La Sape

The term Sapeur designated a member of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes ( to about German Society for entertainers and elegant people) as well as the social movement La Sape, both of which have their origin in the Congolese capital Brazzaville.

Features

The most important feature of a sapper is to be aligned for fashionable elegance and individuality lifestyle, the optical properties based on a classic dandy and gentleman in particular. However, the wearing fancy clothes and expensive combined says nothing about its social or monetary status, but shows much more contrast between the internal freedom of a sapper and the surrounding circumstances. The distinctive appearance acts primarily as a resistance against the drabness and poverty of the home region of a sapper. Today every one sapper in his community enjoys high reputation for its individual appearance and respect. He sees himself as a survivor. In addition to his wardrobe and a corresponding code of honor he maintains a personal repertoire of aristocratic -looking gestures.

Origins

Has its origins subculture in the early 1920s and is closely linked to the colonization of the Congo Basin through France. As the founder of the movement is considered Grenard Matsoua André, who returned after a long stay in Europe in an elegant western suit and a new style of dress together with the associated virtues propagated, which was in contrast to the traditional wardrobe of his countrymen. From the mid- 1960s, the fashionable nature of the movement further into a kind of political resistance against the occurring after the end of the colonial political dogmas developed.

Media

Popularity reached the movement now also abroad, where it is in places, such as in South Africa, copied or was discovered by the advertising industry for appropriate purposes.