After many years of wait

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/congolese-rumba-01711

This is a moment for happiness and celebration, and I am really glad it happened. But let me note something for reminding: it should not mean the end of efforts and work. The fact that something is certified as a heritage and cultural achievement doesn't mean that the genre is saved. The real value of a tradition is when it is a living tradition. And in that sense Congolese music is still in danger, if you think of how we get less and less good sebene year by year, or when you look at which styles young musicians or musicians in the diaspora prefer turning towards. In this sense Congolese music is doing less well than compared to the 80's and 90's. I can tell you a personal example as well: here in Hungary, where I live, we have traditional Hungarian music: very well documented, maybe one of the most documented folkloric music tradition in the world due to some professors and their devoted work to collect old tunes a hundered years ago. We learn the songs in school, lots of money by the government to traditional bands. A big pride for the people of my country who are interested in traditions. And I am sure the musicians living from it do much better than their Congolese fellows. But there is a big difference: unlike Congolese music, our music is a dead tradition. That means it is kept alive artifically, musicians learn it in schools, songs are archived and accessible, but everyday people don't play it any more, young people hardly listen to it, and there are no artists who write new songs in this genre. Similar to old European classical music. Compared to this, any musical tradition that is still a living tradition, but not so well documented, supported and reknowned by international institutes is much better than a dead musical tradition that is very reknowned and supported. The real value of Congolese music is not that whether it is recognised by Unesco or not, but that people in Congo still consider it as a part of the everyday life, artists still create new songs in the genre, etc. So it is not the cretificate that matters but whether it is still part of the active and productive culture or not. And in this sense there is still much to do if Congolese people want to secure the future of their music. The biggest prize for Congolese music would be if we saw legendary bands being born again (that kind of stopped after Extra Musica), if musicians in the diaspora still felt motivated to be active in this genre, foreign people abroad started playing this music, and Congolese music appeared in the toplists again in the radio. This Unesco prize is good to turn the attention of more people to Congolese music and to acknowledge the work of Congolese artists in the past 60 years, but it is rather an acknowledgement for the work of artists in the past than a certificate of the recent state.

This is a moment for happiness and celebration, and I am really glad it happened. But let me note something for reminding: it should not mean the end of efforts and work. The fact that something is certified as a heritage and cultural achievement doesn't mean that the genre is saved. The real value of a tradition is when it is a living tradition. And in that sense Congolese music is still in danger, if you think of how we get less and less good sebene year by year, or when you look at which styles young musicians or musicians in the diaspora prefer turning towards. In this sense Congolese music is doing less well than compared to the 80's and 90's. I can tell you a personal example as well: here in Hungary, where I live, we have traditional Hungarian music: very well documented, maybe one of the most documented folkloric music tradition in the world due to some professors and their devoted work to collect old tunes a hundered years ago. We learn the songs in school, lots of money by the government to traditional bands. A big pride for the people of my country who are interested in traditions. And I am sure the musicians living from it do much better than their Congolese fellows. But there is a big difference: unlike Congolese music, our music is a dead tradition. That means it is kept alive artifically, musicians learn it in schools, songs are archived and accessible, but everyday people don't play it any more, young people hardly listen to it, and there are no artists who write new songs in this genre. Similar to old European classical music. Compared to this, any musical tradition that is still a living tradition, but not so well documented, supported and reknowned by international institutes is much better than a dead musical tradition that is very reknowned and supported. The real value of Congolese music is not that whether it is recognised by Unesco or not, but that people in Congo still consider it as a part of the everyday life, artists still create new songs in the genre, etc. So it is not the cretificate that matters but whether it is still part of the active and productive culture or not. And in this sense there is still much to do if Congolese people want to secure the future of their music. The biggest prize for Congolese music would be if we saw legendary bands being born again (that kind of stopped after Extra Musica), if musicians in the diaspora still felt motivated to be active in this genre, foreign people abroad started playing this music, and Congolese music appeared in the toplists again in the radio. This Unesco prize is good to turn the attention of more people to Congolese music and to acknowledge the work of Congolese artists in the past 60 years, but it is rather an acknowledgement for the work of artists in the past than a certificate of the recent state.

Totally agree with you a 100%

This is a moment for happiness and celebration, and I am really glad it happened. But let me note something for reminding: it should not mean the end of efforts and work. The fact that something is certified as a heritage and cultural achievement doesn't mean that the genre is saved. The real value of a tradition is when it is a living tradition. And in that sense Congolese music is still in danger, if you think of how we get less and less good sebene year by year, or when you look at which styles young musicians or musicians in the diaspora prefer turning towards. In this sense Congolese music is doing less well than compared to the 80's and 90's. I can tell you a personal example as well: here in Hungary, where I live, we have traditional Hungarian music: very well documented, maybe one of the most documented folkloric music tradition in the world due to some professors and their devoted work to collect old tunes a hundered years ago. We learn the songs in school, lots of money by the government to traditional bands. A big pride for the people of my country who are interested in traditions. And I am sure the musicians living from it do much better than their Congolese fellows. But there is a big difference: unlike Congolese music, our music is a dead tradition. That means it is kept alive artifically, musicians learn it in schools, songs are archived and accessible, but everyday people don't play it any more, young people hardly listen to it, and there are no artists who write new songs in this genre. Similar to old European classical music. Compared to this, any musical tradition that is still a living tradition, but not so well documented, supported and reknowned by international institutes is much better than a dead musical tradition that is very reknowned and supported. The real value of Congolese music is not that whether it is recognised by Unesco or not, but that people in Congo still consider it as a part of the everyday life, artists still create new songs in the genre, etc. So it is not the cretificate that matters but whether it is still part of the active and productive culture or not. And in this sense there is still much to do if Congolese people want to secure the future of their music. The biggest prize for Congolese music would be if we saw legendary bands being born again (that kind of stopped after Extra Musica), if musicians in the diaspora still felt motivated to be active in this genre, foreign people abroad started playing this music, and Congolese music appeared in the toplists again in the radio. This Unesco prize is good to turn the attention of more people to Congolese music and to acknowledge the work of Congolese artists in the past 60 years, but it is rather an acknowledgement for the work of artists in the past than a certificate of the recent state.

I'm working on a project with some of my archivist friends to digitalize Congolese music. Something like South Africa's https://samap.ukzn.ac.za

That is a good idea. Especially for video stuff recorded by Tele Zaire before 1997. Many good videos are still unavailable.