Rumba submissions for heritage registration

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DR Congo has officially kicked off a campaign to include Congolese rumba, one of the most popular forms of music in Africa, on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.

The offer is being pushed by both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its small neighbor, the Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville.

Culture Minister Catherine Kathungu Furaha, at a ceremony in Kinshasa last week, called on Congolese embassies, universities, schools and social networks to support the effort.

Rumba “is part of our identity, descendants of Africa and of all of us, down through the ages,” she said.

Rumba’s request for inclusion in the list was filed last year.

National Institute of the Arts director general Andre Yoka Lye Mudaba, who chairs the campaign committee, said the work was now in a “promotion and lobbying phase” that would unfold over the coming months.

Congolese rumba developed in the Congo River basin in the 1940s, inspired by Latin and Caribbean music.

It gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, developing spinoffs including a high-tempo version called soukous. The Cuban strain of rumba was admitted to the UNESCO list in 2016. – AFP

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