The band strikes up the rumba, and the dance floor in Kinshasa fills with couples who sway to its slinky, sensual rhythm.
Rumba is a music that has an international following, especially for its brassy Cuban version.
However, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), the guitar-driven local variant has a deep and passionate following, and devotees hope that next week the genre will be declared a world cultural treasure.
The DR Congo and its smaller neighbor, the Republic of the Congo, are jointly pushing for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to inscribe their rumba on its list
By the time ‘Clapton is God’ graffiti was appearing on London walls, Africa had found a new deity of guitar, and his name was Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay
Congolese rumba, sometimes called rumba Lingala or rumba Congolais, is likely to join khon, a Thai masked dance drama, khaen music of Laos, chapei dang veng of Cambodia, Cuban son and Dominican bachata on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. In August this year, the two countries from the Congo Basin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (ROC), announced a joint bid to add Congolese rumba to the list.