this is when visa issues started with affair ngulu,his dancers were arrested in belgium coming from congo with deblaison wanga as their chief of delegation where they were suspected of not being real dancers so they told them to seek asylum or return to congo if they are true dancers and they preferred to go back,so those who played that concert were those who were already staying in europe,its even singer ivon bigogo playing bass if i remember well,gesac at that moment either was still in detention in germany or had that broken leg
In preparation for a European tour, what's a average amount of visas requested? For musicians, probably 15 to 20. I'm not sure how many for admin, probably another 15 visas? I must have been a very lucrative business, I think 9/11 brought an end to ngulu phenomenon. The West started paying closer attention to who was entering their country and under which kind of circumstances, particularly from non-White nations. If you noticed, JPS Production started getting investigated and slowly closed it's doors around that time as well.
Quote from: Wenge1995 on February 27, 2026, 18:33In preparation for a European tour, what's a average amount of visas requested? For musicians, probably 15 to 20. I'm not sure how many for admin, probably another 15 visas? I must have been a very lucrative business, I think 9/11 brought an end to ngulu phenomenon. The West started paying closer attention to who was entering their country and under which kind of circumstances, particularly from non-White nations. If you noticed, JPS Production started getting investigated and slowly closed it's doors around that time as well.It is probably true that 9/11 had a contribution. But the ngulu-affair was the fault of Congolese musicians themselves. Congolese bandleaders themselves or their admin snitching each other at embassies about bringing ngulu's. About Papa Wemba's arrestation, Djess Nembanza revealed how white people that present at Wemba's Bercy, were wondering were the remaining artists were since that they announced something like 200 musicians performing next to Wemba, but them just seeing 30 artists. This made them investigating Papa Wemba for a 1 year and them discovering that they kept bringing a huge amount of different people over with the same passports. Papa Wemba also not having a choice since he had a huge debt and people started threatening him. The crazy part of the story is that nor JDK and Papa Wemba received the money of the ngulu's. It was just that they made the mistake to accept Monib Production's offer of Maison Mère, who had himself debts from people. I believe that that was the reason why Wemba had some grudges against Werrason after getting released from jail and throwing some shots towards him. JPS Production had nothing to do with the Ngulu affair. It was Interpol and the French police who uncovered a large international drug network led by a drug lord based in Miami, with Jean Pierre Saah allegedly being one of the individuals linked to him. He was accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. When the police started investigating his office, he immediately fled to Cameroon and never returned to Europe.From the bands that were often touring Europe from 1997, it was just Wenge Maison Mère. Wenge BCBG was always taking late Mbuta Kisolokele, who was their secretary-general (Roger Ngandu was at that just a spokemen). Wenge Maison Mère was from 2000 taking Elliot Mondombe and Criss Ibanga (who was also there in 1999), about late Ibrahim Monka (Monib Productions) I am not sure. Papa Wemba's admin was in Europe, but in 1998 and 2001, he brought Djess Nembanza who was working in Kinshasa for the admin of Nouvelle EcritureKoffi Olomidé was never taking admins to Europe. He was believing that they would run away. He only took Zingeti le Rasback to Europe during the Bercy-trip, but he ended up by staying in Europe,after ending up being in conflict with Koffi. Which made him decide to continue his studies at the university of Lille. Now he's in politics of Congo. Talking about admins, I saw on Tiktok an interview of Faustin Djata getting interviewed by Ems, explaining what made him leave Quartier Latin and noticed that he had been using the same tactics for more than 25 years of arresting for employees of his admin