Moments with Quartier Latin
The 66 years old, Congolese Koffi Olomide is one of the biggest legends in the world of music, with numerous gold records to his name. Known by many names like Mopao, Quadra Kora, Papa Fololo, Koffi Trump to name a few, Koffi is the founder and owner of the Quartier Latin band. He was born in Kisangani and it is said that his mother named him Koffi because he was born on a Friday.
A good neighbour discovered Koffi and offered to teach him how to play a guitar. And that is how his life in music started. Upon return from school in the 1970s, Mopao joined his mentor, Papa Wemba in the Viva la Musica Orchestre as a songwriter and composer and later a lead vocalist. By the year, 1986 he was able to establish his band, Quatier Latin. Since then, he has recorded and performed with the group and by himself. This is the same group which birthed great musicians like the evergreen Fally Ipupa, who filled State De Martyrs in Kinshasa last month, the likes of Sam Tshintu, Soleil Wanga, Bouro Mpela Ronaldinho, Montana Kamenga, Jispson Butukondolo Cardinal Cindy Le Coeur, Arca Diniero, Asso Ferrari, Omba Lipasa, Guelor Monami, De Campo, Babia Ndonga, Youssouf Arabe, Adoumanisa, Ali Tcheur, Danny Koule, Faboson DVD Babi Adou, Ferre Gola to name a few. Koffi always infuse fresh blood in his Quatier latin as witnessed with the band that performed in Gaborone recently; the likes of Volcan, Cowboy, Montan Digital, Eric Carter and others. On the 28th of October, I got a Facebook message from my facebook friend, Volcan of Quatier Latin International, telling me that they have landed in Botswana and the band was lodging at Cresta Lodge in Gaborone.
We were just Facebook friends and always talked about music but I never thought he would do me that big favour. He told me that I must come early in the morning to meet him and the band 9am on the 29th. It was the climax of my musical journey, having followed Rhumba enre,
in particular, Koffi for a long time. The next morning I was on my way with my son, my girlfriend and my two friends, Cardinal Ginimbi and Joseph armed with my amera. We drove from Mochudi to Cresta Lodge.
After roughly 20mins while waiting by the foyer, phone beeped, “Nazali koya na réception”. It was a message from Volcan, informing that he was on his way to us. Soon we beamed with smiles and giggles as he appeared and not just him, but with another band member, Cowboy, it was a jolly moment. Communication was a bit difficult but I could use basic Lingal and amongst the crew I came with, Cardinal Ginimbi knew the language better. They were so happy and took hundreds of photos with us, after about 30mins, the whole band came over to the reception, what a wonderful moment. As I was still surprised that the whole band was with us, Cardinal Ginimbi said to one member by the name, Eric Carter, “Bokoki koyemba eloko moko pona biso”, requesting a song, since he was holding an acoustic guitar. He then led the
song Aspirine. The whole band sang for us, as in acapella, it was so beautiful and the people in the foyer area did not know what was happening. They sang passionately, by the way, Aspirine is the name of the song from Koffis V12 album back in the days. We spend over 3hours with Quater latin and there was a point they went with us inside the premises to the gym room, where they exercised. We even took Cowboy to Fairgrounds Shopping Mall, where he changed Namibian dollars and we were able to discuss even more about music.
All this time, Olomide was not there. He did not spend the night with the orchestra, he was booked somewhere else, We wanted to see him too. We kept asking, where is ‘ Mokonzi’ and they replied with, “Aza awa te ye isat hôtel ya cinq étoiles awa te”, meaning he was at some five star hotel. We did not know which one. We later reluctantly decided to bid them farewell and drove to Grand Palm Resort, hoping to get a glimpse of him, he was not there. We made a few calls and when we were told he was at CBD, we gave up and hit the
road back to Mochudi, to prepare for the show later that evening.
The show started slow until the band came on stage. They came in after long sound check, it seemed like there was a bit of a hustle to the output of the sound they needed, though they had done a proper sound check that afternoon. Koffi did not waste time, he dished us with songs from his 2001 album to date, and he made sure he dished only sebens. In Rhumba language seben is defined as the kind of rhumba sound dominated by lead guitar. He knew what most Botswana wanted, The stage was opened by his band, Quatier Latin. The king of Rhumba got onto the stage with the song ‘ Skol Mandramanda’ on the background. It went: “Elengi moko eh, elegi moko eh ( I am the only one with great taste).” Mopao, as he is affectionately known, will release a new album, ‘ Legende’ on the 25th of December.