from 1:16:25 min

I see now why Nyoka Longo did not want to pay his musicians for Zenith de Paris and when being in Kinshasa, his musicians often receiving nothing or just peannuts when touring to African countries


After saying that 2 years they spent in Europe was really difficult for them and especially the 4 years in Kinshasa before Zenith (1998-2002). He said that in Kinshasa they rehearse at Mullhouse from Tuesday to Friday. Each day he needs to spend min. 130 dollars. Because of not having a complete set of instruments anymore, they need to pay at least 150 to rent remaining instruments to be able to perform at Mullhouse every sunday. Then if its monday and Nyoka Longo ask to the people working at Mullhouse what the revenues are, they reply always by nothing and if there's money, its just 50 dollars. Just make the sum of how much loss they were having for 4 years. Then they have to pay also their musicians

I wonder how Nyoka Longo was able to survive financially because Zaiko didn't had their contract with Unibra/Skol anymore since 1996/97.

Nyoka Longo not paying his musicians for Zenith, created for alot of frustration in the band. Later on they weren't also paid for Eureka, because Jean Pierre Saah ran away to Cameroon to espace for the French justice and went away with all the money. It made the musicians more mad and some even leaving the band already before Nyoka Longo went to jail

Nyoka Longo not paying his musicians for Zenith, created for alot of frustration in the band. Later on they weren't also paid for Eureka, because Jean Pierre Saah ran away to Cameroon to espace for the French justice and went away with all the money. It made the musicians more mad and some even leaving the band already before Nyoka Longo went to jail

What was the reason behind Nyoka Longo going to jail?

He had to perform twice for an African festival at the huge Forest National in Brussels. His manager for those event was Coco Rubenga. Nyoka Longo already received the money of the first day, but he was bored at the place he was staying so he decided to go the office with his friend to get the money of the second. When arriving at the office, a employee explained that the manager already withdrawed the money. It made Nyoka Longo furious, he called Coco Rubenga and they started agruing. Coco Rubenga was really mad and decided to finish Nyoka Longo by snitching him about ngulu's to the police. He knew about Zaiko's documents and that atalaku Nono Monzuluku didn't travel with his own passeport.

Nyoka Longo left Nono behind for Zenith as punishment. It made Zaiko-fanatics mad, because it was Zaiko's first show at a mythic hall and Nono being the first atalaku in the history of Congolese music but being absent. So to mad it up, Nyoka mae him travel with a passeport of a ngulu, who didn't make it on the list. Nono couldn't travel on his own passeport, because it was used by somebody else. Belgian police did their investigation in Belgium and Kinshasa and contacted the real Luisa Alberto. After that they arrested all bandmembers to question them. Nono hadn't any choice to admit since that the police was insisting on him, him being scared and not wanting to get deported. This made Nyoka Longo being arrested for the ngulu-affaire and spending like 4 or 5 months in jail. Compared to Wemba's arrestation there was less noise about it and the governement didn't support him which they did with Wemba.

Zaiko's fanatics were mad at Nono, claiming that Koffi paid him money to betray Nyoka Longo which wasn't true. Months later Nyoka Longo would explain the real story about it during a press-conference back in 2004.



There used to be a video on youtube about Nono explaining what went on. But INA Congo's channel with that video got deleted. He talked about the way they were arrested during Ado Yuhe's show where he was invited 2 years ago.



a short extract about that interview