Today let me discuss things I do not under about Wenge 4x4. Most of what I read does not add up at all especially on the sharing of money. Wenge 4x4 had Makaba, Masela, Bula, Aldophe, Werra & JB as leaders. This is the group that made decisions on behalf of the bad. Presidency and positions in the group were rotational.
The President provided overall oversight over: Finance, Marketing, Recruitment &Technical Direction. That is basically the job of the President, you supervise other senior directors and ensure the band is moving in the right.
Money was raised through sale of music, concerts, songs for rich guys, Mabanga and donations to the group. How this money was used was decided by the group chaired by the President. Remember that the whole essence of a band is business and no sane group leader or leaders would allow one person to bulldoze how money is handled. Under normal circumstances the band leaders sit to account for how much was raised and discuss how it is spent and keep records of expenditure.
When I hear Wenge 4x4 stories about how Werrason only paid the big boys and not the small boys and other big boys would be telling the small boys to chase Werra for their pay and that he kept their pay to himself, I start wondering what kind of leaders the group had. How was the money they raised kept? Did Werra call the shorts on how money was used alone? What was JB presiding over if he had no control over the money? Was he also only paid a small share by Werra? Did he put in place methods of paying salaries and people signing for their money or Werrason was giving handouts when he felt like doing so?
Those who know the history better can help explain this. To me looks like there was a lot of infighting and leaders undermining each other and lying to young ones or simply put Wenge 4x4 was poorly organized and managed.
the wenge administration was more or less shared like this,werra having a strong influence on discipline,recruitment and of course finances,jb having more of an overall view and the main signature of contracts involving wenge 4X4
jb is not the type of overdominant leader who is always getting involved in everything even until today bcbg's chefs are among the chefs who are the least symbolic in DRC they actually do their roles and just report to him,so him and werra complemented each other like a president and a prime minister
basically even though werra with that ambitious and fiery personality of his "was more on the field" with the normal members than jb masela makaba they still had common decisions made on most things
makaba when he was around had total control of artistic direction,if he said jb or werra or whoever you have to restart 80 times to get the result he wants no matter how you sulk you will do it,if he decided that there will be x names of people in a song dont even except one name more and it was also accepted like this given that he was light years ahead of the group in terms of overall musical knowledge
makaba for most of wenge's prime spent more time in europe than in kinshasa and wanted the group to be ruled like in europe almost,with improved salaries for musicians,trip bonuses and things like that while jb werra masela would often agree more on the typical system of kin of chewing the money and giving peanuts to musicians
masela was also a bit "logical" like makaba but they would appease him with the way they shared the money
if for example 5000 dollars arrived in the group,the 4 amis would share 3000 of it in a perfect 1/4 each of 750 then split sometimes 1000 between blaise and adolphe or 500 shared by adolphe and blaise 500 into the budget of group then mbuta kiss sent to pay musicians the rest of 1000 which was rarely complete(as nsone or masela would catch him in private to chew some more)
then in the simple musicians,titina alain mpela kusangila ficarre were getting a bit more than others based on being longer in the group
and many times too the pay of musicians was disappearing,and it almost lead to a rebellion already in 1991 which was saved by makaba who had money from his session works who paid musicians
or when it was not really disappearing werra would either chew it and give to either mampata or pathy patricia then(lol most people do not know that mampata also went through rivalry before cementing the life long status) or he'd get jb into it who abandoned quicker as he used first times to invest in private business or with masela and leak some to tata
blaise was not minding it much at first as he had some other options to earn money than wenge as he would for example do his engineer duties at national tv or somewhere else
also its important to say that when musicians who's salary of then could literally be over in one night if they wanted to party a bit wanted to get private money from the admins,they'd go to werra who would depending on his mood tell them to fxxk off,or start distracting them so that they forget what they came for,or encourage them to go on donors hunt to get that money without needing to bother him or that the money from recent concerts was stolen by burglars so even in the group's budget there is nothing
while went they went to jb they came back with a solution most of the time since jb was more naturally generous(dont get it twisted werra is also quite generous to some people but also very cautious at the same time l
ets say werra is more cautious or stingy if you will in the professional context then more generous with people outside)
and it started giving an edge in leadership to jb as musicians were more satisfied with him than with werra(masela at that moment had lost a bit of authority as he was literraly living with jb )
and thats why in the later stages when makaba arrived with his contract and desire to implement more structure into the payment in the group,jb who knew he had everything to win by siding with the musicians sided with alain,knowing that werra had(also) always been against paying the musicians "too" well,as it as been inherited from older musicians
and for the first time money did not come through werra's hands,which was seen as controversial then but seems to me quite logical as it was an independant contract from wenge that makaba brought so technically they were like session musicians of his project,and session musicians you deal with them straight
and musicians all saw money that they never imagined they'd ever touch in wenge 4X4 including the longest serving mpela and co and started singing of praise for makaba, who without necessarily knowing hijacked big time werra's authority as financial director and came with ideas of a a complete shape up of the way the group would be ruled
and its on the basis of those ideas that most of the group would later go into wenge bcbg before it reverted to the oldschool mentality of supreme leaders giving peanuts to musicians when they want and if they want,as in congolese music being too nice to musicians by paying them well often is seen as a lack of authority
in the wenge configuration the president could not have a too strong and too exclusive power as the way they are now in solo careers for the simple reason that they were considering each other of the 4 as co founders of the group except that unlike empire bakuba for exemple musicians were not calling three people president
