The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Pascal-Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabu, well known as Tabu Ley Rochereau (13 November 1940 – 30 November 2013), was a prominent African rumba singer and songwriter.
He was the founder of Orchestre Afrisa International and a performer and songwriter who had a significant impact on Africa. Together with the musician Dr Nico Kasanda, Tabu Ley invented the soukous (African rumba), mixing elements of Congolese folk music with Cuban, Caribbean, and Latin American rumba. He also popularised his music internationally. According to one account, he was “the Congolese figure who, along with Mobutu, shaped Africa’s history in the 20th century.”
Where is Tabu Ley buried?
Tabu was buried in Kinshasha.
At the Saint-Luc hospital in Brussels, Belgium, where he was receiving treatment for a stroke he had had in 2008, Tabu Ley Rochereau passed away on November 30, 2013, at the age of 73.
After undergoing an official mourning ceremony at the Palais du Peuple, he was laid to rest in Kinshasa’s Acropolic de la Nsele Cemetery on December 9, 2013.
