Sonic migrations: Congolese rumba and utopias in 20th century West Central Africa

Project Information

CONGOTOPIA

Grant agreement ID: 101032001

DOI

10.3030/101032001

Project closed

EC signature date 13 April 2021

Start date 1 May 2021

End date 15 June 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 257 619,84

EU contribution

€ 242 092,90

Coordinated by

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CONGOTOPIA (Sonic migrations: Congolese rumba and utopias in 20th century West Central Africa)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

CONGOTOPIA proposes a new approach to the historical phenomenon of colonization and decolonization by looking at the politics of African popular music. The analysis of the development of Congolese rumba in the 20th century allows me to offer the first study of the decolonization of West Central Africa that goes beyond the national and colonial borders of the Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, and Angola. The creation and evolution of this popular music reveals the utopias that circulated in the music world along the Atlantic coast, while showing the struggles against French, Belgian, and Portuguese colonial powers that dominated these territories. Moreover, this project addresses a period, from the 1930s and 1970s, during which ‘Congolese rumba’ is impossible to fully dissociated from its multi-layered relations with Cuba: not only Afro-Cuban music inspired this music since 1930, but the Cuban government developed new music exchanges in Central Africa to spread socialism and orient the decolonization in Africa after the 1959 Cuban revolution. This project thus allows to deepen our understanding of the global South from an African perspective and little-known trans-Atlantic exchanges. It addresses historical questions that matter to the broader public in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, especially regarding the consequences of colonization and the Pan-African solidarities that developed across theses continents to fight imperialism and racist ideologies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the two first years of my project, I have sought to identify the multiple links between decolonization and the musical dynamics that developed along the coast of these territories the two Congo and Angola. I pursued research in Brussels (Belgium) to collect colonial sources regarding the migration of people (and among them musicians) to the Belgian Congo, and in particular to the cities of Matadi, at the border with Angola, and to the capital Kinshasa (then Leopoldville). My stay in Brussels also allowed me to participate in the celebration of the independence of Congo (30 June 1960) and to get in touch with actors for future interviews in Europe and Africa. In Brussels, I also met with the famous guitarist of Congolese rumba, Dizzy Mandjeku. He told me stories about the role of ‘ambassadors’ played by musicians during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the tensions existing between artists and the president of Congo-Kinshasa (then called Zaïre), Mobutu Sese Seko.
In France, I worked in the National Archives (in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine) to consult documents about the development of the ‘French broadcasting cooperation’ in the two Congo after the independence. Many broadcasts were produced and hosted by Congolese musicians and journalists trained in France during the 1960s and 1970s. The archives reveal the tensions between French agents who sought to maintain the France’s influence in the ex-colonies and the government and radio stations of the two Congo. African countries wanted to develop media infrastructure while achieving independence from Europe. In the National Audiovisual Institute at the National Library in Paris, I was also able to listen to these broadcasts and to watch TV shows produced by African stars like Manu Dibango.
During a one-month fieldwork in Kinshasa and Brazzaville, I collected many interviews with musicians, radio presenters, and women who were part of the female associations called ‘elegance clubs.’ Besides research in the national archives of the two Congo, I recently went to the university of Berkeley and Stanford in the US to look at the private papers of the journalist Karen Wald who worked in Cuba and the historian John Marcum who did research in Angola and Congo during the 1960s.
I have presented the results of my project in various seminars and publications (including as a guest editor in the open-access journal Esclavages & post~esclavages / Slaveries & Post~Slaveries, vol. 7, November 2022). Recently I presented a talk on ‘Music and Decolonization between West Central Africa and Cuba in the 20th century’ at UCLA African Center Studies that was sponsored by the Program on Caribbean Studies (May 1st, 2023).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

My analysis of the collected archives, the press, music records, and interviews has been particularly relevant regarding the gender dimensions of the music scene and the study of cross-border mobility and creativity in West Central Africa. On the one hand, in a forthcoming article that will be published in the Journal of Women History, I have shown that although the 1950s are often obscured by the narratives of postcolonial disillusionment, they were conducive to social and political experimentations, especially for women who seized the spirit of optimism of the time to contribute to female emancipation. Drawing on the analysis of colonial archives, interviews, songs, press articles and photographs, I have analyzed how, in the Congolese cities, recreational and reputedly apolitical associations greatly contributed to changing gender norms and relations.
On the other hand, the examination of early records produced in Kinshasa has revealed the importance of musicians from Angola in the making of the Congolese rumba scene. I have shown how their creation, use of local languages and Cuban sounds, mediated by technology, discourse, and local epistemologies, blurred ethnic and regional identities while feeding aspirations to transatlantic solidarities in the region. The study of the dance music world that emerged in 1940s along the Atlantic coast is also promising to the analysis of the collaboration between the two Congo and the Angolan liberation movements who were exiled in the capital and used radio and music to support the resistance against the Portuguese. It can show how Congolese music, while closely associated with pleasure, romance and fantasy, became a powerful marker of decolonization, that ignited the Angolan nationalists’ spirit during the liberation war.

The ‘returning phase’ at the CNRS in France will allow me to transfer the presentation, language (English and Spanish), and research skills that I have significantly enhanced in UCLA under the supervision of Prof. Robin Kelley, during my stay in Los Angeles (September 2022-January 2024, a stay postponed because of the pandemic). A one-month fieldwork in Cuba in August 2023 and the co-organization of a panel at the African Studies associations’ Annual meeting in San Francisco in November 2023 with Sakiko Nakao (University of Tokyo) will allow me to disseminate my results to new scientific circles and the broader public.

No website has been developed for the project.

'Indépendance cha cha', the first records produced by a Congolese-owned music label