NYOKA LONGO'S RELEVANCE OVER TIME

NYOKA LONGO'S RELEVANCE OVER TIME

QUESTION

What's the reason that Nyoka Longa is the one that remained out of anyone else? He doesn't strike me as the most talented at the time when there was Evoloko and Papa Wemba. What made it that he stood the test of time and became the face of Zaiko? Was he already somewhat the face of Zaiko back then? Is he musically included and knows how to play a few instruments? What is it about the guy?

ANSWER 

Zaiko was founded because of Papa Wemba's voice with Pedro Felix Manuaku (who came from the previous called Belguide which was disbanded by the founders of Zaiko after discovering Papa Wemba) and Papa Wemba(then called Jules Presley) being the first musicians with the rest being recruited some days later. Zaiko was founded by D.V. Moanda, Marcelin Delo, Henry Mongombe, Andre Bita, and Olemi Eshar-Eshar. Back in the day bands were mostly founded and directed by donors. A lot of those bands used then to have two bands. One band was playing American music (Pop, Soul, R&B), and the other band was typical Congolese music. Zaiko was one of those bands until 1988.

For people who don't know it, the first star of Zaiko was Nyoka Longo with his song La Blanche Neige which was a hit in 1970. But Zaiko was then not really a big band they used to copy Los Nickelos, which was a band of Congolese students based in Belgium. They feared Thu Zahina who were beside of Tabu Ley and Los Nickelos as their role models and the reference the young generation until Verckys Kiamangana and Franco Luambo killed the band in 1972 by signing the band to their label but not producing them and recruiting their best musicians.

In 1971 Gina Efonge joined the band and the band changed immediately. Zaiko started to become famous with his songs and he became then the star of the band. The same year they created the Cavacha rhythm which all drummers took over and is played until this day. Not long after that, they created inside the band a platform called Isifi (Institut du Savoir Ideologique pour la Formation des Idoles) which had Gina Efonge, Evoloko Lay, Papa Wemba, Mavuela Somo, and some other musicians, excluding Nyoka Longo. Because in Gina's eyes, he was a "yuma" and he couldn't join them, because he came from Masina. Nyoka Longo was then mostly not singing in their songs and concerts and started to focus on the administration of Zaiko. In 1973 Zaiko was the most popular band of Zaire and Evoloko became then the face of the band with his hits Mbeya Mbeya and Eluzam. In 1973 Gina Efonge lost his head and was replaced by Bozi Boziana. At the end of 1974, Evoloko Lay, Papa Wemba, Mavuela Somo, and Bozi Boziana decided to leave Zaiko and form Isifi Lokole with Zaiko only being left with the instrumentists and the singers Nyoka Longo and Bimi Ombale who returned in 1973 as a singer (he used to be a drummer), but was like Nyoka Longo excluded. They recruited musicians and went back to the Los Nickelos-style. They formed a dangerous singing group (Likinga Redo, Nyoka Longo, Lengi Lenga, Bimi Ombale) called Le Quartet joined by showman Mbuta Mashakado who used to be the choreographer of Evoloko and a pop singer in Zaiko before the split. Mbuta Mashako, Nyoka Longo, and Bimi were then the start of the band. Then in 1976, Gina Efonge recovered and rejoined Zaiko. In 1977 Bozi Boziana also rejoined Zaiko and it made the band stronger, the same year Gina left to form his own band Libanko after getting his fame back. In 1978 Evoloko rejoined Zaiko and from then they started to fight against Viva La Musica about being the most popular band. But Nyoka Longo didn't like him, because he felt like Evoloko came to steal his rol as being the top-star of the band, which often resulted in conflicts. Then in 1979, Manuaku Waku became the star of the band with his hits Obi and Femme n'est Pleur Pas.

The same year just before celebrating Zaiko's 10th Anniversary, Nyoka Longo and his friends fired Manuaku Waku from the band with Evoloko Lay, Bozi Boziana, Djudju-chet, and many others who were making part of Zaiko. Zaiko used then to have more than 30 musicians and it was easy to split the band in 3 with them performing in three different places in Kinshasa. Manuaku then decided to start Grand Zaiko Wawa with the rest, but then Franco decided to reconcile them and they all rejoined. But the conflict between Nyoka Longo and Manuaku was so big that, Manuaku decided to leave and start his own band. The departure of Manuaku meant that nobody could protect Evoloko from Nyoka Longo which made Evoloko sing barely in concerts (sometimes only 2 songs). Because Manuaku used to be the chef d'orchestre of Zaiko. So Evoloko decided to contact Verckys Kiamuangana to form his own band with Evoloko then contacted his best friend Bozi, Djo Mali, and other musicians of Zaiko to form Langa Langa Stars in 1981. The split fragilized Zaiko, but they continued. Then Nyoka Longo discovered that Verckys slept with his wife which made him furious and he decided to sing the song SOS Maya (Version Original) against him. But Zaiko had a contract with Veve, so Verckys took all their instruments. With Zaiko being broke and not
 having instruments 9 months long. In 1982 they made a strong become and coming with something new which "atalaku's" would transform the Congolese music scene every. Like the eras (1973-1974 & 1979-1981), 1984-1988 would bring on the peak. In 1988 Zaiko split again. Familia Dei on the one side and Nkolo Mboka on the other. But everybody saw Nkolo Mboka as the true Zaiko since Nyoka Longo was there with everybody saying "Zaiko c'est Nyoka Longo".

 Nyoka Longo himself became the president of Zaiko in 1984 after the death of the founder D.V. Moanda. Another thing that makes every see Nyoka Longo as the face of Zaiko is that he was there since the start and all his mates of that time left the band (Papa Wemba, Manuaku Waku, Evoloko Lay & Mavuela Somo). Also, RTNC (Tele Zaïre) lost its archives in 1993 after the lootings and a lot in 1998 when the RCD-rebellion started. So nobody can see the video of the famous Kin-Show concert (1973) when Evoloko & Gina Efonge were high on drugs and started to do crazy things on the scene with a lot of parents being furious. Those are videos with Evoloko being the main act. We are lucky that they released in 2004 and 1993 some rare videos of Viva La Musica and Zaiko on DVD and VHS.

By Rudent Obande

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