Papa Wendo

Wendo Kolosoy
The cover of his last record, Banaya Papa Wendo
Background information
Birth name	Antoine Kalosoyi (var. Nkolosoy)
Also known as	Papa Wendo, Wendo, Windsor, Wendo Sor, Sor, Wendo alanga nzembo, Wendo mokonzi ya nzembo
Born	(1925-04-25)April 25, 1925 Mushie, Mai-Ndombe District, Belgian Congo
Origin	Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Died	July 28, 2008(2008-07-28) (aged 83) Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Genres	Soukous World Music
Occupation(s)	Singer, guitarist, band leader
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1943–1964/1993–2004

Antoine Wendo Kolosoy (April 25, 1925 – July 28, 2008), known as Papa Wendo, was a Congolese musician. He is considered the "Father" of Congolese rumba, also known as soukous, a musical style blending son cubano, beguine, waltz, tango and cha-cha.

Wendo was born in 1925 in Mushie territory, Mai-Ndombe District of western Congo, then under Belgian colonial rule. His father died when he was seven, and his mother, a singer herself, died shortly thereafter. He was taken to live in an orphanage run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, and remained there until he was 12 or 13, expelled when the fathers disapproved of the lyrics of his songs. Wendo began playing guitar and performing at age 11.

Kolosoy became a professional singer almost by chance after having worked also as a boxer, sailor and longshoreman in Congo, Cameroon and Senegal. From 13 Wendo traveled as a worker on the Congo River ferries, and entertained passengers on the long trips. Between 1941 and 1946 he traveled as a sometime professional boxer, as far from home as Dakar, Senegal.

His birthname was Antoine Kalosoyi (also spelled Nkolosoyi), which he eventually regularised to Kolosoy. Later he was called "Windsor" (a homage to the Duke of Windsor and a play on the British Royalty theme of his band "Victoria Kin") which evolved into "Wendo Sor" and simply "Sor". He is most widely known as Wendo or Papa Wendo.

In the mid-1940s, he began playing guitar around the capital Kinshasa (then Leopoldville) with his Cuban style band Victoria Bakolo Miziki. He had met Nicolas Jéronimidis, a Greek businessman, on a steamer returning to Leopoldville from Dakar in 1946, and in 1947 Jéronimidis agreed to record Wendo's music for his new Leopoldville based record label Ngoma.