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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Kanyinda Koko Mukala
Location: Bristol
Instruments: congas, voice
Music: Congolese / Rumba
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSICÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýWHERE I PLAYÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýA FAVOURITE SONG |
  
Listen to Koko and fellow-refugees perform with Eliza Carthy at
This story includes material from Celebrating Sanctuary: Conversations with
Refugee Artists
(London Arts, 2002) |
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 ÌýÌýListen (4'04) to 'Kabakani' performed by Kanyinda Koko Mukala with his band, Soukous Koumbele, from the album, Sentimental, (Sterns, 2002).
ÌýÌýListen (1'50) to Kanyinda Koko Mukala talk about his music.
Where I Play:
I left Zaire in 1985. I was working in a band called The Best at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kinshasa. I had been playing and recording in the leading bands with the star musicians for twenty years by then. But life had started to become hard, thanks to the government. You couldn't get a good salary for playing music. Violence was spreading in Kinshasa, especially from the government militia, known as the M'pere. They could arrest you at any time, even if you were playing. At night on your way home, if you didn't get a taxi, you might find those guys on the street, asking for your money or beating people. Also the government would use them to kidnap people who would then just disappear. There was more and more violence and no peace. Before, Kinshasa was filled with life. You could walk around at any time, you could play music until morning, no problem. But when things tightened up, I started to feel fear, because some of my friends disappeared just like that. To this very day, I never knew what happened to them.
 As an artist, I was trying to dream my dreams and I just could not stay, I decided it was time to leave and try my luck in Uganda. I had a friend who was working with a shipping company. The boat was coming from Kinshasa to Kisangani. My friend Arthur Kababa, a rhythm player, and I took the boat to Kisangani. When we arrived, we played with a local band, Singawambe, got some money and progressed up to Bhukafu. There we found an old trumpet player from OK Jazz, Kristof Bhani. His brother had bought him his instrument. He said we should form a band over in Uganda. There was no problem crossing the border, you got the green light at that time if you were a musician going to Uganda. The Ugandans loved Congolese music and they just welcomed us. Once over the border, we signed a contract to play in a hotel in a town called Kabbale. In Kinshasa I had been a star and there I was struggling, but I had peace of mind and there was no trouble.
How did I get from Uganda to England? Music and Romance. I left Uganda and went to Nairobi, where I formed a band called Mangalepa, which became very well known and successful in Nairobi. The band collapsed over money troubles, so I went to Lusaka in Zambia and joined a friend's band. While I was there, The Real Sounds called me from Zimbabwe. They had a tour of England about to start and they wanted me to join them. So I visited England with them in 1986/7 and then we returned to Africa, but we had so many money troubles with the band leader that I left them and returned to Nairobi.
While I was in England, I'd met my girlfriend, a lady from Exeter. Eventually, she came out to Nairobi and we got married. At the end of a Japanese tour, I got my visa in Tokyo and I joined her here, in Bristol.
I've been playing here with my soukous band, Soukous Koumbele, since 1994 and I work part time with a theatre company, Eroko, performing in schools -storytelling, drumming and teaching African dance. It's difficult for our music in this country, but we're still playing and touring.
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