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Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled Zaire (now the Democratic Republic Congo) from 1965 until 1997, was fond of saying "happy are those who sing and dance," and his regime energetically promoted the notion of culture as a national resource. During this period Zairian popular dance music (often referred to as la rumba zairoise) became a sort of musica franca in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. But how did this privileged form of cultural expression flourish in one of the continent's most brutal authoritarian regimes?In "Rumba Rules", the first ethnography of popular music in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bob W. White examines not only the economic and political conditions that brought this powerful music industry to its knees, but also the ways that popular musicians sought to remain socially relevant in a time of increasing insecurity. Drawing partly on his experiences as a member of a local dance band in the country's capital city Kinshasa, White offers extraordinarily vivid accounts of the live music scene, including practices such as libanga, the relatively recent phenomenon of "throwing," or shouting, the names of wealthy or powerful people during performances in exchange for financial support or protection.With dynamic descriptions of how bands practiced, performed, and splintered, White highlights how the ways that power was sought and understood in Kinshasa's popular music scene mirrored the charismatic authoritarianism of Mobutu's rule. In "Rumba Rules", Congolese speak candidly about political leadership, social mobility, and what it meant to be a bon chef (good leader) in Mobutu's Zaire.

Bob W. White is an associate professor of social anthropology at the University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. White earned his Ph.D. from McGill University in 1998, his M.A. from McGill University in 1993 and his B.A. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988.[1] His research interests are popular music in Africa, especially in Congo-Kinshasa, theory of cross-cultural understanding, popular culture, medias, epistemology and ethnographic fieldwork.