to produce a common narrative.

As I reflect on my collaboration with Professor Gilbert Ndi Shang, I see another form of worldmaking taking place before me. We are drawing on music, scholarship, memory and personal experience to construct a narrative that can speak to audiences beyond Bayreuth. In this sense, the documentary is not only about the world Papa Wemba helped create. It is also about the world that our own collaboration is helping to create. Have we not found a reason to celebrate the creative possibilities of Africa? That, too, is worldmaking.

END