Rumba Rules: The Politics of Dance Music in Mobutu’s Zaire

This book does a decent job describing the music scene in present day DR Congo (former Zaire). It especially highlights the hierarchial nature of Congolese bands and the sorry plight of most band members who don't hold the title of band leader (Le President). It also reveals the unusual and intricate relationships between bands and their fans in the CongoUnfortunately the author is very unconvincing when he delves into how Mobutu's political system helped define the Congolese music. Apart from constantly repeating the old and tired "Mobutu was a ruthless and corrupt dictator routine", there is no particularly revealing analysis of how Mobutu's system influenced music direction. His main assertion that Mobutu nurtured and propped up an unpopular school of Zairean music style (Odemba) over the more "independent and popular" Soukous comes out as lame and unresearched. All evidence cited to support this premise is curiously from "anonymous sources from the streets of Kinshasa."Overall this would have been a good book, without the author trying a bit too hard to politically endear it to a specific audience.

A very good resource for the post-T.P.O.K /African Jazz era. A rare expose of other Congolese musicians other than Franco, Dr. Nico, Tabu Ley, Grand Kalle, Wendo...to include the stars of the 1990s. A very compelling contextualization of the atalaku phenomenon in modern Congolese music.

From the point of view of socio-anthropology, the book "Rumba Rules" writen by the author Bob White demonstrates a novel approach to cross-disciplinary. It is part of the current debate in DRC: changes (mutations) and de-structuring of the urban society of Kinshasa. Prospects and results it provides can better help to understand the contemporary, its continuities and changes. The author explains how the Congolese crisis affects the world of music, destructuring and reconstructions that are central to the turn of the 20th century. This book supplies the thoughts on this changing society.

Surely, Mobutu had some profound influence on Congolese/Zairean music. He courted prominent musicians such as Franco that would compose many songs in his praise. Ironically, the golden era of Congolese music ripened and declined during Mobutu's very long era in power. A much better book that describes this aspect is Gary Stewart's "Rumba on the River: A history of the popular music of the two Congos."

Good