As you walk into Ibiza, a dance club in the middle of Goma, the bouncer takes your temperature, and you have to wash your hands with a bleach and water solution. Then you walk past a little gazebo and ...

KINSHASA, Oct 6 – Perched on a corner of the stage at La Septente, an open-air club in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa, Manda Chante sings the lilting opening to “Independence Cha Cha” ...

African music traveled to the New World with slavery, only to return to Africa in the 1930’s and 40’s via 78 rpm phonograph records, broadcast by Radio Congo Belge in Léopoldville (now Kinshasha), ...

Africa’s leading Congolese Rumba music is now on the list of the world cultural heritage of humanity after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) admitted the ...

Congolese Rumba is the glorious musical hybrid of Cuban music fused with African DNA. It started back in the 1950s with a boatload of 78 rpm Cuban records featuring Arsenio Rodriguez, Orquesta Aragón, ...

Trumpeters from the Bana OK band play at La Septante club in the Kasa-Vubu quarter of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Courtesy/Reuters) The heady beats of Congolese rumba were hailed by ...

EQUATORIAL BAND: Two Asheville-based musicians have launched side projects to explore their love of far-flung sounds. Below the Bassline, left, plays Jamaican reggae, and Coconut Cake, fronted by ...

You may think you don’t know anything about Congolese music. But if you’ve ever tapped your foot to the irresistible beat of the rumba, you’ve experienced a national tradition. Rumba originated in ...

DAKAR, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The heady beats of Congolese rumba were hailed by UNESCO on Tuesday as it added the central African music and dance to its list of global cultural treasures. The Democratic ...