Soukous

Soukous (from French secousse, "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and the Republic of the Congo (formerly French Congo). It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, with faster dance rhythms and bright, intricate guitar improvisation, and gained popularity in the 1980s in France. Although often used by journalists as a synonym for Congolese rumba, both the music and dance associated with soukous differ from more traditional rumba, especially in its higher tempo, song structures and longer dance sequences.
Soukous fuses traditional Congolese rhythms with contemporary instruments. It customarily incorporates electric guitars, double bass, congas, clips, and brass/woodwinds. Soukous lyrics often explore themes of love, social commentary, amorous narratives, philosophical musings, and ordinary struggles and successes. Singers occasionally sing and croon in Lingala, Kikongo, French and Swahili and bands often consist of a primary vocalist accompanied by several backing singers.
The music typically utilizes a 8 time signature and major chords articulated in arpeggiated forms. Soukous lead guitarists are renowned for their speed, precision, and nimble fingerwork, often navigating the higher registers of the fretboard. The bassline, inspired by hand-drum percussion patterns, is the genre's rhythmic foundation and is typically characterized by a 16th-note cadence. Emerging prominently during Mobutu Sese Seko's reign in Zaire, the assertive bass style of soukous emulated regimented motions of military marches (marche militaire). This distinctive bass approach involves toggling between lower and higher registers, achieved through a plucking method that employs both the thumb (p) and index finger (i).
Tonally, soukous is shaped by specific configurations in the bass, midrange, and treble frequencies. The bass is generally accentuated by +3 dB to yield a deep, full-bodied low-end that supports the groove. The midrange, especially around the 700 Hz frequency, is often left flat or enhanced by as much as +6 dB. Meanwhile, the treble frequencies are either left flat or attenuated slightly by -3 dB.
In Matonge, the rhythmic guitar typically accompanies mid-tempo vocal passages, with the bass and bass drums accentuating the dominant beats, while guitarists emphasize the offbeats (one and two and three and four and). During vocal performances, the lead guitarist lays down a groove that underpins harmonized call-and-response singing, often intensified by an echo effect, producing an auditory experience sometimes described as a hypnotic auditory experience.
The percussion section is characterized by an unyielding, fast-paced beat, most commonly referred to as cavacha, with the drummer taking the lead in signaling shifts for the guitarists to match the lead player's transitions. Soukous chord progressions mainly rely on the I, IV, and V chords. Common progressions include:
The origins of the genre can be traced back to Congolese rumba, which emerged in the early 20th century when urban residents of the French Congo and the Belgian Congo embraced the fusion of intertribal Kongolese maringa dance music near Pool Malebo, infused with guitar techniques from Liberia. The outflow of Kru merchants and sailors from Liberia to Brazzaville during the mid-19th century introduced distinctive guitar-playing techniques that ultimately influenced the use of the accordion to emulate local "likembe" (thumb piano, best known worldwide as a mbira) rhythms. As early as 1902, the accordion's melodies resonated through the streets near Pool Malebo's factories.
The outbreak of World War I introduced a new wave of music and dance across the Lower Congo (present-day Kongo Central) and the Pool Malebo region. Emerging from labor camp and conceivably associated with the return of Matadi–Kinshasa Railway construction workers, local dances such as agbaya and maringa gained prominence. The circular agbaya dance was soon replaced by partnered maringa dance music, becoming increasingly ubiquitous in Matadi, Boma, Brazzaville, and Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). Initially, maringa bands featured the likembe for melody, a metal rod-struck bottle for rhythm, and a small skin-covered frame drum called patenge for counter-rhythms. However, by the 1920s, accordions and acoustic guitars progressively supplanted the likembe as melody instruments. The distinctive hip movements of maringa dancers, shifting their body weight between legs gained popularity. By 1935, partnered dancing's popularity dispersed expeditiously across the Congo basin, reaching even remote villages. Dance halls emerged in towns and rural areas, while conventional dancing persisted in palm branch huts.
In the early 1940s, Pool Malebo transformed from a barrier into a communication channel linking Brazzaville and Kinshasa. The Cuban son groups like Sexteto Habanero, Trio Matamoros, and Los Guaracheros de Oriente were broadcast on Radio Congo Belge, gaining popularity in the country. Due to influence of Cuban son, the maringa dance music—although unrelated to Cuban rumba—became known as "rumba Congolaise" as the imported records of Sexteto Habanero and Trio Matamoros were often mislabeled as "rumba". Ethnomusicology Professor Kazadi wa Mukuna of Kent State University explicates that the term "rumba" persisted in the Congos due to recording industry interests. Recording studio proprietors reinterpreted the term rumba by attributing it new maringa rhythm while retaining the name. Consequently, their music became recognized as "Congolese rumba" or "African rumba". Antoine Wendo Kolosoy became the first star of Congolese rumba touring Europe and North America with his band Victoria Bakolo Miziki. His 1948 hit "Marie-Louise," co-written with guitarist Henri Bowane, gained popularity across West Africa. Congolese rumba gained prominence in Congolese music as early pioneers revolutionized their relationship with the instruments they held.
Etymologically, the term soukous, derived from the French verb secouer, denoting "to shake," initially described a person who moved jerkily but evolved into a dance style synonymous with vitality and cadence. The term secousse evolved over time, transitioning to soucousses and eventually soucous in colloquial language and the media, until the "c" fell out of favor, replaced by a "k".
During the early 1960s, a surge of young Congolese musicians sought to speed up the slow tempo of Congolese rumba, which precipitated the emergence of soukous. Artists began incorporating faster rhythms, and prominent guitar improvisation, often characterized by high-pitched, fast-paced lines imbued with more heightened African motif. The drummer shifts to the high-octane cadence, wherein the clave rhythm shifts to the snare drum, singers engage in rhythmic chanting (animation), and lead guitars take center stage.
The origins of soukous are a matter of dispute, with divergent attributions and viewpoints. Clément Ossinondé, a Congolese musicologist specializing in Congolese music, accredits Franco Luambo and TPOK Jazz with pioneering soukous, citing his odemba-inspired style, known for its fast tempo. Franco is also recognized for revolutionizing the genre's themes by infusing significant social and political issues into the lyrics, making the music a platform for social consciousness. Conversely, British writer Gary Stewart suggests that soukous evolved into both a music genre and dance style in Brazzaville, stemming from the establishment of the Super Band in 1964 by up-and-coming guitarist Jacques Kimbembe. The ensemble, later rebranded as Sinza, meaning "root stock," introduced soukous to Brazzaville's nightlife in 1966, supplanting the traditional boucher style of Les Bantous de la Capitale. Stewart further notes that Orchestre Sinza innovated soukous in 1968 with a new wrinkle called mossaka, and soon thereafter, Nico Kasanda introduced the kiri-kiri, which was based in part on the "jerk" from Western rock. Meanwhile, Les Bantous de la Capitale developed a fusion with Pablito's song "Masuwa," billed as a soucous-kiri-kiri. The kiri-kiri, which, according to Stewart, became a defining piece of the genre as exemplified by Nico's "Kiri-Kiri Mabina Ya Sika," telling the story of a man's quest through Kinshasa's streets to reunite with his partner for a kiri-kiri session at Fiesta Sukisa, gaining widespread acclaim. Established artists rapidly embraced the dance and disseminated it across the continent.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, soukous became a predominant popular African dance style across Africa and into the continent's diaspora in Belgium, France, the UK, and the United States. During this period, a surge of Zairean musicians moved to Belgium and France, primarily driven by the hegemony of the Mobutu Sese Seko regime, which propagated propaganda songs as part of the Authenticité campaign to foster a sense of national identity and pride through ideological slogans of the one-party state, the Movement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR). This state ideological shift gradually infiltrated Zairean popular music, with popular musicians embracing the regime's ideology and documenting its achievements. Mobutu's encouragement of urban musicians paralleled Mao Zedong's approach in China, where music served the revolution. As a result, the globalization of Congolese urban music expanded, leading to a massive exodus of musicians to African and European countries, most notably Belgium and France. Many youths with limited employment options gravitated towards a music career, with Kinshasa's soukous scene becoming an attractive choice. However, some faced obstacles in establishing themselves in France. Against this backdrop, Tabu Ley Rochereau made history as the first African artist invited to perform at Paris's Olympia Hall in December 1970, where he attracted few connoisseurs and set a precedent for subsequent Zairean musicians. Abeti Masikini followed suit, becoming the second Zairean and the first female soukous artist to grace the Olympia stage alongside Mireille Mathieu and Hugues Aufray. This momentum continued with Masikini's performance at Carnegie Hall in New York on 11 March 1974, setting the stage for burgeoning singers, griots, and other lesser-known divas from Africa.
Concurrently, the M'Bamina orchestra ventured to Paris before seeking audiences in Italy in 1972. Pablo 'Porthos' Lubadika arrived in Paris in 1979 with singer Sam Mangwana through Lomé, Togo, after recording under the name the African All Stars. Mangwana, having collaborated with nearly every prominent figure in Congo, relocated to Abidjan in 1978 to pursue better opportunities. He formed a new band of Congolese economic exiles, who became regulars in Parisian session bands. The African All Stars' breakout hit, "Suzana Coulibaly," released on 31 December 1979, featured "simple, repetitive rhythms" at a faster tempo than traditional Congolese rumba. Mangwana's exclamation "soukous sophistiqué" as Lokassa Ya M'Bongo and Rigo Star crafted a "rock-solid" sebene solidified the record's direction, initiating an independent musical movement targeting the international market. As their influence grew, the African All Stars adapted the fast, rough stylings of youth bands in Brazzaville and Kinshasa, introducing this new tempo globally.
Across Africa, soukous dominated East African nightclubs' dance floors and played a pivotal role in shaping virtually all the styles of contemporary African popular music, including benga music, muziki wa dansi, Kidandali, Igbo highlife, palm-wine music, taarab, and inspiring the establishment of approximately 350 youth orchestras in Kinshasa, paving the way for new traditional dances, rhythmic patterns, and bands.
As sociopolitical turmoil in Zaire deteriorated in the 1970s, a great number of musicians ventured to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, where orchestras sustained themselves through record sales and consistent stage performances. By the early 1970s, several Congolese bands had taken up the soukous beat in Kenyan nightclubs. The vivacious cavacha dance craze, propagated by bands like Zaïko Langa Langa and Orchestra Shama Shama, swept across East and Central Africa, exert influence on Kenyan musicians. The utilization of the cavacha rhythm, typically played on the snare drum or high-hat, became emblematic of the Zairean sound in Nairobi and was frequently adopted by regional bands. Prominent Congolese rumba Swahili bands in Nairobi formed around Tanzanian groups like Simba Wanyika, giving rise to offshoots like Les Wanyika and Super Wanyika Stars. Maroon Commandos, a Nairobi-based ensemble, assimilated the soukous style while infusing their distinctive artistic imprint. Japanese students in Kenya, including Rio Nakagawa, developed a fondness for Congolese music, with Rio eventually spearheading Yoka Choc Nippon, a Japanese-conceived Congolese rumba band.
Virgin Records produced albums by the Tanzanian-Zairean Orchestra Makassy and the Kenya-based Orchestra Super Mazembe. The Swahili song "Shauri Yako" ("It's your problem") gained widespread acclaim in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Another influential Zairean ensemble, Les Mangelepa, relocated to Kenya and achieved immense popularity across East Africa. Zairean singer Samba Mapangala and his band Orchestra Virunga, based in Nairobi, released the LP Malako, which became a pioneering release in Europe's emerging world music scene. Meanwhile, between 1976 and 1977, Sam Mangwana and the African All Stars dominated the dance halls of Kinshasa with records produced in West Africa, which were different from the sounds produced in the two-track studios of Kinshasa. Following this, there was a migration to Lomé and Cotonou, followed by Franco Luambo's departure to Belgium.
In Nigeria, soukous became widespread due to the transmission of Zairean music through Radio Brazzaville, where audiences were introduced to material from Zaire Vol. 6 (Soundpoint SOP 044, 1978). Soukous catalyzed the emergence of a distinct genre of guitar-based Igbo highlife music, exemplified by musicians like Oliver De Coque, the Oriental Brothers International, and their various imitators and followers. The superabundance of Nigerian pressings of Zairean music featured the musicians who influenced this trend, as seen in the case of Music From Zaire Vol. 6, which showcased artists from Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta's stable like Orchestre Kiam, Orchestre Lipua-Lipua, and the cavacha rhythm. There was a prevalent inclination to exclude the slower "A" sides of various recordings and instead focus on the climactic sebene, the faster and more improvisational second half. This structural paradigm became emblematic of Igbo guitar highlife recordings epitomized by the music style of Oliver De Coque and Oriental Brothers International.
Soukous experienced widespread diffusion across southern Africa, where it was both adopted and adapted into various offshoots, such as Zimbabwe's immensely popular sungura genre.
During this epoch, African music began procuring popularity globally due to the world music movement. In Colombia, soukous made inroads into the local culture, contributing to the development of champeta. In the third chapter of the documentary Pasos de la Cumbia, Lucas Silva, a DJ and cultural producer specializing in African music, recounts how Mobutu Sese Seko purchased a plane in Colombia. When it required maintenance, a Colombian mechanic traveled to Zaire, returning with a collection of 45 rpm records, including the iconic El Mambote by l'Orchestre Veve, which became a hit. Other 45 rpm records soon flooded Cartagena and Barranquilla.
In the article "Champeta is Liberation": The Indestructible Sound System Culture of Afro-Colombia, journalist April Clare Welsh observes, "When 'música Africana' swept the region during the '70s and '80s, sound systems were instrumental in forging a collective diasporic identity for Afro-Colombians in a society deeply divided by race and class". African musicians like Kanda Bongo Man, Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay, Diblo Dibala, Ikenga Super Stars of Africa, M'bilia Bel, and Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens became local celebrities, forging a "pan-African connection that was, at the time, largely unknown to many Africans within the continent". Local musicians began replicating the arrangements of Congolese artists like Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay, Tabu Ley Rochereau, M'bilia Bel, Syran Mbenza, Lokassa Ya M'Bongo, Pépé Kallé, Rémy Sahlomon, and Kanda Bongo Man. Homegrown musicians such as Viviano Torres, Luis Towers, and Charles King became renowned for this. This movement led to the creation of champeta, a genre rooted in "soukous guitars, bass, drumming, and dance". Due to its overtly sensual dance moves and its association with the "Black Below", champeta was derided by the white upper classes. However, for Afro-Colombians, it was an assertion of their cultural identity and resilience. DJs often renamed African songs with Spanish titles, composed champetas in the Palenque language (a creole fusion of Spanish and Bantu languages such as Kikongo and Lingala), or phonetically distorted the original names. For instance, Mbilia Bel's "Mobali Na Ngai Wana" became known in Colombia as "La Bollona". Champeta emerged as a new marker of Black identity along Colombia's western coast and evolved from a peripheral genre to a mainstream national phenomenon. During the Super Bowl LIV halftime show on 2 February 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, Shakira danced to Syran Mbenza's "Icha", a song colloquially referred to as "El Sebastián" in Colombia, which spawned the #ChampetaChallenge on social media platforms worldwide.
As sociopolitical unrest persisted in Zaire throughout the 1980s, numerous musicians sought refuge across Africa, with a considerable number relocating to Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. Some traversed through Central and East Africa before ultimately establishing their operational bases in Europe. Soukous gained traction in Brussels, Paris, and London, emerging as the only sub-Saharan African genre universally embraced in Belgium and France. According to Congolese columnist Achille Ngoye, Belgium offered a significant permanent operational base for numerous Zairean artists. Orchestras such as Los Nickelos, Yéyé National, and Les Mongali, predominantly composed of students, garnered significant attention in Belgium. Uncle Yorgho, a former member of OK Jazz, established a distribution epicenter for Zairean musical repertoire in Brussels in July 1980 (Visa 80). Meanwhile, Dieudonné Kabongo, Dizzy Mandjeku, and Ntesa Dalienst rose to prominence due to the bankruptcy of Belgian record label Fonior!, which prompted many Zairean artists like Lita Bembo and Matima to seek reputable distribution entities in Belgium, while others found solace in performing in religious choirs, which frequently toured Holland.
Soukous was chosen by Island Records producer Ben Mandelson and Togolese entrepreneur Richard Dick as the title of a 1982 compilation, Sound D'Afrique II: Soukous. The compilation included music from Mali and Cameroon alongside "Madeleina," a track from Pablo 'Porthos' Lubadika's 1981 album Ma Coco, which gained significant attention in Europe. Zaïko Langa Langa introduced the role of a dedicated hypeman—known as atalaku or animateur—into the ensemble of singers, setting a trend that almost every band on the Congolese music scene adopted, making atalakus emblematic of soukous as well as Congolese rumba. Zaïko Langa Langa achieved significant success, becoming the third generation of Congolese music as many founding members split off to form their own groups, which in turn splintered into more groups: Isife Lokole, Grand Zaïko Wa Wa, Langa Langa Stars, Clan Langa Langa, Choc Stars, and Anti-Choc among them. Papa Wemba and Viva La Musica made the longest-lasting impact, partly due to Wemba's ability to maintain a presence in both Paris and Kinshasa with dual bands, one focusing on soukous and another featuring French session players for international pop. In Parisian studios, the seben guitars blended with the tight drum machines and synths of zouk and funky disco makossa on numerous records. However, this fusion received criticism for deviating from authentic Congolese styles. Notable critics like Nyboma argued that the music had become commercialized and lacked emotional depth, calling for a return to the fundamentals of "beautiful melodies and highly tuned voices."
The influx of Zairean artists to France catalyzed the proliferation of Parisian studios as epicenters for soukous production, with an increasing reliance on synthesizers and electronic instruments. Some artists continued to record for the Congolese market, but others abandoned the demands of the Kinshasa public and set out to pursue new audiences. A sizable Zairean community established itself in France and Switzerland, with Zairean artists conducting training programs in the country. Kanda Bongo Man, another Paris-based artist, pioneered fast, short tracks conducive for play on dance floors worldwide, popularly known as kwassa kwassa, after the dance moves popularized in his and other artists' music videos. This music appealed to Africans and to new audiences as well. Artists like Diblo Dibala, Aurlus Mabélé, Tchicl Tchicaya, Jeannot Bel Musumbu, M'bilia Bel, Yondo Sister, Tinderwet, Loketo, Rigo Star, Nyboma, Madilu System, Soukous Stars and veterans like Pépé Kallé and Koffi Olomidé followed suit. Soon Paris became home to talented studio musicians who recorded for the African and Caribbean markets and filled out bands for occasional tours. Diblo Dibala and Aurlus Mabélé dominated the clubs with "Africa Moussou", creating a hyperactive style of super-speed soukous, dubbed TGV soukous by fans, alluding to France's high-speed trains.
Swede-Swede, an ensemble exclusively employing traditional instruments, operates out of Belgium, while Les Malo, primarily comprising former instructors from the National Institute of Arts in Kinshasa, specializes in Afro-jazz in Lyon. Tshala Muana gained prominence in Africa and Europe for her Luba traditional hip-swaying dance known as mutuashi, which make waves across African stadiums and earned her the moniker of "Queen of Mutuashi". Other female vocalists such as Déesse Mukangi, Djena Mandako, Faya Tess, Isa, and Abby Surya garnered widespread recognition.
By the late 1990s, musicians such as Radja Kula, Wenge Musica, Koffi Olomidé, Général Defao, and Extra Musica metamorphosed soukous into raunchy, frenetic hip-swinging dance music, renaming it ndombolo. This style surged in popularity across Africa and into the continent's diaspora in Belgium, France, the UK, Germany, Canada, and the United States. However, by the early 2000s, ndombolo faced scrutiny, with accusations of obscenity leading to attempts to prohibit it from state media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, and Kenya. In February 2005, ndombolo music videos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo underwent censorship for indecency, which resulted in the banning of videos by Koffi Olomidé, JB Mpiana, and Werrason from airwaves. Despite the censure, ndombolo record sales surged, remaining popular with new releases dominating discos, bars, and clubs across Africa.