The late Papa Wemba was one of rumba's biggest stars One of the most influential genres of African music and dance, Congolese rumba, now has Unesco-protected status. It is the culmination of ...

Rumba or “nkumba” (navel in kikongo) in its original form, describes the joining and rubbing of the navels, a dance which marked the celebrations for the populations of the Kingdom of Kongo (which ...

Clarke explores the variety of Black music produced in Europe in the late 1950s and early 1960s - Congolese rumba recorded in Brussels, Algerian chaabi in Paris and the emergence of the Notting Hill ...

UNESCO has added Congolese rumba to its intangible heritage list, sparking enthusiasm among music and dance fans in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo. The ...

Chicago-based journalist Catalina Maria Johnson hosts the 15th installment of World Cafe's Latin Roots music series. Johnson writes in Spanish and English for publications such as HOY, Revista ...

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, ...

On Sunday afternoons in Havana and nearby Matanzas, it’s not unusual to see Cubans make drums out of stools, domino tables, and glass bottles—and erupt into a spontaneous gathering of song and dance.