La Sape

Ugandan Sapeurs (2015)

La Sape, an abbreviation based on the phrase Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (The Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People) and hinting to the French slang word sape which means "attire", is a social movement centered in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo. An adherent of La Sape is called a sapeur.^[1] The movement embodies the elegance in style and manners of colonial predecessor dandies as a means of resistance. They are in stark contrast with the environment they live in.

History

La sape can be traced back to the early years of colonialism in Africa, and in particular Brazzaville and Kinshasa. The French mission was to civilize the “uncouth” and “naked” African people. They brought second hand clothing from Europe as a bargaining tool to gain the loyalty of the chiefs. Brazzaville soon became the “most favored residential area for whites and the seat of colonial government.” By the end of the 19th century their “houseboys” were the first to embrace European modernity because they would be given clothing instead of money as compensation for their work. The Congolese elite not only included the houseboys, but also those who held lower positions as clerks in colonial offices and other places.

The noted musician Papa Wemba was an important supporter of La Sape in Congo

A major influence on the Congolese elite, present during the 1920s (the so-called Roaring Twenties), was West African colonial workers who came to the Congo. These Bapopo or Coastmen, as they were called, served as inspiration for the Congolese elite “to combat ingrained charges of inferiority leveled at them” by French and Belgian colonialism. Young Congolese men took the style of their masters’ and made it their own. In the historian Didier Gondola's essay titled "La Sape Exposed!: High Fashion Among Lower-Class Congolese", he says:

“Captivated by the snobbery and refined elegance of the Coast Men’s attire, Congolese houseboys spurned their masters’ secondhand clothes and became unremitting consumers and fervent connoisseurs, spending their meager wages extravagantly to acquire the latest fashions from Paris.”

The houseboys used their connections in France to acquire their clothing. One colonist looked down on the habits her houseboys in Brazzaville because while they may have been half-starved, they would still don their expensive clothing once their monthly wages came in.

According to Gondola, Camille Diata frontlined the sape movement in Brazzaville in the 1930s, but also had a deep influence in France. He was also part of L'Amicale, “a loosely organized anti-colonial movement,” formed in France in 1926 by the imaginative Congolese revolutionary André Matsoua. The organization mainly helped Africans new to Paris get settled in the city because they were not really welcomed by French, facing imprisonment and deportation. By the time of Matsoua death in 1942, his political developments gained prominence in the Congo and were “hijacked” by the Congolese intellectual elite. They not only adapted the fashion sense but also his anti-colonial views. This movement became a distinctly ethnic Bakongo and Balari one characterized by potent political symbolism and ideology that would manifest in postcolonial era.

A Brazzaville sapeur being interviewed for Spanish documentary filmmakers (2010)

The 1950s gave rise to the cosmopolitan, thus bringing prominence to the music scene. Nightclubs and beer halls made up the venues home to the music and young urbanites of the Congolese townships of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. La Sape was synonymous with the Congolese rumba scene that surfaced and which Papa Wemba, a Congolese musician, made music about the La Sape style. During the postcolonial years, the unique dynamics of La Sape coalesced in 1960 when both Congos were granted independence. Economic chaos ensued and many were left jobless. This caused numerous Congolese people to move abroad to western cities like London and Paris. Since they were also not very welcome, La Sape acted as refuge for them to cope with European life.

Franco-Congolese performer Michel N'zau Vuanda (Bantunani) in sapeur attire

Today

Congolese dandies living in Paris and other European cities were only deemed sapeur once they returned to Brazzaville in the summer to showcase their style before the mid-1990s.

Although war and strife had riddled the Congo over the years, there has been a revival of La Sape in Brazzaville. Whereas before in the early 1980s when campaigns were being prompted to bar La Sape from public spaces, they are now well respected and are “darlings of the regime.” They have been raised to a higher status of “cultural heritage” by Denis Sassou Nguesso by allowing them to participate in public cultural events like the African Exhibit of Fashion and Crafts (Salon africain de la mode et de l’artisanat).

Gondola argues that:

“Today, with both countries in turmoil, la sape, with its exuberant flamboyance may well serve as a lighting rod for the Congolese disenfranchised youth to map out their itinerary from Third World status to a modern cosmopolitanism and to cope with their social dereliction.”

Cultural influences

Sapeur being interviewed for the documentary "Dimanche à Brazzaville"

In an interview with David M. Ewalt, media theorist Henry Jenkins described the traditional cosmopolitan as someone who escapes the orbit of their own parochial culture through high culture and absorption of the values attached to that culture. This includes luxuries such as opera, ballet, paintings, etc. However, the pop cosmopolitan is the modern teenager. He used America to illustrate this point through teenagers today who learn, absorb, and interact with various facets of Asian cultures as a means of escaping the limitations of American culture. They use the Internet and technology to connect with other cultures. Social networks are a force toward globalization and it is this very connectivity that allows modern globalization to thrive.

Sapeurs are shown in a film "35 Cows and a Kalashnikov" (2014) by Oswald von Richthofen.

See also

• Swenkas - similar movement in South Africa

References

1. Evancie, Angela (7 May 2013). "The Surprising Sartorial Culture Of Congolese 'Sapeurs'". National Public Radio. Retrieved 17 January 2014.

External links

• The Congolese Sape – photo essay by Héctor Mediavilla
• "Sunday in Brazzaville / Dimanche à Brazzaville" on Vimeo (trailer)
• The Sapeurs of Kinshasa on BBC World Service