Tabu Ley Rochereau. PHOTO | COURTESY

Some of the most prolific Congolese musicians, who excelled at recording songs that became big hits all over Africa and beyond over the years are, also reported to have excelled at making babies.

While many of their offspring never followed their footsteps into music, there are some memorable ones.

Apparently the king on this front was mercurial singer and composer Tabu Ley Rochereau, who is known for such great hits as Mokolo Nakokufa, Sacramento, Ibrahima, and C’est Comme Ca La Vie.  The man considered the second pillar of Congolese music, the first being the grandmaster, Franco Luambo Luanzo Makiadi, was something of a polygamous fellow.

As he made many other hits, including the sentimental Lord’s Prayer, titled, Muzina, and Maze, he also sired 89 children, with different mothers‑black and white. They include his former band member, Mbilia Bel, with whom he recorded such great songs as Nadina, Beyanga, Eswi yo Wapi, Kamunga, Nakei Nairobi, and Mobali Ngai Wana, among others. They were married briefly and had a daughter, Melodie, who is also a musician and lives in France.

Today, Tabu Ley’s children live mostly in Europe, and the most famous include Peguy, who has redone some of his father’s old hits. The other is Youssoupha, a rapper.

Fondly often referred to as “The Family Man”, Tabu Ley was a loving father to his numerous children. He even dedicated some of his songs to his numerous spouses and children, and, of course, to some of his adoring fans.

He had a long career that blossomed from the 1960s, when he was known as Pascal Rochereau. He started in the late 1950s, when he joined Orchestra African Jazz, led by the legendary Joseph Kabasele, who was popularly known as the Le Grand Kalle. Kabasele is considered by many as the father of Congolese music because of his pioneering band formation.

Tabu Ley, who died on November 30, 2013, aged 76, in a hospital in Brussels, Belgium, had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2008. His huge family was thrown into deep mourning, and would later troop to Kinshasa for his burial.

His biggest rival, with whom he later collaborated on an album, Lisanga ya Banganga (union of music sorcerers), in the 1980s, also had several marriages that yielded 18 children, 17 of them daughters. The giant of Congolese music, died in a hospital in Brussels on October 12, 1989, leaving a huge discography of 150 albums.

Franco’s only son, Joseph Emongo, unsuccessfully tried to rally his late father’s musicians to continue the TPOK legacy. The band had split following a disagreement with the family over its management, which was under long-serving vice-president Lutumba Simaro Masiya. He would later lead the formation of a new band, Bana OK, whose name was borne out of an attempt to try and hold onto the big machine that had for many years shaped their careers.

Great saxophonist, singer, band leader and musicians’ rights defender, Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta, who died on October 13 in Kinshasa, aged 78, was another giant of Congolese music. He played with Franco’s OK Jazz in the mid-1960s before leaving to found his own Orchestre Veve, and Orchestre Kiam, and led several other groups that recorded on his label, Editions Veve.

His death closed an illustrious four-decade career, in which he released mega hits, including Baluti, Lukani, and Nakomitunaka. His daughter, Ancy Kiamuangana, who is also a musician, broke the sad news on her Facebook page.

 Ancy, who lives in England, announced her arrival on the music scene by redoing her father’s controversial song, Nakomitunaka, which means I ask myself, in Lingala. Verckys was challenging the idea of everything godly and angelic being associated with white people and the devil with blacks. The original song, which was released in 1972, ruffled the feathers of the massive Catholic Church in Congo, which threatened to excommunicate him, but they later made the peace.

Verckys, who was born in 1944, officially had 13 children with several women but is rumoured to have had up to 30 offspring.

Other musicians, who had big families, include Ndombe Opetum, who was born in 1944 and died in 2012. He had nine children.

Multi-award winner Koffi Olomide, the Grand Mopao, a long-time recording artiste, songwriter, vocalist and band leader, has seven children with his wife, Aliane, whom he married in 1993. They include a beautiful fashion model, Didi Stone, who is based in Paris. He is said to have many more from other relationships, including a lookalike son he got with one of his former dancers.

Born Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba in 1956, in Kisangani, to a Congolese father and Sierra Leonian mother, he has had a highly rewarding career, winning numerous awards and other accolades.

Another great singer, Papa Wemba, the Viva la Musica founder and leader, who died in 2016, at the age of 66, leaving his wife with six children, is rumoured to have had a total of 30 offspring.

Born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949, he was popularly known by his stage name Papa Wemba. He was one of Africa’s top musicians dubbed the ‘King of Rhumba’. He died while performing on the stage in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

From Congo Brazzaville was the highly talented singer and dancer, Aurlus Mabele, who was widely recognised as the “king of soukous”, the energetic dance hall music that blends traditional African and Caribbean rhythms with pop and soul. He was struck down by Covid-19 in April 2020, in Paris, at the age of 66. Besides his singer daughter Liza Monet, he had 12 other children.

Crooner Madilu System, born Jean de Dieu Makiese in Kinshasa in 1952, and, who died in 2007, married several wives and had 12 children. He is remembered for doing the lead vocals with Franco on TPOK Jazz hits such as Mario and Mamou, and Pesa Position.

Among the new generation of Congolese stars, singing and dancing sensation Fally Ipupa, who was born in 1977, already has five children with his one wife.

In contrast, Sam Mangwana, the man fondly referred to as Le Pigeon Voyageur (the travelling pigeon), for his footloose tendencies, who was born in 1946, is not known to have ever got married and does not have any known children, even today, as he operates from Luanda, the land of his mother. His father was from Zimbabwe, but he was born and brought up in Kinshasa.