| Bonga | |
| Birth Name: | José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho |
| Alias: | Bonga Kwenda |
| Birth Date: | 5 September 1942 |
| Birth Place: | "Kipiri", Bengo, Angola |
| Genre: | Angolan music, folk, semba |
| Occupation: | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument: | Vocals, dikanza, congas |
| Years Active: | 1972–present |
| Label: | Lusafrica, Morabeza, Vidisco |
José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho (born 5 September 1942), better known as Bonga, is an Angolan folk and semba singer-songwriter.[1] He was born in Kipiri in Luanda in 1942.
José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho was born in the province of Bengo, and left Angola when he was 23 years old to become a track and field athlete, becoming the Portuguese record holder for the 400 metres (Angola was at the time one of Portugal's five African colonies). He had already begun his singing career at the age of 15.
Carvalho abandoned athletics in 1972, concentrating solely on his music, and immediately became famous in his native Angola, as well as in Portugal. After the Carnation Revolution in April 1974, he would become a hit both with immigrants from the ex-Portuguese colonies, and Portuguese of both African and European descent. He has released over 30 albums, singing in Portuguese and Kimbundu, his native language.
While Angola was still a Portuguese colony, Bonga was an outspoken supporter of independence. This led him to be exiled from Angola in the early 1970s.
At this time, Portugal was ruled by the authoritarian and conservative Estado Novo regime government, founded by Salazar. Barceló de Carvalho
After independence, the new Angolan government took Angola's best solo acts and founded and supported an orchestra called "Semba Tropical". The purpose was to revive the lost music industry, as described by a People's Republic of Angola ministry spokesman during the band's tour in Europe in the mid-1980s:"We had great problems because of the war for independence. When the Portuguese left they dismantled some of the basic structure by smashing and sabotaging equipment and we had to start from scratch. After independence there were no bands at all. Those which were formed were not active because they had no instruments." As it was the case under Portugal's colonial rule, only a tiny minority of Angolans (1%) were allowed to get an education. Thus, the newly independent country, with relatively good infrastructure, and blessed with rich natural resources, was in fact badly mismanaged and plagued by corruption and failed central planning for several decades after independence from Portugal.[3]
After Angola's independence Bonga lived for some time in Paris and Angola, before establishing his main residence in Lisbon. As post-colonial life in Angola disintegrated into corruption, squalor, brutality, and an interminable and bloody civil war, Bonga remained critical of the political leaders on all sides. Bonga's voice of peace and conscience continues to make him a hero to the people of Angola no matter where he resides. He remains fiercely dedicated to the ideal of nonviolence, he states simply: "We must live without harming others."
Aged 74, he published in 2016 his thirty-first album Recados de Fora (Messages from Elsewhere).[4] This included 9 new songs including Tonokenu, plus the covers of Sodade Meu Bem Sodade, a composition of Zé do Norte already sung by Maria Bethânia or Nazaré Pereira, and Odji Maguado composed by the Capeverdean writer B. Leza and popularised by Cesaria Evora in her 1990 album, Distino di Belita.
Bonga received the distinction of "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters" by the French government. The honorable mention was delivered by the Ministry of Culture of France in a ceremony on 10 December 2014 in Angola.[5]