Educational Media Reviews Online

On the Rumba River is a beautifully shot film that is perfectly suited to educational situations in higher grades in which educators plan to use film to raise questions rather than simply supply canned information. There are no expert musicologists here to speak about the significance of this music or theorize about its roots; other than a brief text immediately before the credits, there are no running texts to supply background information about the Democratic Republic of the Congo or its musicians. This is a film that raises a host of questions about its main character, Wendo (Antoine) Kolosoy (April 25, 1925-July 28, 2008), the music, the history, and culture of the Congo.

The director, Jacques Sarasin, begins and ends the film with images of the poverty that grips the Congo. Sarasin often returns to vistas of dilapidated city streets and the Congo River filled with broken hulls of ships during the course of the film. The music of the film and the happiness it brings provide only temporary escape. The struggle to survive in this landscape is also told by the musicians interviewed in separate vignettes throughout the film.

Antoine Kolosoy is considered one of the key the originators of Congolese rumba music. His life is but one example of how precarious existence has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo DRC). He was born in 1925 when the Congo was still a colony of Belgium. Orphaned by age nine, Kolosoy was raised in a Belgian missionary orphanage. He began performing by age eleven. The Belgians disapproved and suppressed anything that was a part of the native culture, including songs in any of the local languages. Kolosoy was expelled from the orphanage and threatened with arrest for singing in his native tongue.

There is a scene in On the Rumba River in which Kolosoy speaks to the group of musicians he has gathered to perform. He tells the story of his life and how as a child singing on the river boats he developed what he called “twelve voices”, including a high type of yodeling that he demonstrates for the musicians. Apparently, this style was the most appealing to white passengers traveling the river.

Kolosoy spent almost a decade working as a longshoreman and sailor on the Congo River and beyond. He also became a professional boxer during the years 1941-1946. His reputation not only as a boxer but as a fighter outside the ring is something several of the musicians mention with a mix of fear and respect. At a later gathering in the film Kolosoy talks to the musicians about the need to remain unified at all costs. But there is a hint of his power when he says that if disobeyed he will bite them like a snake. Indeed, there is almost a cult-like aspect to the veneration paid Kolosoy by some of the musicians.

Sometime during the mid-1940s Kolosoy formed an ensemble called the Victoria Kin Orchestra, which later became the Victoria Bakolo Miziki. It was in connection with the “Victoria” aspect of the ensemble’s name that Kolosoy assumed a new nickname, Windsor. This in time morphed into Wendo Sor and then just Wendo. The ensemble performed music in the rumba style with Kolosoy performing the vocals and accompanied by a group of dancers. Victoria Bakolo Miziki was one of the first groups of artists to record on the Ngoma record label started by Greek businessman Nicolas Jéronimidis in 1948.

Kolosoy’s first and biggest hit was the song, Marie Louise, written with guitarist Henri Bowane in 1948. The song somehow became associated with the notion that it had the power to raise the dead. As a result the Belgian Catholic authorities suppressed performances of the song and Kolosoy was forced to leave Kinshasa for a period of time. Some stories relate that he was also jailed for a brief period and excommunicated by the Church.

Kolosoy returned to performing in the 1950s and remained active until the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961. He remained out of the public eye until 1997 when Laurent-Désiré Kabila became President of the Congo DCR. Both Kabila and his son Joseph, who succeeded him as President in 2001, encouraged Kolosoy to resume performing and recording his music.

Very few of these details about Kolosoy’s life are explicated in On the Rumba River. The film follows a familiar path: Kolosoy sets out to find musicians who can perform in a new version of his former ensembles. The first set piece of the film is a performance of Kolosoy’s hit, Marie-Louise. English lyrics appear as the song is performed. This only adds to the mystery of how the Belgian authorities could have been frightened by this benign song. There are several other vocal performances in the film that are not accompanied by lyrics which is detrimental to understanding the full context of the song.

Before Kolosoy starts out on his search for musicians he is seen napping in a chair. Sarasin places a dream sequence here that shows images of musicians in performance accompanied only by the rhythmic clapping of woodblocks. What could have been a hackneyed cliché is instead hauntingly beautiful. The culmination of the musical gathering occurs when Antoine Moundanda arrives from Brazzaville, across the Congo River. A master of the thumb piano (mbira), Moundanda joins the performance by singing the story of his arrival and how much it means to him to be there. During the interview segment devoted to him he describes how he learned to play the thumb piano.

Sarasin ends his film with footage of Kolosoy walking onboard a derelict ship moored on the banks of the Congo River looking out over other ships, some half sunken. Kolosoy ruminates about the awful state of his country and how the opportunities presented by independence were wasted by generations of politicians. While one of his songs plays in the background, Kolosoy can only summarize it all by saying “such a terrible shame” and the deep sadness is reflected in the lines that crease his face.