N’Dombolo
A handful of us ventured out into town for lunch, yesterday, and found a swanky Rwandan joint called Soleil (Rwandan cosmopolitanism vs. Congolese hickdom is a frequent topic of debate; I won’t get into it, here.) On the veranda, a band was practicing, with a bunch of their dancers going at it out front. I was fascinated, so I took some video. This was pieced together from screenshots:
The movement is difficult to describe or to see from the montage, above. The closest thing to it that I’ve seen is krumping. The music itself was tame, in comparison, a variant of N’Dombolo:
Another notable feature in Congo culture is its sui generis music. The DROC has blended its ethnic musical sources with Cuban rumba, and meringue to give birth to soukous. Influential figures of soukous and its offshoots (n’dombolo, rumba rock…) are Franco Luambo, Tabu Ley, Lutumba Simaro, Papa Wemba, Koffi Olomide, Kanda Bongo, Ray Lema, Mpongo Love, Abeti Masikini, Reddy Amisi, Pepe Kalle and Nyoka Longo.
I’ll try to post something on YouTube, when I get home.
I would love to go see some live bands while I’m in Goma, but I would have to find safe (boring) places like this one. I’ve been warned several times by expats not to go to Congolese-only clubs at night. They say that I’d be looted upon entry. True or not, I’ll take their word for it until someone tells me otherwise.
UPDATE: Uploaded!
Related Posts:
- Feingold on the D.R. Congo (October, 2007)
- Hutus vs Tutsis: an Op-Ed (November, 2007)
- Contributing to Wikipedia: My Drop in the Bucket (December, 2007)
- Nagu Clusters (January, 2009)
- Congolese Music on Muxtape (April, 2008)
September 13th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
eric, been loving reading about your time there – and to echo everyone else, it is tremendously awesome the work you are doing, truly “making a difference” – can’t wait to hear more details when you get back. i’m inspired to find something like this for me to help out with abroad somewhere…!
and to see these new dance moves you’re gonna practice and bring back for us, ya?
September 14th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Heh. I’m not sure I can muster the pelvic thrusting required to do it justice. You’ll understand when you see the video
September 14th, 2007 at 9:54 am
ohh my!