Lopango ya Banka - Ebale (sous-titre fr ) [ clip ]

Ebale means ‘river’ in Lingala (the main language in Congo). The song is about how people talk about Congo and about the whole of Africa as a place of corruption, of war, of suffering and disease, and that supposedly the colonialists brought to us ‘civilisation’. In Ebale we are saying that we had a powerful and strong culture and life before, and that what they left behind was not ‘civilisation’.

The river represents something pure, NOT a river of sadness and of tears but of life, a reflection of past days before colonialism, a reflection of the richness and beauty of our people. The start and end of the track uses these lines: “I lost myself in the mirror, what they show me is not me”, this refers to the image of the African man, of the black man in the media, which is one of corruption, or criminality and so on, we are saying that is not ME, that is not US. What society needs right now is not to look in that distorted mirror showing a version of our culture that is lies and has been for decades, what we need is to look to our selves, to our own river, our culture and see that reflection of truth. This is the only way we will move forward. - Wabuza Nka- Lopango ya Banka

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Lopango Ya Banka
Lopango ya Banka is a politically, spiritually and socially conscious Hiphop Band. Promoting ancestral wisdom,Selfdetermination, Freedom, African Unity.