CULTURE-CONGO: When Dressing Becomes a Religion

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nana Rosine Ngangoue

BRAZZAVILLE, Jul 30 1996 (IPS) - Dressing elegantly is an obsession among many young Congolese, who do not think twice before spending huge sums of money to buy the latest European fashions.

“Each day I have at least 50 clients, most of them young women,” says Daouda, a West African who owns a boutique here. “They are my best clients. They buy clothes at any price and they pay without complaining.”

But young men are equally in to designer clothes. Serge Massengo, a dealer in used cars, says that’s all he wears. His woolen suit, he tells IPS, cost 400,000 CFA francs. That’s about 800 U.S. dollars. His shoes are from Weston’s in Paris and he paid the equivalent of 400 U.S. dollars for them.

“It’s really important for me to wear shoes and clothes that bear the trademark of the big European designers,” he says.

Most young people in the Congolese capital dream of wearing at least once in their lives clothes designed by Gianni Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Bowen, Paco Rabane, Yoshi Yamamoto, Charles Jourdan or Karl Lagerfeld.

Caroline Milandou, a student, spends “at least 200,000 CFA francs each month on clothes”, which is much more than the monthly salary of many Congolese. Each weekend, she says, she visits the boutiques to make sure she keeps abreast of the latest fashions. “I always buy a new pair of shoes and a suit each month,” she tells IPS. “I don’t like to wear the same things for long.”

The sums spent on clothing by fashion-conscious Congolese are amazing when one considers how difficult it is for most people here to make ends meet. Some young people save for months to achieve their dream of elegance. Others travel to Europe, buy clothes, wear some and sell some. They find ready buyers.

“A woman must always be well dressed,” explains beauty products saleswoman Sylvie Youlou. “If you are not in fashion, you are looked down on. We do it mainly to impress the men. And, most of us get money to furnish our wardrobes from men.”

Moreover, peer recognition awaits the accomplished dresser. At least once a month a competition to elect the most elegant young man or woman is held in Brazzaville neighbourhoods. The most spectacular are those in Bacongo, in the south of the capital, organised by the Society of Party-Goers and Elegant People, whose French acronym, SAPE, means ‘fashionable clothing’.

“We have people who travel regularly to Europe and we order clothes from them,” says Malonga Daniel, a member of SAPE. “At our fashion competitions we decide who is wearing the most expensive clothing and who is most elegant.

“The fellows who win earn the respect of the younger men and the women simply flock them,” says Malonga, adding that the female winners get similar recognition.

Many of the young people in Bacongo dream of going to Paris, the capital of European fashion, to bring back garments and sell them at exhorbitant prices. “As soon as you tell Congolese that what you have to sell comes from France, they rush to buy it,” explains Malonga.

However, things are slowly changing. A 50-percent devaluation of the CFA franc in early 1994 and the economic crisis in Congo have caused a few of the faithful, such as garage owner Chris Samba, to give up the fashion religion.

“I used to be a ‘sapeur’ (fancy dresser),” he says. “When I went to France for the first time in 1985, I visited all the boutiques I could find and then I came back to show off my booty (clothes). I was elected champion dresser in my neighbourhood.

“But today, I feel all that makes no sense. It’s irresponsible to spend all your money on clothes. That’s why I sold all the clothes that have brought me fame and used the money to open my garage, which is much more beneficial to me.”

Even Djo Ballar, the man who formed SAPE, appears to have had a change of heart after gaining international renown for depositing a pair of shoes he had bought for five million CFA (10,000 dollars) in a French bank.

He said during a visit to Brazzaville last year that he was trying to get some of his young fans into farming. “I’ve bought some land in the (region of) Niari,” he said. “I would like to work with young people in agriculture and livestock farming.”

The project has not yet started.

The obsession with ready-made garments and cloth from Europe has been cited as one of the reasons for the demise of Congo’s textile industry, although poor management has also been blamed.

“The cloth made by local textile companies were worn only by elderly women, while the young girls were just crazy about ‘Super Wax’ imported from Holland and suits from France,” says retired public servant Kenko Pierre. “The textile industry just could not prosper in such conditions.”

In recent years, sociologists have pointed to a link between the obsession with fashion and the drug trade. One ‘sapeur’ confirmed this, although he preferred not to have his name published. “It’s evident that some of the people who buy expensive clothes are those who have earned a lot of money selling drugs,” he said. “But there are also people who do so by doing jobs like washing dishes or corpses in Europe.” Still others turn to prostitution, he explains.