Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba (14 June 1949 – 24 April 2016), known professionally as Papa Wemba (), was a Congolese singer and musician who played Congolese rumba, soukous, and ndombolo. Dubbed the "King of Rumba Rock", with whom he performed on stages throughout the world.
Musical career
Papa Wemba's road to fame and prominence began when he joined the music group Zaiko Langa Langa in 1969. This was followed by his success as a founding member both of Isifi Lokole and then Yoka Lokole, along with a short stint as a member of Afrisa International for a few months. influenced by western popular music that reflected a European flavor and style, referred to as "Europop." and impressed the band’s administrators. The next day, Bel Guide National was dissolved by its administration which decided to form (with Wemba as a singer) what-became the influential rock-rumba band Zaïko Langa Langa (ZLL) keeping just two Bel Guide National members: Jossart N'Yoka Longo and Félix Manuaku Waku. He remained with the group for four years.
Isifi Lokole
In December 1974, at the pinnacle of their fame (and just a month after the Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa), when he was suspected of having a relationship with army general's daughter.
After his success already with three influential groups, in 1977 Papa Wemba established a kind of commune for musicians. To accomplish this, he used his family home (on Kanda-Kanda street) as a fashionable gathering place for Matonge youths. He named it "Village Molokai" and declared himself to be its tribal chief (chef coutumier).
Move to Paris
Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wemba (both by himself and with Viva la Musica) started traveling to Paris, 100% Star Bakala Dia Kuba performed exceptionally well in Paris and Kinshasa. On 31 December 2001, he performed at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where he was joined onstage by Wendo Kolosoy. This performance formed part of a European tour that included France, Belgium, England, and Switzerland, before the band returned home at the end of February 2002 after a stop in West Africa.
By this time, Wemba's use of African, Cuban and Western influences was not only one of Africa's most popular music styles, it was crossing cultural boundaries and attracting a more diverse audience outside of Africa. In 1993, Wemba joined with Peter Gabriel for the latter's Secret World Tour, and this drew attention to Wemba's unique style and groundbreaking sound. The aforementioned Emotion album, released in 1995, showed that he was achieving a global following. At that point he was arrested in Paris and held while awaiting a trial. He then spent three-and-a-half months in prison until a €30,000 bail was posted (some reports claimed it was paid by the Congolese government). In June 2003 Wemba was released from prison which was an experience that, upon his release, he declared had had a profound psychological effect on him. The singer claimed to have undergone a spiritual conversion in jail In 2004, he was convicted in France, fined, and given a suspended prison sentence. Wemba returned to the Congo in 2006. Weerappuli claims that he was first introduced to Wemba's music in 2004 and was "deeply inspired by the free rhythms demonstrated by Wemba's Soukous style" and, from that point, "began experimenting with these rhythms in his own compositions."
Fashion
In 1979, Papa Wemba became the unofficial leader of La Sape (Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes d'Élégance, literally translated as the "Society of Atmosphere-setters and Elegant People") which he promoted as a youth subculture in Zaire. Their style was influenced by the fashion centres of Paris and Milan. Wemba said:
<blockquote>The Sapeur cult promoted high standards of personal cleanliness, hygiene and smart dress, to a whole generation of youth across Zaire. When I say well groomed, well shaved, well perfumed, it's a characteristic that I am insisting on among the young. I don't care about their education, since education always comes first of all from the family.</blockquote>
After Wemba's death, Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango told the BBC during an interview: