Africa: Papa Wemba - Active Ambassador for Congolese Urban Music

analysis

One of Africa's best-loved global musicians, Papa Wemba, died on Sunday 24 April 2016 after collapsing on stage in Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire. The 66-year-old father of Congolese rumba rock reportedly died of heart failure before he could be taken to a hospital. The Conversation Africa's arts and culture editor Charles Leonard asked the singer's compatriot, the ethnomusicologist Kazadi wa Mukuna, about Papa Wemba's role in the globalisation of Congolese urban music.

Was there any symbolic significance in Papa Wemba dying on stage?

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