Thierry Antha Author Interview

Crimes of Rumba discusses and dissects the crimes behind the worst corporate malpractice in US cultural history. Why was this an important book for you to write?

From 1983 to 1995, it took us almost fifteen years of commitment, sacrifice and know-how to build up awareness about the greatness of Congo music’s modernity in American pop culture. Credits should be given to promoters such as Victor Kibunja, Verna Gillis, Paul Trautman and my company’s tour with Tabu Ley Rochereau-Alive and Well in North-America in 1992, which made Congo music a runaway hit in North America until 1995.

Unfortunately, with little to no precision, 22 years after the Congolese government and musicians’ outright rejection of Fonior’s crimes of rumba, handful writers went off the script and managed to inadvertently slip in Fonior’s fraud of Cuban music. It was disheartening to realize that even few colleagues in the media were still living in the clouds of Fonior’s crimes of rumba. As promoters, time was more of the essence to promoting tours than pressing the matter further why it was a horrific danger to associate Franco Luambo and Tabu Ley Rochereau with Fonior’s post-colonial fraud for America, in the lens of the Congo’s politics from the 1970s to 1990s.This brought up the above headliners’ urgency and request to me to educating their consumers with the absolute truth beyond the fraud of rumba.

Moreover, as journalist and promoter, this is book is mostly important because it connects the dots between King Leopold’s atrocities of red rubber to the crimes of rumba for America by his very own international conglomerate, Societe Generale. Simply put, the fraud of rumba music is the universal and everlasting legacy from King Leopold’s politics and economics in music for America, first, and the world later. It’s never been about the presence of Cuban music in the midst of the state administration’s classified South American music’s mandatory production. But it is all about how, wanton malice, Fonior abused and misused Cuban music to commit fraud and defraud Congolese musicians’ copyrights and consumers’ human rights in America.

You cover a number of topics in this book, but the one that stuck out to me was rumba music. How do you feel music affects the political landscape?

Human life is rhythm. Rhythm is music. And music also controls mankind’s political landscape from singing Nero setting Rome on fire, Herod decapitating John the Baptist in Israel to any election campaign chanting of USA, USA, USA.

In Belgian Congo, for instance, the rhythm of atrocity behind the harvest of red rubber to the germination and criminalization of the state administration’s legal diversity of South American music, in the late 1950s, was controlled by King Leopold’s politics for Societe Generale’s monopoly. The politics behind the abrogation of Copami’s mission to legalize the harvest of “music cash crops” for export created a super culture of dichotomy for the equal production of Congo music and South American music under the law. And this colonial autocracy paved the way for Congolese musicians’ resistance and sabotage, which empowered Patrice Lumumba to ascend to the highest sky of the Belgian Congo’s nascent political parties.

In 1948 president Rafael Trujillo made Merengue the official music of Dominican Republic, while in 1959, Fidel Castro nationalized Rumba as the official music of Cuba for all music of African descent. In 1965, after his coup d’etat, president Mobutu rode the wave of Congo music to install his dictatorship in the Congo DRC. Francois Duvalier used Kompa music to numb the mass’s brain for his dictatorship in Haiti. Bob Marley performed his One Love Concert to defuse the brutal turf war among political nemesis in Jamaica. Bill Clinton’s campaign in the 1990s banked on the success of Macarena to promote his progressive agenda for America’s cultural diversity. And that is the same spirit of music in the politics of King Leopold’s international conglomerate that still captures rumba operatives’ politics for Fonior’s crimes of rumba that have been debunked and rebuked in the Congo DRC and exposed in this book.

What kind of research did you undertake to ensure the book was accurate and detailed?

First, as American of Congolese origin, I have lived Congo music my entire life. As a professional journalist, I covered the Congo DRC’s national rebuke of Fonior’s crimes of rumba for the national radio and television until I migrated to the USA. As co-host of the most famous Congo music radio and television shows, I humbly confessed that my expertise in Congo music is second to none because of my personal and business ties with Congolese musicians. As a young record producer, I have also rubbed elbows with all the who’s who in the music industry. My coverage of Samuco and Umuza, Congolese musicians’ union, are the most inside information that the average journalist has never searched before. From 1983 to 2000, as a promoter and consultant, I have closely worked with all Congolese musicians who have come on tour in North America for others as well as for my own company.

Second, to ensure that the book was accurate and detailed, my documented evidence are based on Belgian Congo’s laws, policies, institutions and corroborated by Congolese musicians’ personal testimonies throughout colonialism and their outright rejection and class action lawsuit against Fonior. The restrictive provision and scope of laws and policies from Belgian Congo to the Congo DRC’s national rebuke of Fonior’s crimes of rumba certify the accuracy of the Royal Decree of 1925 behind the Copami’s mission and its related institutions, coupled with the Royal Decree of 1952 aborting the old mission and its institutions under Societe Generale’s mission. These irrefutable evidence within La Territoriale provide all material facts and detailed events. And this exclusivity makes Crimes of Rumba the best encyclopedia of Congo music ever in terms of chronology of specifics in laws, policies, institutions and events from 1925 to September 1960.

I thought this book was informative and engaging. What do you hope readers take away from this book?

Readers’ takeaway is to know that Fonior’s crimes of rumba are real. Consumers have the right to know that they have been defrauded for decades. Even though, this crime spree was launched from America, in September 1960, its universality has outreached the world. It is based on Fonior’s violation of Congolese musicians’ copyrights. That’s why, as early as 1970s, president Mobutu stood up shoulder to shoulder with them to nationally reject, debunk and rebuke Fonior’s fraud. Unfortunately, after 47 years, the coverage of the Congo DRC’s rebuke has been blocked by King Leopold’s rumba operatives through fake movies, books and theories, who have turned a blind eye to telling the truth for the sole purpose to monetize on it. Not only consumers have the right to be set free from the bondage of Fonior’s crimes of rumba, they have the right to know that rumba operatives still provide a fraudulent, safe home for re-litigation and revisionism of Belgian Congo’s laws, policies, institutions, and against the Congo DRC’s national rebuke of Fonior’s fraud.

This book simply certifies that one can’t explain the complexity of the state administration’s legal diversity and production of South American music under the law, in the Belgian Congo, in complicity with Fonior’s fraud and based on the simplicity of its crime of opportunity on Cuban music for America, first. The engraved musical evidence of South American music’s legal diversity in Fonior’s Congolese re-editions represent self-incriminating evidence, among many others, against its crimes of rumba. One can’t celebrate Congo Rumba’s illegality by hiding Congo Latino from the same Fonior’s fake-outs spree. This case is all about King Leopold’s international monopoly misused Cuban music to commit fraud. Simply put, the fraud of rumba music has been the universal and everlasting legacy from King Leopold’s politics and economics in music for America, first, and the world later. Thanks to Crimes of Rumba the era of defrauding musicians and consumers’ human rights is over now.

Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website

Crimes of Rumba is the hottest, epic combination of business, politics, music, and of course, crimes behind the predatory conduct culture that has glamorized the worst corporate malpractice in US cultural history. As a matter of law, order, and economy, the state administrations intolerance and crackdown on musicians dissent and opposition to the colonial music cash crops production is authoritarianism at best and without precedent in the worlds history of colonization and music. This legal truth and material facts-checkings operation is the blunt, exclusive disclosure of the sources and methods used for the cultivation and autocratic harvest of music cash crops in the Belgian Congo, which were economically engineered from and back to America for its consumption through misinformation, disinformation, deceit, and fraud. Not only is this the tale of the utmost scam that has been very fully funded to defraud the worlds collective memory of rumba, it is the hefty price that our humanity has dearly paid for without consent for Foniors crimes of rumba for decades. Silence has been complicity at worst from the people with knowledge of the case against rumba. Not only are the material facts and consumers rights violated and suppressed, along with musicians copyrights for decades, the morally repulsive glamorization of the fraud has brought creative freedom in the worlds music into disrepute. A lot of readers will discover Thierry Antha with the publication of Crimes of Rumba, Volume I of Congo Music. But this international journalist carried decades of excellence in covering the Congo and Haitis politics, business, and entertainment. His professional and personal ties with all the most famous Congolese musicians in advocacy, promotion, and production of their musical works have crowned him the best authority with respect to the Congo musics history. Contrary to all the spinning, posturing, and work of fiction for rumba, Thierry Anthas expertise and dedication to exposing the truth behind material facts and laws related to Congo music from the Belgian Congo to the Congo is second to none. Embark in this riveting literary journey to discover how Socit Gnrales authoritarian harvest of music cash crops has shattered and destroyed lives and careers for its economic gain in the Americas. Without censorship, Crimes of Rumba, Volume I of Congo Music exposes Foniors victims long overdue rebuttal, which is long way apart from the reality of its predatory conduct culture and its propaganda of rumbas fake-outs.