On Saturday, August 9, 2023, Nairobi quietly marked two years since the death of Kalenga Nzazi, also known as Vivi. He was an ace soloist with Les Mangelepa, a Congolese band that has kept Nairobi dancing for almost five decades.

As much as one would have expected the anniversary of such an icon to be marked with numerous musical activities, there were no widely publicized events to commemorate him. However, the silence doesn't erase his significant contribution to Nairobi's music industry over the decades.

Kalenga Nzazi was one of the three major pillars that Les Mangelepa, christened "the last band standing," stood on in the recent past. The others are fellow singers Lutulu Kaniki, also known as Macky, and Kabila Kabanze, also known as Evany.

Mangelepa is one of the expatriate Congolese bands that made it big in Nairobi in the 1970s and 1980s. The band luckily managed to survive the turbulent winds of defections and immigration to Europe and the US, and it kept Nairobi dancing until a few years ago.

Mangelepa was a household name in Kenya. Their song "Embakasi," composed by Kalenga, is arguably Nairobi's most played song on radio, in entertainment joints, in public service vehicles (PSVs), and at other social events. The song, dedicated to his girlfriend Moraa, captures the emotional moments of a man flying to a destination away from his loved ones.

After a stint as a carpenter in Lubumbashi in the late 1960s, Kalenga joined Baba Gaston Illunga Wa Illunga's band, Baba National. The story of Kalenga cannot be told in isolation; it is conjoined to that of the Mangelepa band, which has recorded hundreds of songs, according to later-day leader Kabila Kabanze. In search of greener pastures away from the music-saturated Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this band found its way to East Africa in 1973 after a brief stay in Zambia and Malawi.

According to American writer Alastair Johnston, who has extensively researched African music and documented the history on his blog "Congo in Kenya," Baba Gaston's band, which first set foot in Tanzania in 1973, is the group that opened the floodgates for Congolese musicians into East Africa.

In 1975, Baba National relocated to Nairobi from Dar es Salaam. After several performances and recording sessions in Nairobi, the band thought better prospects awaited them in Kenya's capital, whose music industry was more vibrant, at least in those days.

The band performed at Uhuru Park for a year before a major split occurred, with several star musicians quitting to create their own ensemble. Among them were solo guitarist Bwamy Walumona, singers Kalenga Nzazi, Kabila Kabanze, Lutulu Kaniki, saxophonist Tabu Ngongo, and trumpeter/singer the late Badibanga Wa Tshilumba, among others. According to Evany, the dispute was caused by a disagreement over money.

That's how Les Mangelepa was born, aptly named from a dance style they had popularized at Baba National. The new kid on the block gave other bands in town a run for their money with great releases, hit after hit. In its heyday, the band toured Mauritius, Malawi, and other countries.

Although it had lost its mojo with the changing times and defections, the band managed to outlive its peers and celebrated forty years of existence with an extensive visit to Europe, performing in England, Germany, and Poland.

"I wouldn't be living this life if it weren't for piracy," the late Kalenga once told a writer, pointing to the house he was living in, within a school compound in Dandora, one of the city's estates.

A man doesn't remain young forever. As old age approaches, musicians, like everyone else, are expected to make a living from what they earned in their youth. But according to Kalenga, the sun may have shone on them, but they couldn't "make any hay" as pirates shielded the rays from them. Nairobi has no pension for the band that kept it dancing, and the musicians have difficulty even sustaining themselves.

Certainly, Nairobi will not be in a hurry to forget the stars of Les Mangelepa. Their footprints are too glaring to easily fade away.

By Jerome Ogola

Jabulani Radio

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