{Music fans across Africa are mourning the death of Congolese musician Papa Wemba who died at the age of 66 after collapsing on stage on Sunday morning.}<\/p>\n
Stars have been paying tribute to a man whose music influenced artists across Africa.<\/p>\n
{{Angelique Kidjo}}<\/p>\n
I’m sad, and I’ve been struggling since the death of Prince and now we have the passing of Papa Wemba and I’m wondering what this is all about.<\/p>\n
I worked with Papa Wemba and he was a very nice, genuine soul and very shy at the same time.<\/p>\n
I did a duet with him, Ami Oh, on a Manu Dibango album, and when you heard him sing it was magical that a guy who was that big had such an angelic voice.<\/p>\n
He was a generous soul when it came to helping people, and he didn’t say much, but he observed a lot and when he spoke in that gentle voice everything he said was right on the spot.<\/p>\n
His whole attitude about dressing well was part of the narrative that we Africans have been denied our humanity for so long.<\/p>\n
People have always had stereotypes about us, and he was saying dressing well is not just a matter of money, not just something for Westerners, but that we Africans also have elegance. It was all about defining ourselves and refusing to be stripped of our humanity.<\/p>\n
{{Manu Dibango}}<\/p>\n
Africa has lost another worthy son in the shape of Papa Wemba. It’s a painful beginning to 2016.<\/p>\n
He was the voice of Africa.<\/p>\n
We are all orphans… May the heaven and the spirits welcome him in peace. Papa Wemba will remain forever in our hearts.<\/p>\n
{{Koffi Olomide}}<\/p>\n
It’s a catastrophe. Congolese music has been decimated, it’s been blown apart. I don’t know what to say.<\/p>\n
I refused to believe it when the Ivory Coast government official told me. To be honest, from now on, life means nothing, we are nothing.<\/p>\n
Today, with God’s forgiveness, I want to ask Him to accept Papa Wemba. He is His son.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what to say. I want to give my condolences to all Congolese people and all Africans.<\/p>\n
{{Femi Kuti}}<\/p>\n
I was quite shocked because we were just getting over Prince’s death and then hearing this it was sad.<\/p>\n
He was performing in a period of people like my father Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masakela, Manu Dibango – the African greats who have always opened doors for people like me.<\/p>\n
They have always done Africa proud anywhere in Europe and America where they performed, and they opened doors for African musicians to tour Europe with great pride and respect.<\/p>\n
Especially when you are playing African music in Europe and America, Papa Wemba’s name will be in the forefront of great names.<\/p>\n
It’s a name that was always there and will always be there. It’s not a name that will go away any time soon.<\/p>\n
{{King Kikii}}<\/p>\n
It was such a shock when I received the news it was something I didn’t see coming.<\/p>\n
He was one of the people whose stars shone so brightly. I tried to innovate through my music and Papa Wemba innovated though his.<\/p>\n
He had so much love for it. He’s helped so many people through his music and lifted them up.<\/p>\n
We won’t be able to forget him, the death of Papa Wemba is a huge blow.
\n{{
\nSamuel Eto’o}}<\/p>\n
What a sad way to start the day by learning of the passing of this monument of Africa.<\/p>\n
We got chills listening to Wake Up, Okoningana, Ye Te – to name a few.<\/p>\n
I’m all the more affected by this sad event as I’m a big fan of Congolese music.<\/p>\n
Papa Wemba so loved his music that he left while performing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Music fans across Africa are mourning the death of Congolese musician Papa Wemba who died at the age of 66 after collapsing on stage on Sunday morning.} Stars have been paying tribute to a man whose music influenced artists across Africa. {{Angelique Kidjo}} I’m sad, and I’ve been struggling since the death of Prince and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24897"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24897"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}