The Congolese musician Papa Wemba, known as the “father of Congolese rumba,” died at age 66 after collapsing on stage during a concert in Ivory Coast.
Stock Photography of 17 November 2004 the Congolese musician Papa Wemba greeting his supporters while leaving a court in Bobigny, near Paris. Wemba, known as the “father of Congolese rumba” died at age 66 on Saturday April 23, 2016 after collapsing on stage during a concert in Ivory Coast.
Photo: AP Photo / Remy de la Mauviniere, File / AP in Spanish
Ivorian Minister of Culture, Baudouin Banza Mukalay, confirmed Sunday the death of the musician, which occurred the day before. He said he is a “great loss for the country and throughout Africa”.
Images of the concert in Ivory Coast shows his fellow running alongside presentation after the musician fell in front of thousands of fans. He was taken to a nearby clinic but could not be revived. It was not known at the moment the cause of his death.
“This is a great loss to Congo and across Africa,” said the minister. “It was a man who went ahead by himself, a role model for young Congolese”.
The musician, whose real name was Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba, rose to fame in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa during the 1970s with the band Zaiko Langa Langa, whose fusion of styles of American and African dances, based on guitar, inspired a generation of African musicians.
With a new band called Viva La Musica, Wemba moved to Paris in the 1980s and helped popularize Congolese music beyond Africa. In the 1990s he joined a tour with the British rock star Peter Gabriel and appeared on his album “Secret World Live”.
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Journalists from The Associated Press Saleh Mwanamilongo in New York and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report
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