Bonga

Who is Bonga?

José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho, known by his stage name Bonga, was born on 5 September 1942 in the Bengo province of Angola. He began singing at fifteen and later became a champion athlete in Portugal, setting the Portuguese record in the 400 metres. Using his fame as a track star, he covertly carried messages between exiled Angolan independence fighters and activists still inside the country under the alias Bonga Kwenda. When Portuguese secret police discovered his double identity, he fled into exile in Rotterdam, where in 1972 he recorded his debut album, Angola 72, whose track "Mona Ki Ngi Xica" became widely known. Its politically charged lyrics led to a warrant for his arrest in Angola, forcing him to live in Germany, Belgium, and France until Angola's 1975 independence. Singing in both Portuguese and his native Kimbundu across more than thirty albums, Bonga became one of the leading voices of Angolan semba music, and in 2014 France honored him as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Bonga (musician)" · Euronews, "Bonga: The portrait of a revolutionary singer," 8 December 2020 · Lusafrica, "Bonga," artist biography