Practical Work

During a conversation in the summer of 2019 in Kinshasa with the sapeuse La Princesse, she said that she tells her son repeatedly, “You eat money from La SAPE.” We sat at an outside table of a nganda (bar) underneath the shade while her son sat within earshot of our conversation.1 I was struck by La Princesse's assertion because it had framed La SAPE as a source of money that enables one to eat. This is significant in light of academic and media (mis)representations of La SAPE, which often concentrate on the elegance, extravagance, and escapism of sapeuses and sapeurs. Speaking of La SAPE in terms of earning income shifts the focus to practicality rather than reinforcing its sensationalism.La SAPE stands for Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Ambiance Makers and Elegant Persons), and its members are called sapeuses (for women) and sapeurs (for men).2 While its exact origins are unclear, La SAPE today is associated generally with Brazzaville and Kinshasa. Separated by the Congo River, the histories of these twin capitals are entangled yet distinct, as Republic of the Congo was colonized by France and Democratic Republic of the Congo was colonized by Belgium. In conversations that I had with sapeuses and sapeurs in Kinshasa, they consistently claimed that they are born members of La SAPE and that it is in their blood; in cases in which people want to become members of La SAPE, they have to work hard. They also describe a handful of qualities that make one recognizable as a member of La SAPE: being clean, behaving well, dressing well, and having a good attitude towards work. Kadhitoza, a member of La SAPE (Fig. 1), showed me his identity card, which listed sapeur as his occupation. This emphasis on work has been lost in academic and media representations of La SAPE in the United States and Europe.Therefore, my aim is to offer a reading of La SAPE as work in a few respects: as connected to public performance, as a way to earn money, and as a means of support for its members, their families, and individuals affiliated with (but not members of) La SAPE. I move the focus away from sensational readings of La SAPE to show how it is not escapism from one's reality of living in Kinshasa; rather, it is a response to the very challenges of living in the city. In particular, I discuss how membership in La SAPE is a practical strategy for sapeuses in Kinshasa, as the experience for sapeuses and sapeurs is distinct due to existing gender expectations and attitudes towards women working in public. However, this is not to exclude the idea that sapeurs consider La SAPE as a form of work. Instead, I deliberately narrow my focus to sapeuses, as sapeurs dominate academic and media representations. I begin by introducing the origins and history of La SAPE, and then discuss previous scholarly interpretations that depict it as a means of escapism. Then, I turn to the urban realities of living in Kinshasa, concentrating on the informal or second economy in the postindependence period and the history of women's work in the city. Afterwards, I consider La SAPE as work by utilizing conversations with sapeuses and sapeurs and by drawing from performance studies.While members of La SAPE have been around since the early twentieth century, their introduction to the United States and Europe via advertisements (such as Héctor Mediavilla's short documentary for Guinness Beer in 2014), videos (such as Solange Knowles's “Losing You” music video in 2012), and online articles has been mostly within the last decade. Members of La SAPE have a reputation for their extroversion and expensive outfits, consisting mainly of suits said to be from Europe, as well as leather shoes, sunglasses, pipes, and walking canes (Fig. 2). Due to their particular style of dress and ostentatiousness, they are referred to as Congolese dandies, as evinced by the title of Justin-Daniel Gandoulou's 1989 study, Dandies à Bacongo: le culte de l'élégance dans la société congolaise contemporaine (Dandies of Bacongo: The cult of elegance in contemporary Congolese society), which is one of the first academic works on La SAPE.While exactly when and where La SAPE started is debatable, Didier Gondola asserts that it dates back to the first years of the colonial period in Brazzaville, which housed the French colonial administration and Europeans (Gondola 2010: 159). Congolese houseboys and servants working in European homes began to dress in the styles of their employers, as they would receive secondhand clothing as compensation (Gondola 1999: 26, 2010: 159). Phyllis M. Martin's research on colonial Brazzaville indicates that the importation of European cloth, clothing, and accessories into what became known as French Equatorial Africa3 had entered a culture of dressing well, which is one of the values held by members of La SAPE. Martin points out that many Central Africans have always understood the power of fashion and its ability to signify identity and status, even prior to European colonization (1994: 401, 405).In colonial Brazzaville, the existing clothing culture was transformed in two ways: the increased access to imported clothing and accessories to anyone who could afford them; and the interactions with people from various places in Africa. The colonial administration and trading companies in Brazzaville hired and brought to the city educated and skilled laborers from countries in West Africa and Gabon (Martin 1994: 405-407). These workers, referred to as the Bapopo or Coastmen, were regarded by Congolese people as models of success (Gondola 2010: 159). In the 1920s, men from Gabon and Loango donned “suits and used accessories such as canes, monocles, gloves and pocket watches on chains,” while women from Gabon wore “short dresses, silk stockings and high heeled shoes” and carried “handbags and umbrellas” (Martin 1994: 407). Women from West Africa also modeled new ways to wear clothing, such as belting a long dress at one's waist. However, the new styles of clothing and accessories had a more significant impact on Congolese men than on Congolese women. For women, wearing pagnes (wrap skirts) conveyed value in a way that the imported styles could not (Martin 1994: 407, 419). In contrast, from the 1930s onward, Congolese men in Brazzaville and in Kinshasa were attracted to the European fashions worn by the Bapopo. They were no longer satisfied with their employers’ secondhand clothing and desired to obtain the latest fashions from Paris. They acquired clothes by ordering them through the mail or arranging for them to be purchased and sent to Brazzaville by people they knew in France. In the 1940s and 1950s, La SAPE intertwined fashion with popular music and with youth. Young people flocked to venues such as nightclubs in Brazzaville and Kinshasa to hear and to dance to Congolese rumba. In these spaces, members of La SAPE would display and discuss their fashions, often engaging in competitions with one another to see who dressed and performed better (Gondola 2010: 160, 164; MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga 2000: 140).However, La SAPE in Kinshasa came under attack with President Mobutu Sese Seko's rise to power in 1965, following Democratic Republic of the Congo's tumultuous transition from Belgian rule to independence in 1960. His regime received significant support from Western powers, which preferred his authoritarian rule over a Soviet-controlled state. During his dictatorship, he insisted on indigenizing the country, changing its name to Zaïre. His backing by foreign countries enabled him to cling to power until 1997 and amass wealth at the expense of the majority (Nzongola-Ntalaja 2002). During Mobutu's dictatorship, he instituted the policy of authenticité in the 1970s, which mandated a return to so-called traditional African values and institutions (Wilson 1982: 160). This policy forbade men from wearing Western-style clothing, promoting instead the aba-cost (“short-sleeved suit worn without a tie”). Given that Mobutu desired the people to be rid of outside influence and be more “authentic,” the choice of word for the suit is ironic. Abacost comes from the French phrase à bas le costume, which means “down with the suit” (Thomas 2003: 958).Authenticité's limits on clothing not only impacted what sapeuses and sapeurs could wear, also the way La SAPE in Kinshasa. The sapeuse I said that were no competitions or held in public under Mobutu's another this as having no (Fig. I her to what she she said that it was having without it was who to with on clothing were 1999: the of La SAPE of the Congolese and the (Thomas 2003: he La SAPE in Brazzaville, in Kinshasa, and for Congolese living in Europe the and the sapeuses and sapeurs I with said is a source of and impacted La SAPE with his that and wearing be the first in (Gondola 2010: This has been with by sapeuses and to the that La SAPE today is by in the United States and Europe for the with and media in the United States and Europe to La SAPE as a form of escapism in two respects: a by for Europe and a by French for These two of escapism are as one of the ways members of La SAPE is by to Europe and them and independence in many urban in countries to work in the due to and (Gondola 2010: Europe as a of many people to Western European such as and However, it is to out that to Europe was an by The was used in to the Congolese who in Europe to a in in is the for the and has become for the French is the word the who it to (Gondola 1999: However, living in Europe became as they and for the and living For to La SAPE became a source of that enabled them to new away from and in Europe (Gondola 1999: 2010: asserts that people from and have a with which had colonized the In particular, the city of is as a where of could their For members of La SAPE, this means to France to obtain they return and their to be since they have This is by their display of and the of dressing in from such as and and is by and the media as a form of escapism. Gondola the the would not the sapeur that clothing the he also that make the clothing the which he at the sapeur a of his (Gondola 1999: The that is referred to is the to have wealth and signify their have and even in reality they However, the value to clothing by members of La SAPE is The sapeuses and sapeurs I in out of clothing and they the of (Fig. I also that they value clothing for than the and power they La said that a clothes out that because of La SAPE, when she she with These to clothing as a source of in the of the of living in Kinshasa. This to to the idea that dressing in enables members of La SAPE to their which and this from reality could also be as In and videos of sapeurs escapism through dressing well has been with on the one and on the For a video on The Congolese in and a to a The documentary sapeurs in Brazzaville, the of their and their the of the sapeurs for their as they to clothing over their These their with the sapeurs for not having their in They the sapeurs for and who they are for to In contrast, see the and with that clothing its a of and of the that La SAPE is not a form of it is as or as a source of or a in the of MacGaffey and of Congolese in sapeuses and is distinct from previous on La SAPE because it on a of to make with urban in the postindependence period of and Congolese people were to to Europe in the and to for that were at Due to the and in Democratic Republic of the Congo Mobutu's dictatorship, many Congolese people that they could not on the for they had to it to their and for The attitudes what as work transformed over on work from and to signify means for the This in that was more in than in During Belgian the colonial and in Kinshasa and to Congolese people the as an was and was preferred and Bazenguissa-Ganga 2000: However, Mobutu's dictatorship, the of servants and their power The of the and the increased of trading was due to a of and of Mobutu's the majority of the to to work and to people could not on Mobutu and his regime to and the people had to for ways to earn money outside by the informal or second to the informal economy the and of and outside and no no no no and and these and people without the and that in the economy MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga that in the second economy and are not by the However, in a in which for work are earning income through the informal or second economy is a strategy to for women's work in Kinshasa has been in the informal or second trading is an for women in Kinshasa, it was not a In the of the attitudes towards women's work in Democratic Republic of the that prior to women in in had to the that they and could what they with they a in and Congolese women's work in was However, Belgian colonial and by women, that it men the colonial administration to the of by women, the to women in was Belgian the from the that became in they only Congolese men to to the city to as the While they were to the these so-called or were to in away from European Women were from to by Congolese men and by the Belgian until (Gondola the colonial of women's women were to in because they the and to the by Congolese Congolese women were from to who to places such as had that they had few for was at first and the brought to the were (Wilson 1982: since the Belgian and the the informal and second economy was at this and women were and This many women, and to in to earn was were places of (Wilson 1982: La of in Kinshasa in the period of the light on women turn to to earn for women in the city were and by the Belgian them from than women had to or Women who were were as or not they in had a reputation for being were not by or they were to with the source of their enabled them to their and known as were also by Congolese women because they could become through their with men of means women used their from to and a which and the a nganda became one of the for Congolese women and Bazenguissa-Ganga 2000: to women who were were of out in public to they were to at to at the their with their and such as they were to their and be towards In the for women was that they be to their and their This attitude to In a conversation I had with the sapeuse she that she has been for being a member of La SAPE because of the that she work at since she is the that women were they were to men was by the policy of which a by an authenticité Belgian colonial attitudes towards Congolese by the and of in Democratic Republic of the Congo in of a which that men be the of their and women and (Wilson 1982: to are two of women. The is a and under the of her and the is the of as and of (Wilson 1982: The of the as by men is also by of the of in which women as The and the are the for these women to While for and by women to and by women to with women, these only in the and not in the public 407). This the idea that women's places outside the and are academic on women's work in Kinshasa that women who are from and work in public to be regarded as women of and out that or informal foreign was by women from the early to early in Kinshasa. who in Brazzaville and Kinshasa; the to changing money for and La to be or they the La of as from and and on with men who were not with women the to money, it came at a to their While are as they were as and and 1999: that the work is and they from and women who are on with men to support and This the idea that women working in public are because they offer to men are not their in for women in Kinshasa today have access to of they were they are to new such as and However, such as these women to be in to be and to their their they are in the of the public and are women who are and are of having to with men in to obtain these the and of women working as and are called into also the that not women in the public experience this Women in the which are not the that women working as and women in the are not in the that and are not in the they are not regarded as and that women also work as women trading in the they are also to the public and are as for women women who want to and which afford are to their and their reputation they are sapeuses are to the and women who work in public of the women have in La that sapeuses are not as as sapeurs due to and that women who are sapeuses are mainly and of sapeurs. The gender in La SAPE to be in the to sapeuses in which of the and one of a the that they dress only members of La SAPE and not in more public such as which who are not members of La and of Congolese in is an scholarly source on sapeuses because they the conversations with sapeuses they in for their However, since the focus mostly on the of of earning money and the that and on to and out their they the of sapeuses in to make a For they a sapeuse who in as a means of the money she to to sapeuses, and a nganda sapeuse they discuss is who money for In her to MacGaffey and she what she with her last in this is as the her as a yet that she is and not a on her trading the her as a sapeuse as being more of a rather than in they that she in to her to clothing to wear to is from the is an of the ways in which being an or a be an of the informal or second this in the La SAPE and work is in terms of This is by having another in such as clothing (Gondola 1999: In my conversations with sapeuses, La said that in to being a of La SAPE, she clothing in a while me that she in the de la these sapeuses have to earn I the focus to the idea that being of La SAPE is a form of practical work what I by I on on La SAPE and which is by of to in and France. During this were understood to be European known for their status, and In drawing and La SAPE, it is that members of La SAPE with their I with assertion that is from this of This the of work and which is an idea that the sapeuses and sapeurs I with not Instead, I that that the work and is rather than is in with and attitude towards work. In of by African urban he the work and of and is In the associated with and are a means through which one and I that and their performance, is practical work of performance as work is by M. of the of through the of contemporary culture in they have by their and members of the and La SAPE value expensive clothing as means of and in and are with and living in the city. asserts that and and performance a means through which people this to as a For the and La SAPE, performance enables its members to and in the of and culture and La SAPE are not they of that work to be his study, also points that he is also a member of the in as a he and on the very he is His are people he has with over and people who and In contrast, it is for me to my in to the sapeuses and sapeurs. I not of La SAPE and since were and by my research my conversations with sapeuses in the summer of 2019 only a of what it is to be a and a sapeuse living and working in Kinshasa. However, my conversations with sapeuses were as they framed being a sapeuse as a that and a good one of the sapeuses I said that is her it to women who have who work in and who work in the or with is performance connected to work in the of La Martin that dressing well is in Congolese and in the dress of the members of La SAPE (1994: While dressing is a for sapeuses, they are from women who dress well by the way they work and by their to Africa and this was to me was when I (Fig. While for her to in an with one she attracted and and not a the of the I had her she was recognizable as a sapeuse not only by her style of dress of a leather and and by the she with her of walking (Fig. in which sapeuses work was when I to their and to their performance with La and were and while my research and I and videos of them For the they held and In the of their their and the their are by with such or is in of the sapeuses also in where they earn Africa said that she was the on in In to dressing and better than sapeuses is work then sapeuses to support and In my conversations with I was struck that they connected being a sapeuse to Africa me that she often money, as she is for her her and her as her During our Africa was by an who also and it that Africa her as I with La the first she her to her as a sapeuse to to her me that she was to her two to in Europe because of La I she me that she not have a she and support from members of La SAPE (Fig. is from conversations with these sapeuses that work is not only for They work to support not only also their and individuals affiliated with La SAPE, such as their they have While representations of La SAPE to and as a means of it is to that sapeuses, in are more in reality than it the origins of La SAPE began with as houseboys and servants received secondhand clothing as compensation the colonial it is that being of La SAPE then and today work to its members, their families, and people affiliated with La sapeuses their membership in La SAPE to access for earning money, it is to out that their work is not always as is to sapeuses with in Kinshasa since it not only their performance as also how their performance is in light of expectations for women. and into their public for In the of points out that women in the popular music in Kinshasa work as This challenges the a of men and are the and have the in yet their are for drawing to While are for many of their as that their in the music and in in them and that be to are for a that not to which women as and However, in and of is not are to and women to in such as The of the performed by women to as in of a to make a that since these women of be by many is to they wear to and in of people of at to and they be of being women. the by and sapeuses are because they often and that their and sapeurs also in their While their on are and in to more and that as a around the are more During my with sapeuses, they would of their from such as their (Fig. of the they were not the as the I sapeurs the by and sapeuses are from the and and sapeuses are the and sapeuses be for their because they the of what is as only are they in public and to they in their in ways that are on with the work they be and it is that their the and

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