Wendo Kolosoy

Wendo Kolosoy or Papa Wendo is one of the fathers of the famous Congolese or Zairean rumba. He shaped this music and dance, which frightened the missionaries in the 1930s, in what was still the Belgian Congo. His biggest hit, "Marie-Louise ", dates from 1948 and has a reputation for waking the dead if played at the stroke of midnight. Wendo Kolosoy interrupted his career after Mobutu's coup d'état in 1965, resuming it only in 1997 with the arrival of Kabila. In 2007, the film On the Rumba River was dedicated to him. Wendo Kolosoy died on July 27, 2008. The Botyiaki Ntembe box set, released in March 2011, gives an overview of the highlights of his career on two CDs.