In writer Troy Onyango’s short story “A Song from a Forgotten Place,” a character reflects on Congolese music:
She has always preferred Congolese music; the way it springs from a place is warmth and tenderness like a beanstalk breaking through the soft earth. Then it rises and rises, growing and filling the whole room with the sweet melody that makes the body jelly and the bones rubbery and one finds oneself loving his waist, legs, and arms as if possessed by a gentle, cultured demon (but still a demon all the same), and one can dance and dance and not feel the sweat trickling down the ridge of his back or feel his legs stiffen at the knees because he’s tired. One ignores all that. Lingala flows and erupts within the body.
Put on some Congolese music, quick!
You can read Onyango’s story in the collection Nairobi Noir. You can find out more about him and his writing at his website.
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