Obilo reminded his listeners that until Mobutu Sese-Seko became a thorn in the flesh of the world and a bad advertisement for its interventionism in Africa, the
Zairean leader was a buddy of America.
For his second European record, he travelled to France in 1986 and hooked up with fellow francophone musicians to record an underrated album, "Paris", which had high production values, and was also more authentically
Zairean.
That tip led to a key revelation:
Zairean mourners washed their dead.
Rwandan refugees cross the then
Zairean border at Goma to flee the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) troops advance on the northwestern town of Gisenyi.
It was a fascinating relationship that stands as a strange case study of the politics of
Zairean music, the power of art and the art of power.
(13) Similarly, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to quash an anti-governmental insurgency in the eastern part of his country, former
Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko armed many of the Hutu refugees and genocidaires who fled to Zaire from Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 genocide.
During the fight build-up, Ali courted the world's media and earned the adoration of the
Zairean people, in contrast to Foreman, whom it appeared to wish he was anywhere else but Kinshasa.
There was a click from behind me, a metallic click, not a natural click and I turned round to find three heavily armed
Zairean soldiers in full combat gear with guns trained on me and they were not smiling.
Mahnaz Afkhami, 140-9 (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1994); Desire Kazadi Wa Kabwe and Aurelia Segatti, "Paradoxical Expressions of a Return to the Homeland: Music and Literature among the Congolese (
Zairean) Diaspora," in New African Diasporas, ed.
Imported recordings of disco, funk and rock also began to influence East African pop, and you can hear the influence that these international musical styles had on Kenya's pop scene--as well as
Zairean rumba influences that became so popular across Africa.
We considered him a
Zairean who was living in America.
Zairean - a native or inhabitant of Zaire