Wendo Kolosoy recorded his first big hit, "Marie Louise," in 1948, and remained one of the top-selling artists in Congo music through the burgeoning 1950s. During the 1960's, with the rise of Mobutu, Wendo faded from the scene, not to reenter the recording studio until 1992. In 2002, Christian Mousset of Maribi Productions led a team to Kinshasa to make a new Wendo album, "Amba." Afropop Worldwide's Banning Eyre was there. Here's his interview with Wendo at the veteran singer's home. Swiss journalist Arnauld Robert asks some of the questions. Both are simply identified here as Afropop Worldwide (AW).

AFROPOP WORLDWIDE: How did you get your start in music?

WENDO KOLOSOY: I was born in 1925. I started my musical career 1936. For me, at the time, in Leopoldville, almost all my friends were dead and I remained. As far as I was concerned, music was a gift from God, so it was divine ideas that made me what I am. When I was eleven, there was nothing but music in our home. Being at the house, even the young children there, we sang. That was the most important thing. That gave our lives value at that time.

In 1936, I sang a song that really hit hard. [SINGS] What does that mean? It means that my house was the most captivating. There was electricity. That pulled the people in to my place, even where I slept, it was captivating. I had electricity. I wish I had recorded that song… I regret that I did not, because it was the basis of everything for me. It was called "Nayeba Soli La Vie" "To Know the Life." I accompanied a song like that with tam tams. After the tam tams, I moved on to the guitar, after the guitar, I played the piano, then the organ.

AW: What did your parents do?

WENDO: My father was a big hunter, and my mother was a singer. She also made music. So when my mother died, I retreated into music. She died when I was 8 or 9. My father died when I was 7. It was the time of colonization. After that, whites took care of me, priests.

AW: Did your mother actually perform?

WENDO: Yes, when there were parties. When there was a manifestation, she came and sing and people listened.

AW: What kind of music did she sing?

WENDO: In the beginning, my mother didn't really have rumba music. She had more of the originality of traditional music. She came and she sang on that level. But a few years later, the rumba was there, and as she had the gift of music from God, coming from the traditional side we arrived at the rumba we know today. So I inherited this, the Cuban context, the American one--rumba, biguine, waltz, and tango--and in this way, I Wendo, arrived with a diverse style in between the rumba that you find today and the dance musics around the world.

In 1948, everyone went for rumba, biguine, waltz, chacha. That music comes from the Cuban side. We didn't know that Cuban musicians played the rumba. Even them, they didn't know that the rumba was being played by musicians in Leopoldville and Brazzaville, or why the rumba, tango and so on came from us, from our music.

AW: When did you first hear the term "rumba?"

WENDO: I can't tell you exactly when I heard of the concept of rumba, because at that time, we had no guitars, nor any modern instruments needed to play rumba. It was only after modernism came that I adapted to the word rumba. But in the beginning, I didn't pick that up. I heard [the music] that way.

AW: When you recorded "Marie Louise" with Henri Bowane in 1948, did you call it rumba then?

WENDO: At the time, we didn't really have a mindset oriented towards rumba. I, Wendo, I didn't really know that. The word was there, but when I began singing and dancing, it was really the public who appreciated the music, be it rumba; this is biguine, this is waltz. Even in the version of "Marie Louise" I recorded with Bowane, it was almost the same perspective. I sang, I danced. And it was the public who said, "Wendo, that is rumba. That is biguine. That is cha cha."

AW: Did you own records back then?

WENDO: Yes. I can't tell you what records they were, but I had some. But I Wendo, as I was with priests, they did not make it easy for me to be around other black Africans. They did all they could to have me stay in another manner. They wanted me to do great things. It was the whites, the priests who took care of me at that time. So the records I had were old.

AW: How did the priests react when you sang your songs?

WENDO: At the time, with the priests, that was when I started singing songs like "Marie Louise" and "Albertina." And people thought that I was insulting women who didn't know how to dress, who didn't know how to prepare food. I seemed intoxicated to them. So they took me to jail. Because the public reaction to these two songs was disturbing everything. They even arrested me because of the song "Marie Louise," because of its contents.

WENDO'S FRIEND, DEREK: With "Marie Louise," the priests believed that this record was starting to wake up dead people. This is why they arrested Papa Wendo at the missionaries' place. That's the way it was.

WENDO: I will never leave that song "Marie Louise," which is today a kind of fetish song on my albums. That really amazed the public. So even if these songs would land me in prison, "Marie Louise" and "Albertina," I will never leave them.

AW: So the song landed you in prison, but the public supported you, right?

WENDO: When I got out of prison, that song, "Marie Louise," became even more popular in the music scene. I emerged more and more.

AW: I understand you were a mechanic on the Congo River boats for awhile.

WENDO: When I left the priests at 12 or 13 years, I didn't have a way to live. I had to do what I could to survive. So I went to work on the boats.

AW: Where did the boats go?

WENDO: Kisangani, Kikwit, Poflanki. Banningville, ex Bandundu.

AW: What did those boats carry?

WENDO: Manioc, trucks, people. There were cargo boats and passenger boats. I worked on both. I did that for 12 years. After that I worked as a boxer for 4 years.

AW: So you could land a punch back then, eh?

WENDO: Well, it was my work. [LAUGHTER] In my life as a boxer, I went to Congo-Brazza, Cameroon, Pointe Noire, Dakar. I went a bit everywhere. I was middle weight. 80 kilos. Out of five times, I won 2 years, and lost 3. That was between 1941-46.

AW: And that led to your career in music?

WENDO: Everywhere I went, I sang. I boxed. I sang. At the time, as I was traveling on the river, I sang on the river. After the boxing, I went back on the boat. I took my guitar, and I sang for the children of Wendo. When I got back to Kinshasa, there was a guy on the boat who said, "He sings a lot, but [he's never made a record.]" That was when I met [Nicolas] Jermonidis, the Greek there. Ngoma was the name of his company. Ngoma is the drum.

AW: Mr. Jermonidis had already started recording people by then, right?

WENDO: Yes. Bukasa. San Salvador, who sang, "The figure of the girl is like a lamp." People really went for that.

AW: So did you already have that high head voice, then? Your trademark yodeling sound?

WENDO: Yes. To find this voice was not easy. Lots of people were after me to know how to do that, even poor [Grand] Kalle.

AW: Who inspired that?

WENDO: Nobody. I don't know how I got that. It's a gift from God. People really went for that, especially the little ones. They would ask me in the street. "Wendo, Wendo. How do you do that? How can I do that?"

AW: What was the first time you played with a band?

WENDO: Personally, I wasn't that interested in playing with a group. I could play alone just as well. But I could play with my group as well, for the public to appreciate what I do. I don't really mind whether I play alone or with my group.

AW: What was the club scene like in Leopoldville in those days?

WENDO: Ahhhhh. There weren't enough clubs at the time. There was Congo Bar. Silivangu also. Makolé. Those were the three African clubs. But there weren't enough. It was difficult in the city. Even if you went to a club with the Europeans, after two or three hours of time, it was over. At the time, they closed the clubs at 9:30 and everyone went to sleep. It was the colonial epoch.

AW: Were you married back then?

WENDO: I didn't marry too early. I had to enjoy a little ambiance. It was a little later that I married.

AW: So were you pretty handy with the girls? We've seen some of your publicity photos and it's clear that you were very handsome.

WENDO: I liked ambiance, but at 9:00, people went to sleep. Me because I was very popular and well known, I had an easier time with the gendarmes. When I met them on the road, they let me pass without problems. "Papa Wendo," they'd say. "Oh, Papa Wendo." They knew us. They let us pass. I could go around and make ambiance without problems.

AW: You mentioned the other day that you were friends with Patrice Lumumba. When was that?

WENDO: Ohhhh. Lumumba, 1940s. We were together all the time, the same generation. Often he came to my place, and he slept. We slept together. We drank together. We ate together.

AW: Did you talk about independence?

WENDO: No. I'm not a politician. I'm a composer of songs. I am a musician.

AW: Right, but surely you must have talked about things.

WENDO: Yes, he talked about politics, but me: no.

AW: But it's not just a political idea. It concerned everyone, didn't it?

WENDO: I wasn't there. That didn't interest me. We ate together. I played my music. That was it. I was not a politician. Politics, no. If you want to come to my place, Papa Wendo, for the songs "Marie Louise," and "Albertina," I was spending my time with that. But as far as politics go, I never thought about that. I didn't concern myself with that. I ate. I thought about my music. We were here in town. He was from there, and I was from the lake. We were almost related by blood. We were brothers. But why are you interested in Lumumba?

AW: He's someone important.

WENDO: No. Leave that. Leave that. You can ask me why Papa Wendo composed this or that song….[SINGS] I'm proud to talk about that. But if you want to ask about politics, I am very afraid.

AW: Allright, but let me ask you this. Why did you stop recording and performing during the 1960s?

WENDO: As I said, before, the fundamental reason for this is politics. The fact that there was a time when I didn't sing much, politics is at the base of it. Because political men at the time wanted to use musicians like stepping stones. That is to say, they wanted musicians to sing their favors. Me, I did not want to do that. That's why I decided it was best for me, Wendo, to pull myself out of the music scene, and stay home. Now, by the grace of God, I am having a reprise. So if there was a time when I did not sing it was because politicians wanted to use me. They wanted me to sing their praises. They wanted to use me as a stepping stone, and I did not want to be involved in politics. I stayed home, and it was only later that things got better, which meant that I, Wendo, receive you today to talk about music, not about politics. [WENDO CONCLUDES THIS PORTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH AN EXTENDED BOUT OF SINGING!]

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