Last Wednesday, 11 August 2010, the Museum hosted the bands Konono n° 1 and Staff Benda Bilili, two big names of the Congolese music scene.
Konono n° 1 has been around since the late 1960s. Using their amplified likembé (thumb pianos) and other homemade instruments, they make entrancing music full of sounds that flutter between tradition and techno.

The invigorating music of Staff Benda Bilili has its roots in rumba, a mix of rhythm'n'blues and reggae. The Lingala ‘benda bilili’ means you have to look beyond appearances, a name that fits this band of street children and disabled persons particularly well. Bilili entertained 7,000 people at last weekend’s Esperanzah ! Festival in Floreffe.

The two popular Kinshasa bands, on a European tour, planned on visiting the Royal Museum for Central Africa before leaving the country.

They saw all the Museum has to offer – pirogues, masks, history, stuffed animals. For Konono n°1, the big surprise was seeing themselves on the screen in the musical workshop, where they present the likembé in a modern context.

The musicians also visited the exhibition Indépendance!, They waxed nostalgic about old beer bottles, honoured the memory of Simon Kimbangu, listened to Lumumba’s speech. Together the two bands formed a mish-mash of old rascals, Kinshasa youths, scholars, illiterate or disabled persons, and former shégué (street children). They passed through the exhibition and rooms in a chattering crowd, each explaining to the others the importance of history and launching into lively discussions in Lingala.

It was an emotional visit.