David Zé - Merengue San Antonio (Angola, 1974)

(Rebita R:1128, Fabricado por FADIANG - Fabrica de Discos de Angola).

From the 60s, electric wave hit Angola with a big influence from northern neighbor Congo and his typical electric guitar rhythms. But more traditional Angolan rhythms like semba or rebita are also often integrated into new music productions, same way as external influences (from Brasil or West Indies, including merengue) which made Angolan music a really rich and rhythmically diversified mixture, despite the few quantity of vinyls that could survive up to now.

Mangalha - The biggest vinyls collection in Angola

Jose Henrique Ribeiro, famous in Luanda as "Mangalha", comes back in this interview on his vinyl collector experiences in Angola.

He begun to collect and spin records from the late 60s, following angolan music evolution and influences from abroad. He had up to 26 000 LPs, shaking angolan dancefloors during 40 years.

It is said in Luanda that when somone wants to organise a party with low budget for food and drink, he needs to choose Mangalha as DJs sothat the guests only care about dancing...

We can also observ here that preserving a country's cultural heritage assumes a political character as sometimes confused with resisting to external influences, in this case white portuguese colonists