Abacost

The Abacost is ajar to the style of Mao Zedong's jacket, which was prescribed as a national costume for the local leadership during the revolution in the Congo under Mobutu Sese Seko in 1971. Even Mobutu himself wore this jacket. The collar is unbuttoned in contrast to the Chinese model. " Abacost " stands for the claim " A bas les costumes! - Down with the (European) suit "and was intended as a protest against the colonization by Europeans.

With the beginning of the loss of power by Mobutu in 1990 next to the Abacost also suits and ties were on the Western model again officially approved.

The journalist and Africa expert Peter Scholl- Latour saw an analogy between Abacost and the introduction of the sans-culottes by the Jacobins during the French Revolution, which should emphasize as an outward sign to turn away from the ancien regime.