Congolese singer and bandleader Samba Mapangala has a special knack for making creative connections between his wandering life in music and world events.  He left Congo in the 1970s and made his name with Orchestre Virunga in Kenya, where being a musician from Congo had special caché.  Mapangala’s fabulous Swahili rumba took him around East Africa and Europe in the years to come, and eventually to the USA, where his Kenyan connection—and a fine composition celebrating the candidacy of Barrack Obama—earned him a gig at a classy inaugural ball in Washington in January, 2009. 

Virunga is the name of a volcano in eastern Congo, and also the Virunga National Park, home to a population of mountain gorillas whose lives have been endangered by the ongoing civil war in the region.  In September, 2009, Mapangala and his current band reworked one of his classic songs into a new composition to raise awareness about these awesome, endangered creatures.  Recorded in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, “Les Goriles” is a crisp, elegant rumba with an important and soulful message. 

Click here to download the song.

Click here to find out more about the campaign to protect the gorillas.

Banning Eyre