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How the World Changed Music: The Independence Cha Cha

The Independence Cha Cha - Record label artwork

02/03/2019 GMT

The Independence Cha Cha

BBC World Service - How the World Changed Music, The Independence Cha Cha

How a song about Congolese independence become the anthem for Africa

How did the Wall Street Crash come to influence a song about Congolese Independence, which then went onto become an anthem for the whole of Africa?

It’s 1960 and as part of a wave of independence that is sweeping across the African continent, Congolese musician, Le Grand Kallé, records The Independence Cha Cha. It goes on to become the first truly pan-African hit song, created from a flow of African, Caribbean and European musical influences across the centuries that include the shadows of slavery, the invention of the gramophone and the Wall Street Crash. Simon Zagorski-Thomas talks to musician and musicologist Sara McGuinness about the song’s origins and the lasting impact of Congolese music.

Produced by Rami Tzabar for BBC World Service. 

Image: Record label artwork, BBC

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