Wendo Kolosoy

Antoine Wendo Kolosoy was born on April 25, 1925, in Mushie. Working as a mechanic and steamboat captain on the Congo River while boxing semi-professionally, Wendo strummed acoustic guitar and perfected a hypnotic vocal yodel.

In 1948, on the Ngoma label, Wendo recorded Marie-Louise with guitarist Henri Bowane. The song became an explosive hit across Central Africa, rumored to possess magical powers capable of waking the dead. Surviving decades of political storms, Papa Wendo returned to international stages in the late 1990s, revered as the living patriarch of Congolese music.