In the musseques, the poor neighbourhoods of colonial Luanda, guitars, drums and voices came together in a rhythm called semba. It was dance music, but it also carried messages, sung in Kimbundu and Portuguese, about life under Portuguese rule. Semba became the sound of Angolan identity in the decades before independence in 1975, and its influence runs through the country’s later music, from kizomba to kuduro.
Origins, Ngola Ritmos and politics
Semba developed in Luanda in the first half of the twentieth century, drawing on traditional Angolan rhythms and dances. The word semba is linked to a dance move in which partners touch at the navel, a feature of some traditional dances. Ngola Ritmos, a band formed in the mid-twentieth century and associated with Liceu Vieira Dias, helped modernise semba and gave it a national voice.
Many semba musicians supported the independence movement, and some were arrested by the colonial authorities.
Bonga, independence and kizomba
Bonga, who recorded in exile in Europe, became one of the best-known Angolan musicians internationally, singing semba and related styles. Elias Dia Kimuezo is often called the king of semba for his long career and powerful voice. After independence in 1975, semba was celebrated as national music, though the civil war that followed brought hardship. In the 1980s, kizomba emerged, blending semba with zouk from the French Caribbean. Kizomba later became popular across the world.
The fast electronic style kuduro, born in Luanda in the 1990s, also drew on Angolan dance traditions. Semba is danced in pairs, with playful steps and turns.
Revival, carnival and exile
Younger musicians and dancers have revived interest in semba in Angola and abroad. Songs often mix Portuguese with Kimbundu and other Angolan languages. Semba groups have long played a central role in Luanda’s carnival, with musicians and dancers parading through the streets in colourful costumes. After independence, the carnival became a celebration of Angolan identity.
Many Angolan musicians recorded semba in Lisbon and Paris during the colonial and civil war years, keeping the style alive abroad and spreading it to Portuguese-speaking audiences. Semba began as a dance in Luanda’s poorest neighbourhoods. It carried a nation’s hopes into independence, and its steps can still be traced in the dances Angola later exported to the world.
