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Koffi Olomide

Congolese musician (born 1956)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba, known professionally as Koffi Olomidé, is a Congolese singer-songwriter, dancer, producer, and founder of Quartier Latin International. Often referred to as the "King of Ndombolo", he is noted for his explosive high notes, deep, throaty baritone, and offbeat voice. Agbepa is considered one of the most significant figures in 20th-century Congolese and African popular music. His lyrics often explore themes of love, politics, technology, success, infidelity, religion, chicanery, and disillusionment. Through his music and stage performances, he introduced the slower style of soukous known as tcha tcho and popularized a flamboyant fashion subculture called La Sape, alongside Papa Wemba.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Koffi Olomide” is congolese musician (born 1956). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Koffi, Olomide and Congolese, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current 103-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Koffi, Olomide and Congolese is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “congolese musician (born 1956)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Koffi Olomide”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Koffi Olomide primary sources, Koffi Olomide archive and Koffi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Koffi Olomide”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Koffi Olomide” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.