Like so many of the artists and singers I love, I stumbled upon “Dr” Remmy Ongala’s music by accident. I was in a record shop not long after returning from Peace Corps in the African nation of Botswana. It was the 1990s before the advent of CDs, so my purchase was of a cassette of some Remmy Ongala’s songs. I had never heard of him before.
In Botwana at the time, the talk of the town in the African music world were South African singers and musicians like Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and the scandalous and tragic Brenda Fassie. I had to learn about other African singers outside of the very southern tip of the continent on my own, which I did. Remmy Ongala was one of them. I love his songs which are dance tunes. They call on social change in Africa and also global change. He sings out against racism.
Remmy Ongala was born in Kivu, Congo (now Zaire) in 1947. He has lived most of his life, however, in neighboring Tanzania. He says of life and his music, "The world is a prison. There are people who are proud of their lives and others who are always suffering. Many musicians sing about love, about life. I try not to sing very much of love, [but] to try to illuminate the situation of the world."
Remmy Ongala was born in Kivu, Congo (now Zaire) in 1947. He has lived most of his life, however, in neighboring Tanzania. He says of life and his music, "The world is a prison. There are people who are proud of their lives and others who are always suffering. Many musicians sing about love, about life. I try not to sing very much of love, [but] to try to illuminate the situation of the world."
Here is a very brief clip with his song, “No Money, No Life.”
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