Cubans and tourists take a Rumba masterclass in Havana, on August 22, 2018.The Rumba, a mix of African and Spanish culture, considered by UNESCO an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is a vital ...

The survival of Rumba as the popular sound of East and Central Africa is facing a threat from the dominance of other African pop sounds that have transformed to meet the demands of the continent's ...

AS YOU CLIMB the dimly lit staircase at La Crèche nightclub in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, you may hear a man’s high, lilting voice drifting from the rooftop. There, ...

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), ...

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, ...

Towards the end of the 1970s, potent forms of Zairean pop bands posed a threat to the growth of indigenous Kenyan music. Congolese groups were being contracted to perform in Nairobi’s mushrooming ...

The death of Lokassa ya Mbongo has left a deep void in the world of rhumba rhythm guitarists. He was one of the top rhythm guitarists in Congolese rhumba and benga music who could only be rivalled by ...