Tales of Koffi Olomide’s raunchy queen dancers

With Fifi Miss Yolo, it was flirting on the street. And with Rosette Kamono, he could not resist approaching her during his band’s rehearsal.

Born Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba, Koffi formed Quartier Latin (QL) in 1986 after a sojourn in Paris, France, to record his first album, Dieu Voit Tout (God sees all).

“He preferred songs that addressed the nature of Christianity and forces of life,” says Gary Stewart in his book, Rumba on the River.

But all the faith Koffi professed was gone the moment he saw Kamono in Bandalungwa, Kinshasa in DRC during a rehearsal.

Koffi sent for her. In their flirtation, she chided him for not having dancers and advised he take in girl dancers—offering herself as one—in 1989.

Kamono was soon joined by Jacquie ‘Bebeto’ Kanam, Florianne Mangenda, and by 1990, the first four ‘Ba Koffiettes’ was completed by Fifi.

Koffi says he met Solange Mbusu—who still goes by the alias Fifi Miss Yolo from her Kasavubu ghetto—on the street.

As the two flirted, Koffi told her the only way to get close to him was to become a QL dancer. Fifi said she could not dance, to which Koffi reacted “you can learn.”

“Fifi suffered in the beginning, but quickly became great,” Koffi said in a past interview.

The vixens went on to hugely impact Koffi’s career. At a time when Wenge Music and Zaiko Langa Langa had better musicians and Madilu was a far better singer, Ba Koffiettes lifted Koffi to the top of Congolese music charts.

Façade of fame

It was a privilege to be chosen by Mopao Mokonzi (the boss). Being able to dance in his troupe, to accompany him on his tours abroad, was a fairytale for beautiful, talented and celebrity-craving young women from the neighbourhoods of Kinshasa.

On stage, Ba Koffiettes grinned and exuded elegance, flashing their kazigo (diastema) and dimples. They looked like the happiest girls on earth. But off-stage, they were a school of trauma, with the musician, a contemporary African legend who has sold millions of albums, treating them like his harem.

On tours, Koffi keeps them on a tight leash, former dancers have said. He will not hesitate to raise his hand on them for flirting with strangers, and has thrown out members of his own band for ogling the girls.

A French court that tried him for rape and illegal confinement heard that Koffi, in his sexual deviance, “does magic, weird things, he breathes on our bodies.”

From openly assaulting Pamela Bengongo in Kenya in 2016, having children with some of the dancers, to ordering them to break off with their lovers, the thrills and frills of their celebrity life comes with a cocktail of spills and chills.

No in-house romance

Koffi’s Magie album was nearly overshadowed by feuds over Ba Koffiettes. He was feuding with Nyoka Longo of Zaiko Langa Langa and President Mobutu’s children Kongolo and Madova. But the worst was with Papa Wemba over Rosette Kamono.

Wemba was Koffi’s mentor. And the man who had introduced Koffi to Marie Makosso, who would become Koffi’s first wife, mother of his first two children Aristotle and Epiphanie Minou, and a financier. But when Wemba tapped Kamono, the two fell out bitterly.

When musician Felix Wazekwa sweet-talked the two into patching things up, Koffi appeared to accept and the two released their collaborative album, Wake Up. But Koffi pocketed proceeds from the album and reminded Wemba that he had fed off his (Koffi’s) talents in the years past.

To crown his wrath, Koffi released Malanda Ngombe (follow the cow) in his 1999 album, Attentat, in which he appeared to tell Wemba that even when they were together at Viva La Musica, Wemba was the table and he the goods on the table. Wemba, the song says, had stolen the goods.

“The great Mopao is me. You will remember the person who made you is me. Your punishment in life is to be forever behind me. Follow the cow,” Koffi sang.

Wemba said Koffi should never attend his burial if he died first. Koffi retorted likewise. And true to the vows, Koffi was nowhere near Wemba’s funeral in 2016.

For other band members, the price of flirting with Ba Koffiettes was dismissal from QL. Babia Ndonga Chokoro, who provided riveting solos in Koffi’s second album, Magie (1994), was kicked out over ogling the girls.

Bassist Rocky Blanchard Miantezdo believed he was close enough to Koffi to enter the harem until word went around that he was seeing Miette Shegue. Koffi openly confronted Rocky during a show in Kenya in 1998. That was the end of it for Rocky, with Miette following through the QL exit door.

Miette joined Wenge BCBG along with Nono, who had fallen afoul after her fellow dancers reported that she was planning to elope with animator Dolce Somono.

In 1995, Nono,18, had been to Koffi’s home in Matonge and told to dance in front of his mother and family members. She passed the test. Hired, Nono showed rare boldness in asking Koffi to also hire her boyfriend. Somono, who was to become one of Koffi’s top animators.

“Then one day after rehearsals, Koffi summoned Somono and I,” she told Congolese vlogger Ado Yuhe on the YouTube channel Congo Mokili, adding, “Koffi told us that he did not like relationships at work and that we had to part immediately.”

It was a similar case for Willy Bula and Jacky Bebeto in 1995, with Koffi asking them to choose either of them to stay in QL. They both left.

The man with a leash

For a man who accosted his own dancers for as little as acknowledging greetings from men, Koffi would certainly never allow his dancers to have relationships with anyone. He had kicked Bengongo in Kenya, and in Zambia, he rained punches on one of his dancers for taking time with fans.

“He just turned and hit her right across the face,” Chico Banda, who was MC at the 2012 concert, told Zambia’s The Post, adding, “She fell and when she got up, she looked dazed.”

Former QL band member Jordan Kusa told Congo Mokili that Koffi treated the dancers like animals while on tour.

Fifi, who now runs an African restaurant in Paris called Chez Miss Fifi Yolo, took offence at Kusa’s word choices and demanded an apology, but Nono said it is Koffi who owes them an apology for being what Kusa described and worse.

“Koffi used to tell us that he was taking us abroad for his work and nothing more, so he would lock us in a room as he went away to the studio or wherever,” Nono said.

Sunday Monitor contacted both Fifi and Kamono—both now pastors in Paris—for comments for this story. Fifi asked to be sent the questions in a video recording but she was yet to respond by press time.

Like his accusers in the rape and illegal confinement told the French court, Nono once spoke of how they escaped from a house they had been locked in.

“That day, his wife had also gone and left behind a spare key. We used it to leave the house, hired a taxi (for which Fifi paid) and went out,” she said.

However, come evening, Koffi was already home when they arrived. He summoned them one by one to explain themselves.

“He had a system of calling us. For example, if he knocked the door twice, we would know that it was Bilawu (their leader) being summoned. Everyone else had their own signal. He never used to summon us by name.”

Koffi is said to have been wary of his band members “disappearing” in Europe. He was living in Paris by then and came around occasionally.

“The first time he ever took the band with him, he told us that if even one person remained in Europe (illegally), he would not take QL on tour anymore and use only his members based in Europe for shows abroad,” Blanchard said.

Bouro Mpela, a former QL vocalist, defended Koffi’s treatment of the dancers, describing it as “protection.”

“I never saw or heard Koffi mistreat the dancers. These girls were rather well protected by Koffi as women,” Mpela is quoted by Congolese news site Mbote as saying.

Intrigue

You would think a group of mistreated vixens would be more united and welcoming but it was the opposite with Ba Koffiettes. Whenever on a tour, Nono would be the errand runner but it was while out to buy supplies that she says Fifi told Koffi she was planning to run away with Somono.

“I was isolated from the rest and ordered to sleep in one corner of the living room with a pair of jeans and eat after others had eaten,” she said.

Later, Koffi drove her to the airport, returned her passport and ensured she boarded a flight home. But it was not home.

“I only realised that Koffi had booked me on a plane to [Congo] Brazzaville when we landed and yet I did not have any money to connect to Kinshasa,” she said. Koffi even kept her clothes and jewellery.

Zimbabwe queen of raunchy dancing Beverly Sibanda would find out firsthand how tough it was to co-exist with Ba Koffiettes when Koffi invited her to Kinshasa in 2017. She was to take part in a video shoot for Abacadraba album. Koffi had to intervene before his dancers could open up to Sibanda. Not that Sibanda was a foreigner; such was the treatment served to most of the girls.

Nicole Deesse Mukangi and Scola Miel were two vocalists Koffi wanted so much in QL. And he did get both from Bozi Boziana’s Anti Choc, but only just.

Mukangi is the female voice in Koffi’s 1993 album, Noblesse Oblige. Now a pastor in the US, Mukangi opted not to be anywhere near the video shoot for Noblesse Oblige despite Koffi’s pleas. She left for good.

Scola Miel recorded Dessin Anime for the Magie album, but when Ba Koffiettes drove her out over the attention she was getting from Koffi, a furious Mopao binned the song.

Koffi would re-record Dessin Anime for the Ultimatum album.

Meanwhile, Nana Boanga, aka Nana Sukali, a petite singer, did not survive Ba Koffiettes in 1992. 

She ran to Wenge.

Konde’s tragic end

For some like Mireille Konde, the price was tragic. Konde was popular with fans. They called her Mirayessa. From 1993 when she joined QL, she treated fans to her trademark grin and her jelly waist was one for the ages.

Konde joined QL on the bed of the release of the Noblesse Oblige album in 1993 that had Fifi, Kamono and Rita Dembo. However, she immediately proved herself in the album’s promotion.

Konde was famed for dancing in a praying mantis pose in songs like Micko and her Ndombolo in Andrada and Loi was top-notch. She danced in 22 songs, including hits like Andrada (V12 album), Ultimatum album, and Loi.

In 1997, Koffi surprisingly left Konde out of a trip to Paris where QL was to record the Ultimatum album. However, Nono Ba Diamant was suspended during the tour, opening a window for Konde. She would feature in the rest of the filming in Nairobi, and Loi album in 1998—her last.

But in songs like Dessin Anime and Ali Debs, Konde lacked her usual lustre. She hardly smiled and her body language placed her miles away from the scene. However, any thoughts about something eating at her were quickly banished when Koffi sampled a live demo of Micko at Safari Park in Nairobi. Micko was to come out months later in the Loi album.

It was Konde’s last dance and she gave it her all here and in the official video as well. She left QL in 1998 and gave birth to her first child in 1999. She had been seeing a Paris-based man who had promised to marry her but then the two had lost contact for a while. When he re-established contact, he was due to travel to Kinshasa to pick Konde to live with him in Paris. But she was carrying a baby and way into the second trimester. Against the advice of friends, Konde took the gamble to terminate the pregnancy.

She did not make it. Konde died on March 22, 2002.