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, are also reported to have excelled at siring children. Rumba in the bedroom!

While many of their offspring did not walk in their footsteps to music echelons, there are some memorable ones. And the number f the children give the impression of different set of leagues.

Dubbed Dandy Dad, the melodious 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, was unrivalled on this front. While he is considered the secondary pillar of Congolese music – the main pillar being grandmaster Franco Luambo Luanzo Makiadi – he was somebody who outfits ‘randy’ and ‘raucous’ description when it comes to chasing skirts. A he-goat on the rampage may fit the bill!

As he made many other popular songs, including the sentimental lord’s ‘prayer’ Muzina and Maze, he was also answering to the biblical verse: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

His response was in strong affirmative: he sired more than 89 children with different mothers – black and white. The mothers of his offspring 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.

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

Fondly referred to as The Family Man, Tabu Ley was a loving father of his numerous children. He even dedicated some of his songs to his partners and children and 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 died on November 30, 2013, aged 76, in a hospital in Brussels, Belgium. He had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2008, which slowed down his career. 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 Lisanga ya Banganga (Union of Music Wizards), in the 1980s, also had several marriages that yielded 18 children, 17 of them daughters. The colossus of Congolese rhumba music also died in a Brussels hospital on October 12, 1989, leaving a huge collection of 150 albums.

Franco’s only son, Joseph Emongo, unsuccessfully tried to rally his late father’s band to continue with the TPOK legacy without success. The band had split following a disagreement with the family over its management that had been passed on to long-serving vice-president Lutumba Simaro Masiya.

Simaro, know his admirers as Le Poete, broke ranks with the family and went on to form a new band, Bana OK, whose name was borne out of the desire hold onto the big brand that had for many years defined their careers and personal character.

Saxophonist, singer, band leader and musicians’ rights defender Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta, who died on October 13, 2021 in Kinshasa, aged 78, is another phenomenon of Congolese music that is known to have sired many children. Initially, he teamed up with Franco’s OK Jazz in the mid-1960s before leaving to found his own Orchestra Veve and Orchestra Kiam after irreconcilably disagreeing with his boss. He formed and financed nine other musical groups that recorded on his label, Editions Veve. This was faster and more rapacious brand of rumba became known as cavacha.

His death brought down the curtains on an illustrious four-decade career during 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 translates to I Wonder Why in Lingala. In the song, Verckys challenged the idea of everything Godly and angelic being associated with white people, while anything devilish was ascribed to 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.

The 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 or Grand Mopao to his adoring fans, 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 other from clandestine relationships, including a lookalike son he sired with one of his former dancers. He was born Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba in 1956 in Kisangani to a Congolese father and Sierra Leonian mother. Olomide has had a highly rewarding career, winning numerous awards and accolades.

Another great singer, Papa Wemba, the Viva la Musica founder and leader, who died in 2016 aged 66, had six children his wife. However, rumours put the number of his children at 30. We have no way of verifying this. 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 and was often referred to as 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 dubbed the King of Soukous because of his erotic and energetic dancehall music that blends traditional African and Caribbean beats with R&B. 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, was married to several women 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. He died in 2007

Among the new generation of Congolese stars, song and dance 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 married and does not have any known children up to today. He currently operates from Luanda, the land of his mother. His father was from Zimbabwe, but he was born and brought up in Kinshasa.

• A Tell /C-Suite report / John Paschal Wanyama