Congo's Paraplegic Musicians: Lullabies of the Abandoned

From The Economist: In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the disabled have not been provided a social safety net, so four paraplegic singers, an adopted street youth, and a handful of accompanying musicians spawned a band called Staff Benda Bilili. The singers are disabled due to polio.

After facing rejection by other musicians, the band formed and began playing on home-made instruments in the car park of a hotel for its patrons. Wherever they set up to play, they provide a safe haven for street youth. Their instruments include: a single-string harp with a bit of wire stretched over a tin can, a plastic chair drummed with a pair of flip-flops, and home-made guitars. They have produced a first album: "Très, Très Fort" [available for purchase in CD format and in downloadable MP3 format], which, according the The Economist online magazine, has some lyrics that "tell parents to vaccinate their children; others [that] lament the fate of Kinshasa’s 30,000 homeless. Most of them preach defiant self-reliance."

The album has led to a tour of Europe and the possibility of increased economic stability for the group, as well as a platform for messages on child vaccination and for the needs of the underclass of paraplegics whose disabilities have resulted from the breakdown in the administration of polio vaccine to the economically poor of the DRC. Two French filmmakers are making a film on the band [the film trailer is available below.] As one band member says, he would have little to leave his family, but the messages and income from his band's songs on polio and conditions of polio surviors are a heritage.