Samba Mapangala

Samba Mapangala is a Congolese singer and bandleader who has spent most of his five-decade musical career in Kenya, where he notably created and led Virunga, which has been one of the most popular bands in East Africa for more than 35 years. He was born in Matadi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He moved to Kinshasa, where he finished secondary school, in the early 1970s (or in 1977 according to one source, but that year is contradicted by other information in the same and other sources). After finishing school he was a member of several 1970s Kinshasa bands: he sang with Super Tukina who recorded his first hit, "Satonge," then he joined Super Bella Bella alongside Jean Bosco and Mongoley, a guitarist formerly of Orchestre Lipua Lipua, and he also played with Bariza and Saka Saka.