“We Sing Everything. We Have Nothing Else”
Despite decades of poverty, war and dictatorship, the Congo has the richest musical history in Africa.
They live on the edge of urban darkness. You might hear them scraping in the dirt as you sip a beer on an outdoor patio. Or lurking between parked cars, behind palm trees. Some even climb out of uncovered sewer holes or rise out of filth-laden drainage ditches. Everyone in Kinshasa knows that the night belongs to the unwanted children of the slums of Kinshasa. Many came to the big city in search of opportunities but ended up becoming untouchables.
Up close, their eyes often have the yellowy glaze of an old street lamp. Their breath stinks of toxicity-the residue of huffed glue or shoe polish. When they have a little money, they reek of cheap alcohol or marijuana. In the areas where they skulk, there is little sympathy. Nightclubs, pizzerias, and gas stations hire security personnel armed with sticks. Ask a guard why and he will invariably use the name with which Papa Wemba tagged them long ago: “shege,” for rough and radical Che Guevara-like kids. Shege is an ugly word, a dehumanizing epithet that encapsulates the fears of the privileged and the tiny middle class.
Eric Pape
SPIN
April 2007
The Sorcerer-Children of Kinshasa
Dominique Viger
Street boys huddle together for warmth as they sleep on the damp ground in DR Congo.
