Jb mpiana and werrason took congolese music by storm after the split of wenge musica and went on to have arguably the fiercest rivalry ever in modern congolese music
like werrason often says in his interviews,in every single congolese house of 10 people,he has 7 fans and his colleague 3 fans
the form is a bit funny,but werra is right in that their rivalry had a massive impact in the country
many couples separted because one was supporting jb the other werra,in many companies there were conflicts between executives who supported werra and those who supported jb, there were families who until today are divided in camps because some supported werra some jb,there were even churchs who went into trouble because the priest supported jb and his assistant werra
there were also unfortunately many crimes due to jb werra rivalry
all those examples give a certain idea of how intense the war was and which extent it had on congolese population
but then,one question comes to mind,who benefited from the rivalry(apart from themselves obviously)
here is my little contribution abotu those who in my opinion benefited
i picked three names of people who benefited( the list is too long that even several books would not be albe to name all those who benefited)
those names are didi kinuani,cardozo muamba and zacharie bababaswe
these three men played a pivotal role in congolese music of the 21st century,and more particularly on jb mpiana and werrason respective solo career
first didi kinuani,diamond businessman of mumbala/muyaka ethnic group like werrason,who lives in angola and before wenge split knew alain mpela and then later jb mpiana and werrason aswell as other wenge members
at the beginning of their post wenge musica career,didi kinuani was supporting both wenge bcbg and wenge maison mere but quickly the latent tribal division of the country was worsened by that rivalry and everybody had to support his" brother" jb of werra
didi kinuani being from the same region as werra firmly stood with werra from 2001
he was contributing to maison mere financially forexample buying the group plane tickets for several tours and also supporting werra himself with gifts or important amounts of money for example when the group had important concerts to prepare(zenith,bercy,stade des martyrs...°
In return,his diamond business went into a massive success,it was already succesful but werra's support was a massive boost,his activities were so succesful that he had to open several companies all across the country and in angola aswell
then cardozo mwamba,diamond businessman of luba ethnic group like jb mpiana,who lives in kinshasa
just like werra and didi kinuani,it was a win-win situation,cardozo was providing important financial support to jb and bcbg, and in return cardozo mwamba being highly praised and worshiped by a succesful star like jb made his business massively succesful
he was for example fhe person who contributed the most to the 300 000 euros payed by fans and sponsors for jb's concert at bercy and that year was one of his most succesful as like didi he had to open companies everywhere
both got professional fame through the support of the two most popular artists of the country but also personal fame
almost every congolese know "didi kinuani le sauveur de l'humanité" and cardozo mwamba le bill gates congolais
the last person is zacharie bababaswe aka zaclé,congolese journalist,who worked for national tv and later for private tv channels
he was back then in his 20-30's like his friends jb and werra and was in the shadow of more experienced journalists ,as he was essentially interviewing young artists and presenting concerts of them,unlike his older colleagues who were working with older stars
but then the split of wenge musica marked the debut of his rise as he had a pivotal role in the rivalry between his friends
here again it was a win win situation,zacle was recording full shows dedicated to polemic between jb and werra,who then had another tool to make people talk about them than albums and concerts
the concept was that,he would welcome musicians from either camp who will taunt the other camp,and then record the answer from the other camp and it was broadcasted on tv but also sold in dvds who were sold as much as succesful albums like solola bien,th,kibuisa and so on....which shows how succesful it was
zacharie was one of the very rare journalists who were easily interview both leaders so he had something special compared to other journalists
it was very hard for a journalist who was seen as closer to werrason(naty lokole,marius muhunga and some other) to interview jb,or somebody seen as closer to jb(lolo milolo,djo k...)to interview werra
and whenever one of those journalist interviewed the rival,his "leader" was not happy but zacharie could interview both very easily without any problem from either of them
he quickly became the most popular journalist of his generation as he presented so many big events like werra's bercy,jb's bercy, werra's double zenith and so on
apart from his personal fame he got from working with both,he also became arguably the richest congolese journalist ever
in fact,through his support to both leaders,who were sponsored rival beers primus and skol he signed contracts with both companies which is something rare and almost unthinkable
he was at the center of most of their big events and got money from various sponsors to make both their promotion and promotion of the events
also he was with his courage bringing sponsors to both leaders so he also got his share of money from it
apart from that,with his courage one again, he was helping jb and werra get" insane" numbers of visas nad in return he was allowed a certain number of people(friends,family) on the list for those europe or america tours
it was also,like for jb,werra and other congolese stars,an opportunity to make money(ngulu affair)
he went closer to werra when jb decided he doesnt want polemic anymore but for sure he contributed hugely in both camps
didi kinuani
cardozo mwamba
ZACLE
