THE "AFRICAN FIESTA NATIONAL" UNSUNG HERO

By JEROME OGOLA

Dead men tell no tales, and this reality offers authors a license to skew history in a manner that hoists them as heroic status than they really are in reality.  Writing while every other player is dead, inspires the writer to make statements that may be untrue as he is sure to get away with. 

In his book, Les Couilises De La Musique Congolaise, writer Faugus Izeidi, has been accused by pundits of trying to gobble more limelight through his writings, than he really worked for, as a musician. The bone of contention has largely been about the innovation of the mi-solo guitar, which he claims to be his creation. This position as presented in his narrations, could only be debunked by his African Jazz peers, none of whom is alive to give the contrary opinion. 

Faugus Izeidi, born Futu Augustine in  Leopoldville in December 1942, is a younger brother to Roger Izeidi of African Jazz. Although he had immeasurable dalliance with the African Jazz of Grand Kalle, there is very little of his footprints available in the band, through recorded music, as there is an African Fiesta National of Tabuley where his guitar rules the earlier recordings. 

His elder brother the late Roger Izeidi, although physically diminutive, was a big name in African Jazz, and even performed with the band in the January 1960 independence fete in Brussels, an event that birthed the country's liberation. He played maracas, composed, and sang. Maracas was a central pillar, and hand percussion played an important role before the advent of drumkits.

After the big bag that split African Jazz into two, Roger Izeidi went the African Fiesta way, and eventually found himself in Tabuley's outfit African Fiesta National, after the subsequent split of 1963. He then ventured into production, having procured CEFA studios from Bill Alexandre, the Belgian Jazz musician credited with introducing electric guitar in Congolese music.

In the nascent days of the existence of African Jazz in the mid-1950s, the band members most of the time converged and even practiced at their home in Matonge, and this granted an inquisitive and eager young Augustin an opportunity to learn the guitar and horn his skills in the instrument. By the time he was 13, he was already an accomplished guitarist. They shared a neighbourhood with the Tabuley family and this explains why the two families have had ties beyond their musical engagements. For example, Tabuley's song 'Anne Makoy' was a dedication to the mother of Roger and Faugus. 

Although his involvement with African Jazz is glaringly peripheral, his claim of having innovated the mi solo is easily debunked by the reality that the duo that handled with guitar at the band were the mercurial siblings of the Mikalayi, Nico, and Dechaud and the indomitable Tino Baroza, their cousin. If there was any guitar innovation at the band it would least likely originate from different quarters other than the fingers of these three. However, his contribution at African Fiesta National where he played mi solo in almost all of the band's recordings between 1966 and 1968 is glaringly outstanding.

His trademark mi-solo in the song 'mokolo nakokufa' which he composed after it was written by Tabuley is iconic.  The mi solo guitar, a concept which originated to bridge the solo and the rhythm guitars, should be mistaken for the mi compose, where a guitar features two strings E, (the second in place of D) to give the rhythms a unique style, an idea that was made popular by Lokassa Ya Mbongo. This was a Dechaud Mwamba innovation. 

Faugus Izeidi, upon departure from African Fiesta National, created his own band, African Fiesta Populaires, an ensemble that made a remarkable contribution to Congolese music in the 1970s and even gave Madilu System a platform to launch his music career among others. Although Faugus Izeidi has made an incredible contribution to Congolese music, it is important that history isn't distorted to give him more than his fair share.

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