• country:
  Angola
• region:
  Southern Africa
• style(s):
  Afro
• label:
  Piranha Musik Produktion & Verlag AG
• type:
  Solist, Composer/Songwriter
• gender:
  male
• instrumentation:
  instrumental, vocal
• artist submitted by:
  Piranha Musik Produktion & Verlag AG

"This is living music, 102 per cent live. He has a full powerful presence and an enormous amount of energy that he conveys constantly to the audience through his distinctively husky voice. Kuenda Bonga is a living fusion of Angola, Portugal and Brazil." Djembe


If there's such a thing as a Lusitanian culture bonding the Portuguese-speaking world, then Bonga would be its ideal ambassador. Born in Luanda in 1942, Bonga's life is inextricably linked to Angola's struggle for freedom from the colonial domination of Portugal and the continuing struggle for a stable, post-colonial existence. He came to prominence in the 1960's as a star athlete and member of the great Benfica (Lisbon) soccer team. During this colonial period Angolans were faced with all manner of restrictions including freedom to travel. Bonga's status as a sportsman allowed him a rare freedom of movement, which he used to carry messages between exiled freedom fighters and compatriots still in Angola.

As the movement for independence heated up, Bonga was forced into exile in Rotterdam where, in 1972, he recorded his first record "Angola '72" and adopted the name Bonga Kwenda. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Angola for the seditious lyrics of the album, forcing him to move nomadically between Germany, Belgium and France until Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975.

As post-colonial life in Angola disintegrated into corruption, squalor, brutality, and a interminable and bloody civil war, Bonga remained critical of the political leaders on all sides, a stance that forced him to remain in exile. He received political asylum in Holland and formed his band there with musicians from Brazil, Guinea Bissau and other Portuguese-speaking countries. His music mixes elements of Brazilian Samba and Angolan Semba and reflects the pain of exile with bitter-sweet melancholy.

Bonga's voice of peace and conscience continues to make him a hero to the people of Angola no matter where he resides. He remains fiercely dedicated to the ideal of nonviolence, he states simply: "We must live without harming others".