Sapeur
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A sapeur , after the informal French term sape for “clothes”, is an equally striking and elegantly dressed man in Africa whose appearance is in clear contrast to his living conditions. The Sapeurs emerged as a social movement in the Congolese capital Kinshasa in the mid-1970s , protesting against the policies of Zairean President Joseph Mobutus , who wanted to express through formal clothing that they were not rebels and troublemakers. Papa Wemba was seen as defining the style at the time .
As La sape , the movement of the sapeurs is still one of the few trends that has spread from the Congo area to other parts of the world. The term was later explained by the Backronym Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (roughly equivalent to "Society of entertainers and elegant people").
features
The most important characteristic of a sapeur is his lifestyle , which is based on fashionable elegance and individuality , and which is primarily optically oriented towards the characteristics of a classic dandy and gentleman . However, wearing chic and lavishly combined clothes says nothing about his social or monetary status, but rather illustrates the contrast between the inner freedom of a sapeur and the external circumstances surrounding him. The distinctive appearance functions primarily as a resistance against the sadness and poverty of a sapeur's home region.
Origins
The term "Sapeur" appeared in Alexander von Humboldt 's travels in America and Asia as early as 1856 .
This subculture has its current origin in the early 1920s. It is closely linked to the French colonization of the Congo Basin . Grenard André Matsoua is considered to be the founder of the movement , who returned after a long stay in Europe in an elegant Western suit and propagated a new style of clothing and corresponding virtues that contrasted with the traditional wardrobe of his compatriots. From the mid-1960s the fashionable peculiarity of the movement developed into a kind of political resistance to the political dogmas that emerged after the end of the colonial period.
media
The movement has meanwhile also achieved fame abroad, where it is copied in places, such as in South Africa or Morocco , or discovered by the advertising industry for appropriate purposes.
The two photographers Francesco Guisti and Mathilde Lloret dedicated an entire exhibition to members of the movement in 2011 under the title Dress (ing) up .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk: World music star Papa Wemba died , April 24, 2016
- ↑ http://www.geo.de/GEO/reisen/fotogalerien/fotogalerie-die-sapeurs-von-brazzaville-61145.html
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/05/07/181704510/the-surprising-sartorial-culture-of-congolese-sapeurs
- ↑ Alexander von Humboldt : Alexander von Humboldt's travels in America and Asia . 3rd volume, 2nd edition, chapter 8, Hasselberg'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung Berlin, in the edition by H. Kletke.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://sabotagetimes.com/fashion-style/the-gentlemen-of-bakongo-and-their-cult-of-elegance
- ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/hassan-hajjaj-portraits_n_5807750.html
- ↑ http://www.wuv.de/marketing/guinness_stylishe_herren_aus_kongo_brazzaville
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
