Fashion in Congo: What is a Sapeur? | The Congolese Dandies of Brazzaville | La Sape Documentary
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- čas přidán 8. 02. 2021
- Welcome to Brazzaville in The Republic of Congo, where expensive high fashion is King. These Congolese men are known as 'La Sape' or 'Sapeurs', and sometimes by 'The Congo Dandies': this documentary explores their way of life.
Discover a different side of Congo, other than the war and suffering. The sapeurs adhere to a subculture of high fashion. They may be surrounded by extreme poverty but as Yves Saint Laurent, President of the Sapeur Association, explains, they’re always dressed impeccably in Versace or Prada. Rapper Cheriff Bakala, is working on recording his first album in a country with almost no producers. Meanwhile wrestler Palmas Ya Ya, is relying on voodoo and faith to help him defeat younger, stronger opponents…
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![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
It's soo refreshing to see a African documentary that isn't povertyporn ☺️
Walking with $3,000 Weston shoes over piles of garbage...unreal
🤣🤣🤣🤣 madness!!!
Who ever would pay $3000 for a pair of shoes in the first place is unreal.
Bottomline, happiness is never too expensive
@@charlesakinsete8437 yeah, true happiness is designer shoes, not feeding your family?
@@PinchePerro123 And who made us a judge?
Taking out loans to buy expensive clothes to show off infront of poor people
America
Am I right?
Nah not América at least in California everyone wears workout gear even the fat people
It shows that richness is a feeling rather the actual reality I found it very inspiring it is about transcendence from material into a kind of mystical.
The musical artists at the beginning really had some amazing music 👏🏾
Spending thousands on wardrobe while your family is starving??? Scientists need to study these creatures
The rap is actually pretty good!
man i have so many questions now...and it all starts with WHY ...?
that song in the studio!!!!
Very very cool … love the style and dedication to dressing in an old world charm very 1920s art deco.
Starving people right next door, but at least he is dressed nice…..children living in the street but he has on expensive shoes 👞 RIDICULOUS
i really liked the music they recorded
From the black American perspective, these performances are really really interesting. It does make one want to visit French speaking Africa for sure. 👍🏾
These guys are trend setters where's Ye to take some notes.
@@israelshabangu7583 You might have a good point there. lol
Java discover I would like to know the name of the afro pop band
I think that calling the sapologues idiots for spending their money in clothes is not seeing the whole situation. I mean, they are (at least in origin) poor people from the ghettos of the Congo.There is no social mobility in there, we can't just expect them to save the money or invest it and become middle-class because that just isn't possibility in there. Of course they could use it to buy food or something like that but then again, it's a personal sacrifice that they are making in order to express their identity without harming anyone. I find it really respectable. Also, they look cool af.
They literally take out loans and spend all of their money on clothes while their family and children starve/live in condemned housing. This is one of the stupidest comments I've ever seen. Educate yourself.
@@RH-vb1si I'm deeply sorry that my comment offended you but I think there's no need to be rude. With all due respect I think that we can't assume that the families of the sapeurs are starving just because they live in Africa, as this isn't actually shown in the documentary aside from the comment made at 14:10, in wich the man explains that he can't afford the trip to Kinshasa as he needs his salary to pay the rent, the food and the water. I see your concern as there is an starvation problem in the country. Goblal Hunger Index reports that around 28% of the population suffered of malnourishment as of 2020, but then again this might be highly expected to come from the people living below the poverty line wich, as World Food Programme reports, translates in 48% of the population of the country earning less than 1,25$ a day. The sapologues wouldn't even be given loans to afford "10 suits of 300 euros" if they earned that quantity, and that is also sustained by their works descripted in the video such as being a private driver, a military, a techinician in radiotherapy or a slaughterman at the city council; these guys obviously earn more than the average. Aside from that the poorness globaly tends to center itself on rural areas, not in the big cities such as Brazzaville.
While I understand that the economic choices of the sapologues are questionable at best, I think the real problem here is to individualize and isolate complex problem as if they were caused by single persons making poor life choices, such as the sapeurs buying their suits. The Republic of the Congo uses only 2% of their arable land to produce food, meaning that they have to import at least the 70% of their food from abroad, all of this while the US in 2017 wasted in between 30 to 40 % of their annual food supply (wich is far larger than the Congo's). That, in my opinion, is an issue much more worrisome than individuals spending their money in fine suits as it showcases how the poor distribution of wealth has lead to the perpetuation of evitable suffering such as the experimented by people starving or living in bad housing.
I think it's ok to worry about the struggle of the people in Africa and other continents, but what is not ok is to invalidate their cultures and traditions as if the state of their countries was actually their fault for performing them, while people in the so called "first world" can actually do much more wasteful activities without facing such moral and ethical repercussions. We better may ask, how can WE spend our money in parties and useless stuff when people are starving in Africa?
I actually live in a third world country myself and while I admit that our economical situation is much better than that of our african peers, I still don't appreciate foreigners telling us how we should handle our situation and belittling us just for living our daily lives while they can still keep their cultures and expressions.
Your comment is so stupid they should spend money to fix their house and on food and make their life better not 3000 dollar shoes walking over nasty water and suer water. Its a stupid excuse so they can be selfish and dress nice to be show off like here in the states in the ghetto they got 20 thousand dollar rims and Mercedes and expensive Jordan's but collect welfare can't buy food and live in crack looking houses and can't afford power but they look good with high dollar items. The apple doesn't fall far from tree at all on this
@@youknoweverything7643 😬😬😬😬👌🏽
@@helterskelter9670 - no way I’m reading your loooong comment, but you are wrong about the sapiurs “not hurting anyone” by buying expressive clothes. Many sapiurs admitted that they hide the true costs of their clothing from their families because their families don’t have enough $$ to feed themselves.
If we are going to be 100% truthful... the average IQ in Sub-Saharan Africa is 75 or lower. IQ TESTS ARE NOT CULTURALLY BIASED!!! These people can’t think rationally
Politicians everywhere mess people up but in Africa they are in complete decimation mode. If the politicians in Africa had an ounce of sense and empathy in them then truly this place could be the paradise. African people are so colorful and they deserve better..
that song is lit🔥
Senyum senyum sendiri nonton nya😁
Learned more about wrestling than fashion
I only have one thing to say after watching this video where people are spending frivolous amounts of money on luxury clothing in a country where bare necessities like food and clean water are themselves a luxury: Money well spent!!! Those clothes are worth every dollar because god dayum those dudes end up looking extra sharp!
The likes of Lukaku earn 12 million euros a year but still maintain the same. It is a lifestyle. It is more than money. Scars of colonialism.
Is this the RT doc ? There was a video made by RT , but their channel got deleted so i can t remember
Sape is a part of our culture.
Is this a movement for only the poor? I would like to see the rich ones too.
Unfortunately it's typically disadvantaged people that are super concerned with designer and luxury brands. They're designed for the rich, but they'll take anybody's money.
Stunting never dies
Best suits from Mauritius
The brothers are always the ones to pull off wearing those colors.
Them and Gay Guys !!
With clothes that cost hundreds of dollars but against a backdrop of acute poverty, it was a starkly contrasting sight! But.. That was their choice. 😅
🤣😂🤣😂 man I can't
Talk about all dressed up and no where to go lol
I can't afford a house and food but look at my 30 AMD shoes brand name is George it's French for George as known as Walmart George here in the states. I could go to a goodwill buy every tacky ugly no name suit and dress paints and dress shirt there go to congo sell it all for a 1000 percent mark up usd and be rich hahaha
What these people are able to create is an escape to the daily hardship they go thru, they dream big and it shows on their faces! I know people who have more money than most of these folks combined but are they smiling?
It’s good to have pride in your appearance, but they have been totally brainwashed by their colonizers and enslavers to think that everything French and European is good and everything African or Congolese is bad. Where is the Congolese fashion? That is what they should have pride in, their own culture, NOT the culture of their colonizers and enslavers! Wake up people! Africans and the things of Africa are BEAUTIFUL! Learn to love your own culture again! Look at Nigerian fashion, Ghanaian fashion, Senegalese fashion, Ethiopian fashion and Egyptian fashion and cultural styles all over the continent. African styles are some of the BEST styles in the world! Where’s the Congolese fashion? That’s what I want to see.
Here in America we put alot of $ into cars so these people have there own way to bring bling
But I believe it's a dangerous indoctrination of the African mind.
I makes 145,000$ annually and don’t have any of that brand cloths. I’m poor 😝
Same here bro, but my cloth have brand like Walmart, Ross or Target.
You are not mentally colonized, you were not physically colonized. Colonialism messed people and it seems the effects are genetic. If you follow football closely, take time to observe football players from Francophone African countries - Lukaku, Aubameyang, Kounde, Gusto... plus many others. They are crazy about fashion.
@@felixmakinda7689 that’s true 100% agree.
@@kaanmehmut8841they want to be like the colonial masters.
@@felixmakinda7689its like the first world believes we just came here with no history. How the world got to whre it did is the history of their privilege that they wouldn't acknowledge
Not when ur own neighborhood is struggling.....so these so call men would rather walk around in style when the ones that r on the sidelines watching r the ones starving.... not impressed at all....smh
opo iki pak de podo koclok kabeh 🤣😅🤣😂
Cultural appropriation/couldn't be any more ridiculous 😅
To me, they act like clowns.
It's as sad to hear them speak French, as it would if it was English.
Plonkers.
Abis makan kecubung mereka ini ,,mabok jadi propesor
Hutang demi kebutuhan keluarga ❌
Hutang demi fashion ✅
One cannot understand this with privileged eyes. What they are doing isn’t wasting money, they are creating hope and art with every strut.
funny circus
All the people calling these folks idiots are probably sitting on piles of debt in their western country buying unnecessary toys thinking they can afford them because they can make the monthly payments. In most of Africa and developing countries you pay up front with cash there's no credit. You want a car? Up front cash. You want a house? We will build when you can pay cash for each phase. Don't have the cash? Building stops until you get it. With the negative networth a lot of Americans have due to 30 year mortgages and financed cars I wouldn't be surprised if some of these guys have a higher networth than many commenting.
Not really, no. If I lived in the slums, the last thing I would buy is a suit from gucci. A house and a plot of land can be bought with that money there. You could use that to feed a whole village if you farm smart. Then again, who am I to talk. A piece of land and a house is less of a flex than a suit though am I right? Just because you don't live in Congo doesn't not mean basic priorities change.
I would rather have my dream house, a car, a cool vacation, and my kids in good school, and all this on credit, then have none of those things because I can't afford it. My kids have everything. Except of expensive clothes, we don't need those. And if they want those when they grow up, they can buy them after getting good jobs.
Instead of focusing on the superficial, these people should focus on education and improving themselves through business, innovation, and living a life with integrity.
They have and they still have fun,
@@b.k.5659 I don’t think so. This video shows these people are spending their money on expensive clothes rather than spending it in their children’s education or investing it in a business.
@@All_you_need_is_love2018clearly, they consider it a career and a lifestyle. Physically and mentally colonized, but they are wired that way. In that small world they live in, they are celebrities. Ahead of the rest. Living their dreams. People like Romelu Lukaku earn about 12 million euros a year, and they still behave the same way. It is not an issue of money really or lack of priorities.