Ufukutanu and Analengo are not génériques but folklore songs. They are performed in one of the styles of the Tetela ethnic group. Papa Wemba revived the Tetela folklore, which had been forgotten for a long time. In the mid-1980s, he released Mfonoyami, which represented yet another style of Tetela folklore, different from that of Ufukutanu and Analengo.
Génériques are in fact theme songs. Générique in French literally means a theme song, or the opening/closing credits of a movie. However, in Congolese music, it refers to a song that focuses only on dance and animation, rather than singing.
Back in the day, each band had its own anthem, which they usually changed every one or two years. Viva la Musica, for example, used Rigo Star’s instrumental Bana Baleli Mawa as the theme for their concerts starting in 1980. The song became a huge success, especially after their 1980 European tour, and it became permanently attached to Viva’s identity. Every concert would begin with that theme, and concerts would end with the second part of Kalidjogo. This remained the tradition until Viva disbanded in 2006.
In 1983, Papa Wemba decided to record this introduction, known as the hymne (anthem) as a medley with different sébènes from Viva’s hits between 1977 and 1982, releasing it as Hymne Molokai.
Nouvelle Écriture, founded in 1996, also used the same intro and outro tradition, but stopped doing so during their 1998 tour to distinguish themselves from Viva la Musica.
In 1984, Victoria Eleison followed by recording their own anthem, which they had been using since their foundation in 1982, under the title Explosion. Unlike Hymne Molokai, Explosion was simply the instrumental itself, with Emeneya speaking throughout the track, introducing the band members and their staff. The song was later remixed in 2000 as But na Filet.
Wenge Musica would inspire themselves with Hymme Molokai for their own anthem. But it got never released on vinyl. Wenge El Paris would the occasion to record the track ontheir remix album Live Zing Zong Moïse in 1993, as they were considering themselves as the real Wenge Musica.
When it comes to its creator, there are long-standing debates. Some people credit Papa Wemba, some Wenge Musica, while others argue it was Zaiko, since they were the ones who introduced atalaku (animators) into Congolese music. There are also those who credit Pépé Kallé, as he was the first Kinshasa-based artist to release songs consisting only of animations. His tracks Pon Moun Paka Bougé (1989) and, later that same year, Cé Chalè Carnaval, were inspired by Paris-based soukous artists such as Kanda Bongo Man, who were filling stadiums across Africa (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ivory Coast, Mali, etc.) with short songs built around refrains and focused on sebene sections unlike the traditional rumba/cavacha format, which featured long lyrical verses followed by sebene. Pépé Kallé enjoyed huge success with these two songs, touring not only across Africa but also in the French West Indies and French Guiana
Returning to the debate about the creator of the générique, there are also those who credit Koffi Olomidé. They argue that Ngoma Maguy by Wenge Musica is not a true générique, since Ekokota begins the song with a sung couplet, whereas the track Étage ya Suka consists solely of animations.
However, it was only after Shora Mbemba released Bize Mandundu and, a few months later, Alain Makaba released Pile ou Face, that bands and artists truly began following the trend of including génériques on their albums. Wenge Musica did so with Pentagone, Empire Bakuba with Showtime, Général Défao with Animation in Sala Noki, J.B. Mpiana with Ndombolo on Feux de l’Amour, and Koffi Olomidé with Loi.For these reasons you have also people that credit Alain Makaba as creastor of generiques, but forget about Shora Mbemba.
The massive success of the last three génériques and them having the same cri Ndombolo, led international audiences to label the genre Ndombolo. Before that, our genre had no proper name, people abroad often referred to it as Kwassa-Kwassa and others called it Cavacha.
The génériques were originally meant to introduce the album and present the main cris of the release. But from 2004, they slowly began to lose their meaning. Artists started to release albums filled with rumbas and it became almost a ‘sin’ to release sebene-songs.
The Congolese public itself started turning against sebene-songs. They criticized them for containing vocals that were just names and for not making sense anymore. Some even claimed that sebene-songs only served to cover up the weak vocal abilities of certain bandleaders, forgetting that Congolese music had featured sebene since the 1970s, as a natural way to close a song.
Koffi Olomide placed the ǵenérique Bendele as last track of CD2, on his album Bord Ezanga Kombo. He openly stated that he no longer considered them important, claiming that it was the job of his atalaku, while he himself was a singer. He said he left that kind of work to Ivorians, who had launched the coupé-décalé revolution.Ferre Gola started placing his génériques as the second track from his second album Qui est Derrière Toi.
Génériques became tools to secure contracts for tours abroad (in countries like Tanzania, Kenya, and Ivory Coast) and as updates of the new cris used by atalaku’s during concerts.
