Music
2025
King'Gongolo Kiniata
Punk band with rumba influences and handmade instruments plays Congo-Kinshasa literally out of the rubble.
Kin’gongolo Kiniata refers in Lingala to the scraping of oil drums that are rolled through the streets of the sprawling city of Kinshasa during power outages, something that was commonplace in Congo-Kinshasa in the 2000s. Meanwhile, those oil drums serve other purposes now. The most exciting afropunk band of the moment has fashioned almost all its instruments from the streets – from oil drums and one-string guitars to plastic bottles. In order for a better world to arise from the ruins, the ever-passionate call and response rings out. Even for those who do not master Lingala, the anti-colonial struggle of Kin’gongolo is felt deeply. The same goes for the basses.
