Art & Culture – fdc – en

Tim Butcher's first book, Blood River – A Journey To Africa's Broken Heart, has just been selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club choice. It uses his expedition across the Congo to tell the region's turbulent history. He has worked for The Daily Telegraph since 1991 specialising in reporting on awkward places at awkward times. He currently works as the paper's Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem.

Few rivers have inspired writers more than the Congo. Here's my pick of ten titles with Africa's mightiest river running through them.

see below

Hello,

we inform you that PICHA photo gallery is online on the website www.rencontrespicha.org

from Paal Post, South Africa

Williams
Critic

“On the Rumba River”
Very Good, ***
Unrated
82 minutes
In Lingala with subtitles

attachments

This song is by the Kasebas, refugees from the Congo. I think the language is Bemba, but I'm not sure.

Urban traditional bands from the ethnic neighborhoods of sprawling Kinshasa have emerged as a surprise world music hit around the world. Overlooked and marginalized in the complex world of Congolese pop music, groups like Konono No 1 and Kisanzi Congo are reaching the world thanks to the concerted efforts of Belgian musician and producer Vincent Kenis, the man behind the Congotronics phenomenon. This urban roots music goes back to the heady days of President Mobutu's "authenticity" campaign in the 1970s, and to ancient, village culture before that. How that music became a hit with college age, club crawlers from London to Seattle is quite a story. And the music has a trance vibe that takes hold of you and doesn't let go. We speak with Vincent Kenis, Mawangu Mingiedi of Konono No 1, and also a rising star in mainstream Congo pop–Felix Wazekwa. All that plus new music from the acoustic rumba revival group, Kékélé.

attachments

Viewed through the lens of music, the Congo presents a stark contrast. From the ravages of the slaving Portuguese, to King Leopold's virtual slave state in the late 19th century, through the monumental corruption and ruthless oppression of the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko that ended in 1997, this African heartland has known a history of unrelieved brutality and sadness.