Kudjabo was born at the northeastern side of the
Congo Free State. As a child, he received his education at a Catholic mission school in
Kilo,
Orientale Province. According to the archives of the German sound archive, he was a farmer who could handle mining equipment. Aged seventeen, he moved to
Namur,
Belgium.[3] In
Ghent, he worked as a so-called 'boy' or young household help.[4]
First World War
On 5 August 1914, a
Congolese Volunteers' Corps for the Belgian Army was founded. Several Congolese volunteers enrolled, including
Paul Panda Farnana,
Joseph Adipanga, and Kudjabo. Kudjabo fought during the
Siege of Namur, but was captured by the
German Army at
Lives-sur-Meuse on 23 August, together with Farnana and Adipanga.[5] At that time, Kudjabo was wounded at his head.[6] First, he stayed at the camp
Soltau near
Hannover, but was transferred to
Münster by March 1917. The Royal Prussian Phonetic Institute (Königlich preußische phonographische Kommission) was interested in recording Kudjabo, who, according to coordinator of the recordings of African languages for the Institute Carl Meinhof, "knows the drum language". In addition, they used a
Melanesian drum for the recording, underlining the creation of a composite "image of exotic otherness".[7] In 1917, still a prisoner of war, his voice was recorded at the prisoner of war camp in
Münster by the Phonetic Institute.[8]
Later life
After the war, Kudjabo shared an apartment with another Congolese war veteran,
Antoine Manglunki, and his wife Julia Caron, in
Schaerbeek. Kudjabo moved to
Liège less than one year later.[9] In 1919, Kudjabo co-founded the Union congolaise, together with Farnana and Adipanga. On 17 December 1925, he married Ludovica Kempeneer. They had four children.
Kudjabo died in 1934 of a lung disease.[10]