Rumba under fire: Music as morale and morality in music at the frontlines of the Congo

The lower ranks of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among the poorer segments of Congolese society. Small radios and mobile phones, allowing them to listen to music, figure among their most important personal belongings. What songs do these troops listen to? What lyrics of the rumba most resonate among them and why? Exploring both soldiers’ narratives on music and the lyrics of their favored songs, this contribution shows that music does not only figure as a fleeting opportunity to hold on to humanity/humanities amidst the dehumanizing conditions of Congolese army life, but also provides a stock of tropes to think about notions of good and bad, success and failure, in a morally convoluted universe. Music at the frontlines is at once a palliative for and a painful reminder of permanent loss, which both alleviates and incites, seduces and cures. As such, its effects on soldiering are as ambiguous as soldiering itself.