Video: African dudes. SAPE - unusual fashion in Congo
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the Soviet Union there was such a subculture - dudes. Its representatives listened to Western music and dressed as they thought people in the West dress. Surprisingly, in the African country Republic of the Congo our own analogue dude – subculture SAPE.
The Republic of the Congo (not to be confused with another state with a similar name - the Democratic Republic of the Congo) has gained independence from France for fifty years. But to this day, its inhabitants consider their former metropolis to be an authority in terms of politics, culture and fashion. However, it is well deserved.
But this respect is shown among the Congolese in a very unusual way. For example, there is a subculture in the country called SAPE (short for “société des ambianceurs et des personnes élégantes”, that is, “society of elegant people”). Representatives of this movement dress in French fashion. But this fashion is not modern, but the one that was in the middle of the twentieth century, when the French still ruled the Congo.
Moreover, over the past fifty years, this former French fashion has been greatly transformed. The colors have become much brighter, the cut of the clothes - much more extravagant. In general, by Western standards, this is not fashion, but kitsch. The same kitsch in relation to the American fashion of the same time was the clothes of Soviet dudes (at least, shown in the film of the same name). But representatives of the SAPE subculture seriously believe that their clothes are in full accordance with modern concepts of style.
One set of such unusual clothes is very expensive for the impoverished Republic of the Congo - about 300 US dollars. And this is the average salary in the country for six months. So the guys from SAPE sometimes even take a bank loan to buy such an outfit.
Representatives of this subculture themselves explain such absurdities by the fact that, thus, through such clothes, they compensate, at least for themselves, for the poverty that exists in their native country. After all, spiritual hunger is no less terrible than physical hunger. And the SAPE movement compensates for this very spiritual hunger.
I wonder if anyone would guess to tell the Congolese that there are no dudes in America, that is, there is no SAPE in France?
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