18. Africa Mokili Mobimba

Kale-Roger & Rochereau with L’African Jazz (Surboum African Jazz AJ 70, b/w “Titi”, 1961);
composed by Charles “Déchaud” Mwamba

In the ‘70s, unless the odd Fela Kuti or Manu Dibango disc happened to catch your ear, this may have been the first Afropop that a curious western listener like you or I might hear, as it was the lead cut on John Storm Roberts’s Africa Dances anthology, first released in 1973. It would stand out in any context, however, not just because it is a prime example of the Congolese rumba style as it began to evolve into soukous (and influence a lot other musical forms all over Africa), but a kind of pop explosion in its own right, coinciding with the brief period between Congo’s independence from Belgium and the catastrophes of Lumumba’s assassination, civil war, and Mobutu’s ascension as the quintessential western klepto-client. Recorded in Brussels, intriguingly, but with a lyric in Lingala, ostensibly about “African jazz” taking over the world, but what it sounds like is a paean to Africa itself bursting into some kind of flower. You can imagine it twanging its way out of every radio for miles around you, believing that nothing could stop the feeling it evokes. Political? I suspect that would be difficult to discern even if one spoke the language.

Note: 25 secular essays about 25 songs, each one exactly 200 words long, appearing one per day during Advent (approximately).