His interview with Ado Yuhe was so insightful about all things Wenge, but was unfortunately deleted. Finally he has returned to recount the entire orginal Wenge story again from start-to-finish.


I would never question anything he or "Fondé" Didier Masela has to say regarding Wenge history. All these years I never knew Kija was the inverse of his name Jaki (Jackie), and Brown was given to him by JB

So much information - like Werrason the childhood drummer in Celio stars.

"Ambassadeur Kija Brown, omoni niveau?" 

His interview with Ado Yuhe was so insightful about all things Wenge, but was unfortunately deleted. Finally he has returned to recount the entire orginal Wenge story again from start-to-finish.


I would never question anything he or "Fondé" Didier Masela has to say regarding Wenge history. All these years I never knew Kija was the inverse of his name Jaki (Jackie), and Brown was given to him by JB

So much information - like Werrason the childhood drummer in Celio stars.

"Ambassadeur Kija Brown, omoni niveau?" 

Can you give us a proper translation of the whole interview then?

key parts are
 the very original co founders of wenge musica are  didier masela,aime,buanga and werrason who were earlier in a group they co founded aswell celio stars in which masela was singer and not yet bassist werra played drums  and then when masela moved to boarding school he learned bass seriously and when he came back they were suggested idea in 1981 to switch to name of wenge musica with the arrivals of jb,alain makaba and few years later blaise bula and co
he said it was a group of students but jb was the first who was really seeing himself as an artist so he kind of sacrificed class to commit fully to wenge  while most of the rest continued class up to 1990  and its jb who brought the name bcbg(which is why he kept it after split)
and people  see jb,masela,makaba and werra as the co founders of wenge musica because they relate to them when they became a big group already with aime buanga and soloist zing zong gone to europe way before so they forget to mention them and give them due credit because the first album mulolo was done with their contribution but played in studio without them as they went to europe
he talks about how they got jailed for trying to go to europe with false papers and how it inspired jb to do kin e bouger song and release album on new year eve of that year and it was the start of crazy success for wenge
he says they started with a president who was not a musician papy kimbi and later mavo voka but then at some point the administrators jb werra makaba masela were not too happy about how things were going so they decided to vote for an hierarchy picking jb as president,werra as financial director,alain makaba on artistic direction  and chef d'orchestre role(which blaise bula got afterwards) and didier masela as the founder of the group but none of them was above  they were making decisions together
about the split he says  when jb started idea of solo album the group was behind him but when they realised they could not release jb's album and group album at the same time so they did not get the usual number of customers for songs or mabanga they started moaning and jb was often complaining to him about how things were changeing and producer mr simon who for him (probably biased as he is werra's cousin) did not like werra so he used that golden opportunity to get musicians fully  on jb's side with good money and make split easier
and he said him klja tried to convince jb to make a step back but jb talked to him like never before and he could understand that jb was fed up as things went too far for him(quite surely the scenes of werra wanting to beat jb at peace making reunion ) and jb told him if he was in kinshasa and not in europe at that moment maybe the split would not happen because he knew how to speak to each of them
he also said that marie paul remained in europe to create wenge el paris on werra's demand as werra saw he had no future in the group with him and blaise bula being untouchable in that position

Thanks Archos

His interview with Ado Yuhe was so insightful about all things Wenge, but was unfortunately deleted. Finally he has returned to recount the entire orginal Wenge story again from start-to-finish.


I would never question anything he or "Fondé" Didier Masela has to say regarding Wenge history. All these years I never knew Kija was the inverse of his name Jaki (Jackie), and Brown was given to him by JB

So much information - like Werrason the childhood drummer in Celio stars.

"Ambassadeur Kija Brown, omoni niveau?" 

"... omoni nivieau? yango yo".

I hope his book will be available in anglais at some point.

at least he will have no issues releasing his book lol back in the years when i started my project i went to see werra and jb  to inform them and they were both showing clearly it was not a good idea(i even had those sxxxers of them both calling to say if you do it we'll take it to court or we'll send people to take good care of you) but at least kija they will make no problem
if he can include that name some people were calling werra and he'd get very mad in the book i'll be so happy i have been looking for it for 10+years 

at least he will have no issues releasing his book lol back in the years when i started my project i went to see werra and jb  to inform them and they were both showing clearly it was not a good idea(i even had those sxxxers of them both calling to say if you do it we'll take it to court or we'll send people to take good care of you) but at least kija they will make no problem
if he can include that name some people were calling werra and he'd get very mad in the book i'll be so happy i have been looking for it for 10+years 

What name is that?

i dont remember it lol but i know that if you wanted werra to run after you in the streets you just had to call him like that

My instincts tells me it has something to do with his stingyness?? No?

at least he will have no issues releasing his book lol back in the years when i started my project i went to see werra and jb  to inform them and they were both showing clearly it was not a good idea(i even had those sxxxers of them both calling to say if you do it we'll take it to court or we'll send people to take good care of you) but at least kija they will make no problem
if he can include that name some people were calling werra and he'd get very mad in the book i'll be so happy i have been looking for it for 10+years 

What project you had?

i had started a book about the history of wenge musica back in 2012 2013 i stopped around 1992

i had started a book about the history of wenge musica back in 2012 2013 i stopped around 1992

It's sad their feelings get in the way of documenting important cultural history. Literature outlives them and all these silly complexes.

Right now it's hard for people to learn about the full history of Congolese music, but you can find everything about Senegalese or Malian music instantly

i had started a book about the history of wenge musica back in 2012 2013 i stopped around 1992

Archos F*** them I mean you are one  of the guy who contribute the most in the forum and Congolese music needs that, you can search any musical expression (Rap, Rock, R'n'B) and you will find books, videos, and documentaries about the music made and of the people who made it, but for Congolese Music there are very few things, I mean a part Congovibes and Wikipedia there aren't books, videos, or documentaries made by serious people documenting it, do that project present that in France, Belgium and you will see it will bee a great success

Completely agree with Mozambique94. Im in the states and hip hop used to have the same problem. There hasnt been a billboard top 10 that didnt have a least 5 songs from hip hop/r’n’b and yet the style was still so undocumented. They just now starting to get things right after realizing that the people wanna know. Now you have the likes of Tupac movies, NWA movies, Bobby Brown and New Edition and many more to come because although people dont expect it those projects usually go far beyond expectations as far as success(Prime example being the NWA movie). I’ve though long and hard and find it baffling that for a genre of music that is by far one of the most popular in the world, we dont have a movie about Koffi, Nothing on Papa Wemba since la vie est belle which was 30 years ago, No wenge movie, not even a freaking ZAIKO movie. Not even one back home from a small production. Its really unbelievable. Archos write your book fam, the people wanna know trust me.

I think the best point of departure here is to ask Archos how can we support him, we all live in different corners of the world and we can surely have something to contribute..Let's make it a CONGOVIBES MEMBERS PROJECT..Archos I am in South Africa, just tell me what  you need me to do here and I can run around for it..We can start with a book then move into a documentary..How can we contribute Archos, I'm sure all members of this forum wants to be involved..