Kinshasa, October 12th, 2026 (CPA): – The musical legacy of Franco Luambo Makiadi from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), through his legendary song ‘Likambo ya Ngana’ (‘Other People’s Business’), has found an echo in ‘Naloba nini?’ (‘What Can I Say?’) by the Congolese rapper Yuma Dash, a cultural organiser has explained on Monday to CPA. “‘Naloba Nini?’ by Yuma Dash: an echo of Franco Luambo Makiadi’s legacy. A poetic snapshot of Congolese evolution, the track takes us back to the OK Jazz of the 1970s, with its spellbinding rhythm guitar beating like a Kinshasa heart,” Christian Lomombe alias DJ Daddyhas declared.
This analysis comes to mark the 37th anniversary of the death of Franco Luambo Makiadi, an icon of Congolese rumba, died on October 12th, 1989, in Namur at the age of 51.According to him, the singer Yuma Dash has breathed a touch of modernity into this work by the Great Master and his TP OK Jazz, a composition which, during the Second Republic, was already denouncing gossip, slander and meddling as veritable social scourges. “Yuma Dash reinterprets it masterfully, with a velvety and passionate voice, creating a new sonic signature,” he has added.A native of Sona-Bata, in Kongo Central, Luambo Makiadi was the founder in 1956 of the Tout-Puissant OK Jazz, which has become one of the greatest orchestras in African musical history. He has left behind several albums, including the iconic track “Attention na SIDA”, amongst many others. Nicknamed the “Wizard of the Guitar” for his incisive and rhythmic playing, Luambo has transformed the rumba into a social chronicle of everyday life in Zaire.