One of the most beloved singers in Congo music, Papa Wemba was born Shungu Jules Wembadio in Kasai, in the lower part of Congo's massive and remote interior. A self-proclaimed singer from birth and an avid participant in that region's traditional life, Wemba inherited his father's role as ``chief of customs.'' But city life beckoned, and he headed north to Kinshasa, where in 1969 he helped to found Zaiko Langa Langa, Zaire's most popular youth band Congo music had ever seen.

For their irreverence, and the sensation they caused, Zaiko have been compared to the Rolling Stones, whom they admired. But these sons of the rich turned ``rumba rude boys'' proved not so much an institution as a movement. Members split off to form their own bands that spawned yet other bands: Langa Langa Stars, Grand Zaiko Wa Wa, Chock (as in shock) Stars, and, among many others, Papa Wemba's Viva La Musica.

Wemba was one of the first to split off, and he did so in a way that ensured him a special place in the rabble of Zaire's competing stars. In the era of President Mobutu's "authenticity" edict, which demanded affirmation of African heritage, Wemba worked the traditional log drum or lokole into his music, and appeared on stage in raffia skirt and cowrie shell hat, things urbanites had once dismissed as shameful trappings of the bush. But after relocating in Paris, Wemba returned with a new look, which he called ``Ungaru.'' Raffia gave way to Gianfranco Ferre, Pierre Cardin, and a host of trendy European designs.

Wemba gets credit for launching the Zaiko clan's trademark use of high fashion as a form of social rebellion. Wemba's dashing self-styled look-a 1930s throwback featuring baggy, pleated trousers hemmed above shiny brogues and hair clipped close at the sides-soon earned him the title Pope of the Sapeurs: Society of Ambianceurs and Persons of Elegance. The Sapeurs elevate a clothing fetish to a spiritual level to the extent of boasting their own "religion" called Katinda, which means cloth. The wildness of soukous and the excesses of the Sapeurs can be seen as channeled expressions of free spirits in an environment of political oppression and relentless conformity. During three decades of iron-fisted rule, Mobutu stifled all criticism of his government, and even enforced a national dress code for bureaucrats and businessmen.

In 1987, shortly after Afropop first met Papa Wemba in Kinshasa, the singer embarked on a more risky form of rebellion. He created a band in Paris, using European and African musicians, and set about playing music that did not adhere to the core principles of Congo pop. Wemba's Afropop did not go down well with the home crowd, but it did open doors for him in Europe and America, especially when he and his new group performed in the 1988 traveling spectacle of African traditional performance arts, Africa Oyé.

Since then, Wemba has led parallel lives, performing and recording both with Viva La Musica and with his crossover group. The Viva la Musica releases have been some of the best straight Congo music releases of the late `90s. Meanwhile, Wemba's work with his own group earned him a place in the 1998 touring festival Africa Fête. In any context, Wemba preserves a shy, roguish demeanor behind his Parisian polish. On stage and on record, his gangling stride, generous smile, and elastic voice--honed and jagged like a spinning saw blade--are irresistible every time.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre