Kinshasa's electrified spirit doctors

Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is not exactly a tranquil place. But don't take our word for it.

"Kinshasa has over 8 million people and is one of the most chaotic cities on earth," says Michel Winter, manager of the rising stars of African music, Konono N°1.

He should know, as the Belgian musicologist and producer has not only managed Konono N°1 on international tours since 2002, but returns to Kinshasa at least once a year for reasons he can only explain by saying he is "seduced by the music."

With crime rates high enough to warrant a U.S. State Department travel warning and daily power outages a fact of life, Kinshasa is no picnic, Winter says. The majority of the massive country embraces the Congo basin, and Kinshasa holds the heart of Sub-Saharan Africa within its city limits. As Africa's third-largest city, Kinshasa could soon challenge Paris as the world's largest French-speaking metropolis.

It is here that Crammed Discs' music scout and producer Vincent Kenis first heard rumors of a taxi driver named Mawangu Mingiedi who had formed a band using instruments and amplifiers made from discarded automobile parts. Navigating the streets of Kinshasa is no easy task, but when Kenis finally managed to find Mingiedi and his band, Konono N°1, the end result was a series of European tours and the band's award-winning 2005 album Congotronics.

Any pre-digital hacker can tell you that making an amplifier from a radio is as easy as a few careful splices near the volume control. And although Konono N°1 is known for mercilessly hammering car parts into musical instruments, they certainly don't hold a monopoly on dynamic industrial-age adaptations of African folk music. This innovative impulse is so systemic to Sub-Saharan African music that over the centuries it has overflowed to the western hemisphere. The 17th century invention of the banjo, Sun Ra's pioneering of the portable electronic synthesizer as a stage axe in the '60s, and even the wiring modifications Jimi Hendrix made to his electric guitar have all been attributed to the African tradition of extending and decorating sound by any means available. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Migrating to Kinshasa as a child in the early '60s from his home village in Bas Congo, Mingiedi soon discovered that the small harp-like instrument known as the likembe, or thumb piano, he had brought to summon the spirits of his forest home was no match for noisy Kinshasa.

It wouldn't be until the '70s that Mingiedi would discover that he could amplify his handheld likembe by wrapping recycled speaker magnets with hand-wound wire coils. Konono N°1 was born.

The band soon amplified to the hilt and began making a part-time enterprise of playing weddings and funerals in Kinshasa. Taking their sound to the world stage has not deterred the band's initial intent, however. After nearly a decade on the road, Konono N°1, communicating with The Prague Post in a group e-mail, says "the music is still a way to be in contact with the spirits of our ancestors."

Teachings of an oral society

While their electronic buzz signals a futuristic Southern Hemisphere inter-zone worthy of the science fiction of William Gibson or William Burroughs mixed with hearty African celebration, Konono N°1's lyrics simultaneously sing in the present tense.

"We are kind of spirit doctors and schoolteachers in an oral society, so the lyrics are talking about all the social relationships and behaviors people must respect in order to keep the society in [a] good way of living. We are giving advice about health, families, love, marriage, death and so on," the band says.

In recent years, the world music circuit has seen waves of Afro-Cuban, Moroccan Gnawa and other musics with sacred, ecstatic and trance origin. These world rhythms may share the element of trance, but Konono N°1 says that when it comes to their music, "there is no comparison; the music of Konono is based on traditional music from Bas Congo electrified in order to be heard by as many people as possible."

With tours in Japan, North America and Brazil, as well as a loyal European following, Konono N°1 has certainly succeeded in being heard. In recent years, the band has been featured on collaborations with pop-diva Björk's 2007 album Volta and on jazz giant Herbie Hancock's 2010 globetrotting album The Imagine Project. The band plans future collaborations with Deerhoof, Juana Molina and the Skeletons.

Such cooperation might be an exciting way to hear what Konono N°1 has to offer, but their 2010 release Assume Crash Position is a better place to start. By widening their natural scope with brief moments of acoustic village music and mind-bending homemade electronic passages, Konono N°1's recent studio work and live performances demonstrate that no moss - jungle or otherwise - is growing under their feet.

Prague concertgoers will soon be able to enjoy Konono N°1 live and hear them deliver on their promise "to honor our ancestors and make people feel happy and good."

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com