"Samba is easily the greatest of all Congolese musicians ever to set base in Nairobi," opines Jacob Owiyo, a football coach and music fan from Nairobi.

He goes ahead to expound on the factors that make him come to that conclusion, beginning with Samba’s natural singing voice. Apart from being a vocalist, Jacob, who first met Samba in Mombasa in 1977, says Samba mostly composed songs themed on subjects that resonated with society, making his songs everyone’s favourite. That’s not all. He explains that Samba did several of his songs in Kiswahili, and this endeared him to Kenyans more than other musicians who mostly sang in Lingala, because the language created a barrier. Kenyans speak Swahili, English, and several other vernaculars native to Africa, mostly Bantu and Nilotic.

Congolese, on the other hand, mostly speak Lingala and French. Although Swahili is a national language in the DRC, alongside Lingala and Tshiluba, most Congolese musicians sing in Lingala, either because it is the most used in Western and Central DRC, where most musicians come from, or because Lingala is more musical and has been adopted as the unofficial language of rumba.

True to his words, songs like Vunja Mifupa are on everyone’s lips, as they understand the words and the theme is a very commonplace occurrence—with men abdicating responsibilities due to alcoholism. When a national debate on women’s slyness and men’s gullibility was triggered by Taarab singer Malika Mohamed, Samba joined the debate by doing his version of the song.

That many Congolese musicians who made it to East Africa mostly sang in Lingala made Samba more acceptable, Jacob insists, while mentioning that with local manager Tabu Osusa, Samba became more Kenyan than any other Congolese musician of the time.

Although Les Mangelepa did a song, Mtukufu Moi, for the then-President Moi, Samba’s song Karibu Kenya is more of the country’s unofficial tourism anthem, alongside Jambo Bwana by the Mushrooms. Even after relocating to the US, Samba has continued to view Kenya as home.

Jacob, who has been a staunch follower of Congolese rumba and specifically the Congolese bands in Nairobi, even named his son after Pele Ondindia, the Le Kinois singer who came as a musician but ended up playing football for Gor Mahia.

The story of Samba’s musical exploits in East Africa dates back to early 1975, when Ugandan businessman Mustafa Atama made a journey to the DRC, then known as Zaire, to prospect for musicians who would form a band to perform at his joint, known as Economy, in Kampala. The joint’s resident band had been Bana Ngege, made up mostly of former musicians from Orchestra Veve, but the band had since relocated to Nairobi, where it mutated into Bana Modja, thus creating the vacuum that Atama intended to fill.

While visiting Isiro town, he came across a youthful band by the name of Saka Saka. This band, headed by Bikassy Mandeko Bidjos, was performing at a venue in the town, but in the absence of their leader.

Mustafa engaged the band, whose chef d’orchestre was Samba Mapangala. They agreed on a deal and snuck out of the town for a journey eastwards into Uganda, without the blessings of their leader, Bikassy Bidjos. Once in Kampala, they settled at their new base, but they needed a new name. They couldn’t operate as Saka Saka, because that was someone else’s band. The band arrived in Kampala on January 16, 1976. They found a name for themselves, Le Kinois. Kinois is a nickname for Kinshasa, and so Le Kinois Bana Kin, as they fondly referred to themselves, meant “sons of Kinshasa.”

The musicians in this entourage included Samba Mapangala himself, who was a composer and vocalist, Fataki Lokassa, who was also a vocalist, Bibiley Kabakaba, who was a rhythmist, Mwalimu Bedjos, bassist Diabanza Johnico, other singers Pele Ondindia and Madjo Maduley, drummer Fustao Waroma, among others.

In Kampala, Samba’s team incorporated other musicians, including percussionist Kasule Mopepe, whose name features very prominently in most of the band’s songs, with the line “sitaki maneno” following. Kampala, like other East African cities, had a euphoric love for Congolese music, and the band was in high demand.

Eastward, Nairobi was calling. The Kenyan capital had an even more vibrant music industry with better recording prospects. The band made several journeys into Nairobi but would return to Kampala, which was their base, before finally settling in Nairobi, where they performed at Garden Square and Uhuru Park. It is worth noting that Mwalimu Bedjos, who was a teacher by profession, had chosen to remain behind in Uganda to pursue his teaching career, forcing the band’s rhythmist, Bibiley Kabakaba, to convert to solo guitar. Okello Jose, a Kenyan, was recruited to take up the role of rhythm guitarist. Okello Jose, who had played with Ochieng Kabasele and other musicians, had been groomed by Juma Toto, who was also just kin.

On one of the band’s journeys to Kampala via bus, the band was reportedly attacked by gunmen in the volatile era of absolutist President Idi Amin. The bus was sprayed with bullets, and in the aftermath, their leader, Samba, was shot in the leg. The band had had managerial tussles between Samba and Madjo, both star vocalists and composers. The tussle had created factions in the band.

While back in Nairobi and recuperating, a source who doesn’t wish to be named says one musician from the Madjo faction was quoted as saying the bullet that injured Samba in his leg ought to have found his head, to kill him. When the rumour got to Samba, he quit and made up his mind to travel back to his native Congo. A veteran producer at Polygram implored Samba to stick around.

Samba obliged and recorded a few songs at Polygram, which became a huge success and gave him a reason not to go back to the DRC. He incorporated Bua Mangala, aka Loboko Passie, on rhythm, Lawi Somana on solo, Nsilu Wabansilu on bass, Shaban Onyango on rhythm, and Attey on sax. Ahmed Sabbit, a tribute to his friend from Uganda, Yembele, and the hit song Virunga are products of this arrangement. In fact, he was envisaging a new dawn for himself in Kinshasa in the song.

Not long after, Samba created his own Virunga. The star-studded Virunga had big names like Siama Matuzungidi on rhythm, Sammy Masinta and Mwalimu Bedjos on solo (note that Bedjos had since linked up with former colleagues in Nairobi), singers Dago Mayombe, Kasongo Wa Kanema, Moreno Batamba, Coco Zigo, and Samba himself. Others were drummer Mandala Ochudi, who was the drummer alongside Lava Machine, aka Lemutu Vumbi. Ochudi is the composer of Sister Alima.

Meanwhile, Le Kinois continued performing under Madjo Maduley, but before long, the band collapsed after Super Mazembe leader Longwa Dido poached Madjo to replace Lovy Longomba, who had made himself unavailable for the band upon realizing he was a gem.

As the adage goes, when the forest catches fire, grasshoppers do not find the luxury of washing each other goodbye—other musicians scattered after the fall of Le Kinois. Madjo went to Mazembe while Bibiley went to Japan, from where he came back with equipment and created his own band, Malembe Stars. After Mazembe, Madjo created his own outfit, Zaiken. Samba’s Virunga had a retinue that comprised a galaxy of superstars, and he gave other big names a run for their money, until late in the 1980s when the entertainment scene began a downward trajectory with the reality of piracy eating much of what would have been a musician’s income, making it difficult for bands to pay members as was the case.

This is one of the reasons Samba travelled to Paris for a series of recordings with Europe-based session musicians, the other reason being superior recording equipment. In the mid-1990s, Samba left Nairobi for the USA, where he has since released several albums—Ujumbe, Kilimanjaro, etc. He occasionally performs in the USA. He has recently hinted at making a comeback to Nairobi.

Samba was born in Congo’s port city of Matadi in the early 1950s. After completing his schooling, he relocated to Kinshasa in 1972, as documented by Alastair Johnston in the Muzikifan blog. He made his debut as a musician featuring for Super Bella, an offshoot of Bella Mambo, before travelling to Eastern Congo to join Saka Saka of Bikassy.

By Jerome Ogola

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