Papa Wemba decorated in DR Congo

Members of Papa Wemba's music group dance and sing during a concert in tribute to him on April 27, 2016 at the Palace of Culture in Abidjan. The flamboyant star Papa Wemba died at the age of 66 after collapsing on stage at a music festival in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on April 24, but the cause of death is not yet known. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Papa Wemba collapsed while performing at a festival in Cote d’Ivoire on April 24.

  • The flamboyant musician, who led the Kinshasa music scene for four decades, died before reaching hospital.

KINSHASA, Monday

Democratic Republic of Congo’s rumba king Papa Wemba (above) was posthumously awarded one of his country’s highest honours today, a week after he collapsed on stage and died aged 66.

At a ceremony in the national parliament in Kinshasa, where Papa Wemba’s body lay in state, Congo’s President Joseph Kabila made the singer a grand officer of the Order of National Heros Kabila-Lumumba for “the merits, the loyal and eminent services rendered to the Congolese nation”.

Papa Wemba collapsed while performing at a festival in Cote d’Ivoire on April 24.

The flamboyant musician, who led the Kinshasa music scene for four decades, died before reaching hospital.

An enormous red hat, modelled on the one the renowned sharp dresser was wearing at the time of his death, served as the roof of the chapel erected to house his coffin inside parliament.

A life-sized effigy of the singer, dressed as he was during his last concert, stood behind it.

“Papa Wemba, the Congo orphaned,” read a giant banner at the entrance to the building, where the funeral procession arrived early in the morning to be welcomed by the city governor and the military band of the Republican Guard.

A Roman Catholic priest accompanied the coffin, which was carried by eight men in black and draped in the national flag.

“This is great suffering and sadness,” said Biby Krubwa, who starred alongside Papa Wemba in a 1988 film, ‘La Vie est Belle’ (‘Life is Rosy’) about an aspiring singer who comes to Kinshasa. “Papa Wemba is a baobab that has fallen.”