BADIBANGA WA TSHILUMBA: THE LES MANGELEPA MASTER SHOWMAN

BY JEROME OGOLA

Described by Standard Newspaper cartoonist Mado as “a band within a band”, Badibanga Wa Tshilumba aka Kaikai was a spectacle to behold in Les Mangelepa shows. 

His showmanship oozed naturally. He was a master of the stage. Although trying to do his choreography in synchrony with the other members on stage, he oftentimes ended up a one man show as he outwitted them. He knew how to do it. 

Badibanga Wa Tshilumba was a rare talent. He was Nairobi's most known trombone player, and possibly the only one in the secular circles outside the military. He made his trombone miraculously outstanding, thus creating a wonderful harmony with the super saxophones of the band Tabu Ngongo.

Moreover, he was also a talented composer. He was the man who composed the evergreen 'Nyako Konya', 'Walter' among many others. He was also a talented conga player, a wonderful vocalist and a trumpeter.

Kaikai, who died in 2015 in South Africa and was buried there, was a fan favorite in the star-studded Les Mangelepa lineup. The band also featured Bwamy Walumona aka Le Capitain, Kabila Kabanza aka Ivany, Lumwanga Mayombo aka Ambasedeur, Lututu Kaniki aka Macky, Kalenga Nzanze aka Vivi, Twikale Kalonda, Tabu Ngongo, and others.

He was born in 1946 in Mbuji Mayi. He learnt the trombone and trumpet in the Congolese National Army in the mid-1960s. His very first engagement with a fully professional civilian band was Lupe Jazz of Lubumbashi, which he joined in 1968. The band was very popular then, in the town. 

In 1970, he was recruited into Micky Jazz, owned by Micky Kalonda, and taken to Lusaka, Zambia, where the band performed regularly in a local club known as Gondola. In 1972, the band toured Dar es Salaam, and Badibanga ended up being poached by Ndala Kasheba, into his Fauvette Jazz.

This set Micky Kalonda and Ndala Kasheba, both natives of Kasai into a collision course. He didn't stay long in the band before joining Baba National, led by Baba Gaston Ilunga Wa Ilunga, a giant in Congolese music who played a key role in bringing Congolese musicians to East Africa.

In 1976, Badibanga Wa Tshilumba was among a dozen musicians who quit Baba National 'entered en masse' creating Les Mangelepa, a band that subsequently defined Nairobi's entertainment for a whopping four decades, creatures songs like 'Embakasi' which turned out to be one of Nairobi's greatest hits ever.

No doubt Badibanga Wa Tshilumba was an outstanding performer and a pillar of Les Mangelepa.

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