In the Year of Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo negotiated independence from Belgium to the rhythm of the country’s greatest export: Congolese rumba. The wildly popular and meaningful genre became a soundtrack to global change.

Written by Emily Hardick. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle.  Production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and text versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/article/year-of-africa-1960-rumba-pan-africanism-Kariba.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

Additional Resources:

Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. Toronto: CNIB, 2008.

Fanon, Frantz. Toward the African Revolution: Political Essays. New York: Grove, 1952.

Lee, Christopher J. Making a World after Empire: The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010.

Monson, Jamie. Africa's Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.

Phiri, Kings M. Malawi in Crisis: the 1959/60 Nyasaland State of Emergency and Its Legacy. Zomba, Malawi: Kachere, 2012.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Colonialism and Neocolonialism. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 1964.

Tischler, Julia. Light and Power for a Multiracial Nation: the Kariba Dam Scheme in the Central African Federation. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Collinet, Georges. “Hidden Meanings in Congo Music.” Afropop Worldwide, December 21, 2011. https://afropop.org/audio-programs/hidden-meanings-in-congo-music.

Gondola, Didier. The History of Congo. Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 2002.

Kazadi, Pierre Cary (Kazadi wa Mukuna). “The Genesis of Urban Music in Zaïre.” African Music 7, no. 2 (1992): 72–84.

Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. Patrice Lumumba. First edition. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2014.

White, Bob W. Rumba Rules: The Politics of Dance Music in Mobutu’s Zaire. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2008.

Iwa Dworkin, Congo Love Song: African American Culture and the Crisis of the Colonial State (University of North Carolina Press, 2017)

Kevin K. Gaines, American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and The Civil Rights Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2006)

James Meriwether, Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americans and Africa, 1935-1961 (University of North Carolina Press, 2002)

Congolese Rumba: Soundtrack to African Political Struggle

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Congolese Rumba: Soundtrack to African Political Struggle

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