While many people know him just as Papa Wemba, his real name was Shungu Wambadio Pene Kikumba. He was born in June 1949 in Lubefu, in what was then the Belgian Congo and now part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also took the name Jules Presley later in life.
Wemba’s father, a former soldier who fought in the Belgian army during the Second World war, wanted him to be a journalist or lawyer. His mother, a professional mourner, however introduced him to music and singing. He developed his trademark high-range voice in religious choirs and made his debut in the capital Kinshasa at the end of the 1960s.
Wemba flamboyant style of dressing was a driving force behind the Sapeurs, which means ‘the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People’ and comprises a group of men (and few women) who use trendy and flashy dressing as a cultural statement.
In 2004, Wemba was convicted in France for smuggling people into the country and spent three months in prison. He was found guilty of helping Congolese. immigrants illegally obtain visas by passing them off as musicians working with him on European shows. A Belgian court convicted him of the same crime in 2012, handing down a fine of 22,000 euros and a suspended prison sentence of 15 months.
Wemba was also once jailed in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) for allegedly having an affair with a general’s daughter. He was briefly arrested and incarcerated in Kinshasa Central prison in December 1976 for the “crime” of being suspected of having had physical intimacy with an influential army general’s daughter.
Papa Wemba helped popularize Congolese music in other african countries and beyond the continent. He had numerous tours both within Africa and outside. in the 1970s and 1980s, he made soukous the most popular sound across Africa and attracted international music figures like Peter Gabriel.
Wemba was also an actor, appearing in two films, Life Is Beautiful (1987) and Wild Games (1997).
in the 1990’s, Papa Wemba toured with British rock star Peter Gabriel and appears on his ‘Secret World Live’ album. The tour helped him popularize Congolese music to the world and cement him as one of the top musicians from the continent at the time.
