Jean-Bosco Mwenda, also known as Mwenda wa Bayeke (1930 – September 1990), was a pioneer of
Congolese fingerstyle
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plect ...
acoustic
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
. He was also popular in other African countries, particularly in
East Africa, and in the late 1950s and early 1960s was briefly based in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...
, Kenya, where he had a regular radio show and became a profound influence on a generation of
Kenya
)
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n guitarists.
Background
Jean-Bosco Mwenda was born in 1930 at
Bunkeya
Bunkeya is a community in the Lualaba Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is located on a huge plain near the Lufira River.
Before the Belgian colonial conquest, Bunkeya was the center of a major trading state under the ruler Msir ...
(now part of
Lualaba Province
Lualaba is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Lualaba, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, and Tanganyika provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Katanga provinc ...
) in what was then the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
, but lived most of his life in
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi (former names: ( French), (Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katang ...
, where in addition to playing music he had a job in a bank and with the local mining company, managed other bands, and owned a hotel on the Zambian border. He died in September 1990 in a car accident in
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
.
Mwenda used the name Mwenda wa Bayeke, claiming descent from the
Sanga noble clan of Bayeke.
His music draws on various sources including the traditional music of his
Luba
Luba may refer to:
Geography
*Kingdom of Luba, a pre-colonial Central African empire
* Ľubá, a village and municipality in the Nitra region of south-west Slovakia
*Luba, Abra, a municipality in the Philippines
*Luba, Equatorial Guinea, a town ...
/Sanga people.
He was one of the few Congolese to obtain a Western education during the colonial era due to his father's position in the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Mwenda worked at first as a clerk for the
Likasi
Likasi (formerly official names: Jadotville (French) and Jadotstad ( Dutch)) is a city in Haut-Katanga Province, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Demographics
Likasi has a population of around 635,000 (2015). During the 1990 ...
administration but soon achieved huge success as a guitarist, issuing his first recordings in 1952.
Along with his friend and sometime partner Losta Abelo, and his cousin
Edouard Masengo, Bosco defined the Congolese acoustic guitar style. His song "Masanga", recorded by
Hugh Tracey
Hugh Travers Tracey was an English ethnomusicologist. He and his wife collected and archived music from Southern and Central Africa. From the 1920s through the 1970s, Tracey made over 35,000 recordings of African folk music. He popularized the ...
, became particularly influential, because of its complex and varied guitar part.
His own influences included traditional
music of Zambia
The music of Zambia has a rich heritage which falls roughly into categories of traditional, popular and Christian music.
Traditional music
Traditional Zambian music is rooted in the beliefs and practices of Zambia's various ethnic groups and ...
and the Eastern Congo,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n groups such as the
Trio Matamoros
The TrÃo Matamoros was one of the most popular Cuban trova groups. It was formed in 1925 by Miguel Matamoros (8 May 1894 in Santiago de Cuba – 15 April 1971; guitar), Rafael Cueto (14 March 1900 in Santiago de Cuba – 7 August 1991; gu ...
, and
cowboy movies.
A 1982 video field recording by
Gerhard Kubik
Gerhard Kubik (born 10 December 1934) is an Austrian music ethnologist from Vienna. He studied ethnology, musicology and African languages at the University of Vienna. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in ...
exists in a compilation of influential African guitarists artists entitled ''Native African Guitar''. A 1982 CD with booklet (text by Gerhard Kubik, also in English, including the
Kiswahili
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili ...
song texts), is available from the
Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin. The recordings include the complete concert Bosco gave at June 30, 1982, at the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin. In 1988
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
-based record label
Mountain Records recorded a studio album of Mwenda's music and issued it in 1994. The album is entitled ''Mwenda wa Bayeke - African guitar legend''.
"Jean Bosco Mwenda – Mwenda Wa Bayeke"
at Discogs.
See also
* African fingerstyle guitar
* African music
References
External links
*
Gateway of Africa
* Elijah Wald
Elijah Wald (born 1959) is an American folk blues guitarist and music historian. He is a 2002 Grammy Award winner for his liner notes to ''The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: The Journey of Chris Strachwitz''.
Life
Wald was born in 1959 ...
â€
Jean-Bosco Mwenda interview
The Smithsonian
1930 births
1990 deaths
People from Lualaba Province
Democratic Republic of the Congo guitarists
Democratic Republic of the Congo musicians
Fingerstyle guitarists
Road incident deaths in Zambia
20th-century guitarists
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