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Paper short abstract:

Popular TV music shows in Kinshasa depicting elderly people performing cha cha, merengue, bolero, rumba and other international dance styles on Congolese rumba music dating from the late colonial and early postcolonial period are analysed along the lines of intergenerational opposition.

Paper long abstract:

Since the mid-2000s, television music shows such as Bana Leo ("The Children of Leo[poldville]") and Sentiment Lipopo ("The feeling of Lipopo") have become extremely popular in Kinshasa ("Leopoldville" as the city was called during colonial times, or affectionately "Lipopo"). Recorded in local nightclubs, the shows depict old people performing cha cha, merengue, bolero, rumba and other international dance styles on Congolese rumba music dating from the late colonial and early postcolonial period. Broadcast in prime time on Thursday and Friday evenings, and re-diffused during the weekends, these programs attract large audiences, among young and old.

Although explicitly oriented towards the past, these shows provoke comparisons between the "old" and current local music scenes, in particular regarding rhythm, dance forms and lyrics, and incite debates about the place and value of "youth" and "elderly" in the city. The shows' hosts and performers denounce the influence of foreign music styles (hip hop, zouk, coupé décalé) on present-day rumba production, and attempt to establish a space in which "good" and "real Kinois" music can be enjoyed, and where pride and decency can be expressed and performed.

Nostalgia is a recurrent theme both in the broadcasts and in the discourses about these shows. It manifests a stringent critique on Kinshasa's contemporary dominant popular culture, which is orchestrated by youth. Elderly rebuke the hegemonic dance scene because of its perceived obscenity and lack of creativity. In this paper, I situate these TV shows within intergenerational tensions as these are played out in contemporary urban Africa.