But even then, they were in the words of Chinua Achebe, outsiders weeping louder than the bereaved. The most palpable grief was felt in the community of Sapeurs, the dandy, immaculately turned out movement of gentlemen who provide quite a spectacle in the two capital cities of DRC Kinshasa and Brazzaville Congo, separated by two kilometres of yellow brown waters of the mighty river that is the artery and giver of life in the Congo Basin of Central Africa.
Sapeurs were the profoundly bereaved because their pope was no more. I am reminded of this most fascinating of sub cultures as we bury Dan Tshanda, who departed a fortnight ago to join the great gig in the sky with former band mates Penwell Kunene, Joseph Tshimange and the promoter, my friend Super Letshabo. Next to family and close friends, the fear that haunts every music fan is the demise of a much loved idol. Life is made up of building blocks that combine to make us complete individuals, and for every life ever conceived is accompanied by a soundtrack through all rites of passage till our final epilogue the spiritually-inclined have hymns, the hedonistic have rock, the suave and pretentious have jazz.
