Bonga (AO)
From Bengo
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About
Also known as: Bonga Kuenda, Bonga Kwenda, José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho
Bonga was a Portuguese record holder in the 400 metres before he ever made a name as a musician. He gave up athletics in 1972 to focus on music and quickly became a star in Angola and Portugal. Behind the scenes he was also doing something riskier: using the name Bonga Kuenda and the freedom his sporting fame gave him, he carried messages between exiled pro independence fighters and people still in Angola. When the authorities caught on, he was forced into exile in Rotterdam, where he recorded his first record, Angola 72, which introduced the track "Mona Ki Ngi Xica", later heard in the film When the Cat's Away. He sings in Portuguese and Kimbundu, blending semba with the other sounds he picked up from Portuguese speaking musicians across Europe. Over 30 albums later, he's still making records. Recados de Fora, his thirty first, arrived in 2016 and mixed new songs with covers tied to Cesária Évora and Maria Bethânia. France made him a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2014.
