On Mobutu and the three musketeers of Congo music

If you have any interest in Congolese music, you are likely to have heard these men. Tabu Ley Rochereau of l’Orchestre Afrisa Internationale, Franco Luambo Makiadi of l’Orchestre TPOK Jazz and George Verkeys Kiamuangana Mateta of l’Orchestre Veve.
These three men controlled what we knew in our times (1970s and 80s) as Zairois music. Tabu Ley was known for his vocals and arrangements (creating music) and Franco was known for the solo guitar (and his noisy persona associated with his ghetto upbringing). Verkeys, from a relatively well-off family, was known for the saxophone.
These three men were known as the three musketeers of Zairois Music. They decided which group to destroy. And which group to prop. If they were in Kampala today, they would have been called Mafia. Of the three, only Verkeys still lives.
I have reviewed more than 200 interviews with Congolese musicians and most of them are united in their characterisation of Franco as greedy (love for money) and Verkeys (control freak).
In fact, what we saw in the 1970s as the great exodus of Congolese musicians ‘into’ East Africa, was as a result of the Mafia-type attitudes of the three musketeers of Zairois music in Kinshasa (who enjoyed state authority to enforce their wishes). Into East Africa, their first choice of destination outside Congo was Uganda. But then things went burst in the 1970s in Uganda. The Congolese headed for a stable environment of Kenya and Tanzania.
Of the three, Verkeys was (is) vicious; he collapsed bands and killed careers. Because of a tiff he had with Nyoka Longo (Zaiko Langa Langa band leader), Verkeys ‘caused’ the exodus of Zaiko musicians and promoted them as a new band called Langa Langa Stars. He was later to break it (Langa Langa Stars) and most of them returned to Zaiko Langa Langa.
When Bokasa was crowned as Emperor, he asked president Mobutu to send him a band. A band was sent to Bangui in Central Africa and was well received (most Africans liked Congolese musicians). Unfortunately, the musicians asked Emperor Bokasa to give them money, complaining that they were not well facilitated by Mobutu. Bokasa just picked a phone and called Mobutu (who was infuriated). And that was the end of the band (it never held any shows in Kinshasa). But that was Verkeys’s version.
In an interview, one of the band leaders says their problem was that they didn’t share Emperor Bokasa’s huge tip with Verkeys. And he (Verkeys) pressed the red button on us.
The worst thing to happen to Zairois music was the setting up of an association that brought together all musicians (with president Mobutu as the patron). With this association, Mobutu brought power and control associated with the State to the music industry. That is where the three musketeers got their power from. Whereas the three musketeers competed against each other, they were united in controlling the entire industry (in one way or the other under some kind of delegated power from president Mobutu).
My problem with art, as a human endeavour of self-expression, is that the entry point is so individual that it is unlikely to prepare entrants for the challenges of social and economic life. The contemporary artiste is more likely to be concerned with his celebrity lifestyle than expressing him or herself as a microcosm of the community he or she is situated in.
Mobutu’s association with Zairois musicians did not add any value of artistic importance to the industry, save for les cadeaux (the gifts) from Mobutu. And whereas Mobutu may have subtly helped musicians, today’s leaders are merely recruiting political activists. Akitegedde kubira mukama engalo z’amanyi...