Bonga Kwenda is considered a superstar throughout Europa and Africa. Bonga was born Barcelo de Carvalho in Dande, N'Gola, in 1942.He has recorded 17 albums in a 28-year career. Bonga's life is inextricably linked to N'Gola's struggle for freedom from colonial domination and the continuing struggle for a stable, comfortable, post-colonial existance. He forst came to prominence as an athlete initialy as a gold-class 400 meter champion who set a record he held for ten years, and later as a star on the great Benfica (Lisboa) Futbol team of the 1960's. Bonga'ss status as star athlete allowed him freedom of movement, whitc he used to carry messages between exiled freedom fighters and compatriots still in N'Gola. as the movement for independence heated up, Bonga was forced into exile himself first in Rotterdam, the in Paris. It was in Rotterdam in 1972 that he recorde his first record "Angola 72" and adapted the name Bonga Kwenda.