This feature first appeared in the August issue of the New African. Not many musicians’ deaths are met by continent-wide grief, hundreds of thousands thronging the streets of their hometown, and four days of state-decreed mourning. But this was the case for François Luambo Makiadi. Sobriquets stuck to him throughout his career – ‘the Sorcerer of the Guitar’, ‘Yorgho’ (godfather), and, as he liked to be … Continue reading Lingua Franco: The story of a Congolese colossus