This & That, Ceci et Cela

James Brown ain’t got nothin’ on this!
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The video above shows “Le sex machine” from the Staff Benda Bilili, workers of the zoo in Kinshasa, Congo (West Africa). Part of a larger collective produced by Belle Kinoise. The band is currently involved in a legal skirmish with the UN for unpaid royalties. Their other song “Let’s Go and Vote” which was played on radio and TV throughout the campaign and election period last year, became a huge hit. The band members were not offered contracts, but got $50 each and the credits on the video clip says it was produced by Monuc (UN mission in the Congo) and distributed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The UN denies any responsibility for paying royalties. Most of the band are polio victims, who sleep beside the barbed wire fence surrounding the Monuc headquarters in Kinshasa.