African music - reggae

Mayoma – Kinshasa (Congo)

Théophile Mayoma Diankembo was born July 28th 1960 in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mayoma learned Esperanto in 1983, and began writing and singing in Esperanto from 1985. He never sang in a group, but he sings alone, writes and composes his songs in Esperanto, without playing a musical instrument.

Mayoma enjoys listening to music from different parts of the world: the United States, Jamaica, France, England, and South Africa; that is why he likes to write and sing his songs in the International Language.
At first he sent his songs to people he knew, to Esperanto groups and associations, in order to find singers to interpret them, but without success.

Then he tried recording the songs on cassettes and sending them out as he had done with the texts. Until 1987, when the American composer David Gaines responded, and finally made the arrangements and recorded two songs on a cassette and sent them to Mayoma in 1992.
After 1992, Mayoma lost contact with David Gaines, and started looking again for other singers and producers, but without success.

Finally, in 2006, JoMo (Jean-Marc Leclercq, a well-known singer in Toulouse, France) accepted, and in early 2007 he began recording several of Mayoma’s songs in his home studio, with the aim of releasing them in the Afrika Kompilo project that Vinilkosmo has just launched.

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