Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T13:25:09.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dream and Drama: The Search for Elegance among Congolese Youth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Ch. Didier Gondola
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper deals with fashion (la Sape) and its use among Congolese youth as a vehicle to borrow new identities. La Sape is an ambiguous adventure, a sort of Baudelairian voyage, that leads Congolese youth (Sapeurs), not only from a third world city to Paris and Brussels, but also from social dereliction to psychological redemption. It authenticates and validates their quest for a new social identity which the African city has failed to provide its overwhelming population of youth. It is, above all, a study of the interactions between clothing and social (and cultural) identities and the transfer of meaning from one to the other, and vice versa. La Sape allows the Sapeur to define the boundaries that separate him from the Other, but also serves as a defined social territory which distinguishes the Sapeurs from the rest of society. Ultimately, la Sape is redolent with political meanings. It is a political statement which, I argue in this paper, is directed toward the West, the former colonizer, as well as toward the authoritative structures of the African state. I also demonstrate that this political discourse is inseparable from the egotistical and hedonistic dimensions of la Sape.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article explore la mode (La Sape) et son utilisation parmi les jeunes Congolais comme un medium pour emprunter de nouvelles identités. La Sape est une aventure ambiguë, une sorte de voyage baudelairien qui non seulement conduit les jeunes sapeurs congolais d'une ville du Tiers monde à Paris ou Bruxelles, mais les arrache à une déréliction sociale pour leur accorder une rédemption psychologique à travers le discours de la mode. Par le truchement de la Sape leur quête d'une identité nouvelle, qu'ils ne peuvent acquérir dans le cadre d'une ville africaine qui les marginalise, se trouve authentifiée et en même temps validée. Cette étude ne concerne pas tant la mode que les intéractions entre le vêtement et l'identité sociale et les transferts de sens qui se déroulent entre l'un et l'autre. La Sape permet au sapeur de définir les frontières identitaires entre lui et l'Autre et l'isole dans un boudoir social balisé par le discours égotistique des apparences. Il convient également de considérer la Sape comme un discours politique de résistance à l'égard de l'Occident, ancien colonisateur, aussi bien que vis-à-vis des structures autoritaires de la société congolaise. Ce discours de résistance et les attitudes hédonistes qui l'accompagnent sont inséparables, car toute culture populaire de résistance est, à mon avis, politique parce qu'elle est avant tout culturelle.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , April 1999 , pp. 23 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balzac, Honore de. 1938 [1830]. “Traité de la vie élégante.” Œuvres complètes, œuvres diverses, vol. 2. Paris: Louis Conard.Google Scholar
Barber, Karin. 1987. “Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30 (3): 1–78.Google Scholar
d'Aurevilly, Barbey, Amédée, Jules. 1966. “Du dandysme et de George Brummell.” Œuvres romanesques complètes, vol. 2. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1983 [1967]. The Fashion System. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Bazenguissa, Rémy. 1992. “‘Belles maisons’ contre S.A.P.E.: Pratiques de valorisation symbolique au Congo.” In Haubert, Maxime et al, eds., Etat et société dans le Tiers-Monde: de la modernisation à la démocratisation. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 247–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazenguissa, Rémy and MacGaffey, Janet. 1995. “Vivre et briller à Paris. Des jeunes Congolais et Zaïrois en marge de la légalité économique.” Politique africaine 57: 124–33.Google Scholar
Baudrillard, Jean. 1969. Pour une critique de l'économie politique du signe. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert. 1969. “Fashion: From Class Differentiation to Collective Selection.” The Sociological Quaterly 10 (3): 275–91.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1979. La distinction: critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Bouteillier, Gaston. 1903. Douze mois sous l'équateur. Toulouse.Google Scholar
Chenoune, Farid. 1993. A History of Men's Fashion. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Coplan, David. 1985. In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. New York: Longmans.Google Scholar
Daumont-Spragg, Christiane and Cottrell, Robert. 1990. Passages: Textes du Monde francophone. Montréal: Centre Éducatif et Culturel Google Scholar
Davis, Fred. 1992. Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Brie, Christian. 1994. “Les immigrés dans l'étau policier.” Le Monde diplomatique, 12.Google Scholar
De Brie, Christian. 1996. “Boulevard de la xénophobie,” Le Monde diplomatique, 06.Google Scholar
Baron, De Witte Jehan. 1913. Les deux Congo. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar
Diouf, Mamadou. 1996. “Urban Youth and Senegalese Politics: Dakar 1988–1994.” Public Culture 8: 225–49.Google Scholar
Du Roselle, Bruno. 1973. La crise de la mode: la révolution desjeunes et la mode. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Erlmann, Veit. 1995. Nightsong: Performance, Power, and Practice in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fabian, Johannes. 1978. “Popular Culture in Africa: Findings and Conjectures.” Africa 48 (4): 315–34.Google Scholar
Fabian, Johannes. 1996. Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ficatier, Julia. 1989. “Au Congo, pays de la Sape.” La croix 13, avril.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, Joanne. 1991. The Fashioned Self. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Flügel, J. C. 1930. The Psychology of Clothes. New York: International University Press.Google Scholar
Foulkes, David. 1985. Dreaming: A Cognitive-Psychological Analysis. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1950 [1900]. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: The Modern Library.Google Scholar
Friedman, Jonathan. 1990. “The Political Economy of Elegance. An African Cult of Beauty.” Culture and History 7: 101–25.Google Scholar
Gandoulou, Justin-Daniel. 1984. Entre Bacongo et Paris. Paris: centre Georges Pompidou.Google Scholar
Gandoulou, Justin-Daniel. 1989. Dandies à Bacongo. Le culte de l'élégance dans la société congolaise contemporaine. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Gondola, Ch. Didier. 1992. “Le ‘mal-ville’ en Afrique noire: un rêve brisé,” colloque, Jeunes, ville, emploi. Quel avenir pour la jeunesse africaine? Paris: ministère de la Coopération et du Développement, 26–29 10.Google Scholar
Gondola, Ch. Didier. 1993. “Musique moderne et identités citadines en ville africaine: le cas du Congo-Zaïre.” Afrique contemporaine 168: 155–68.Google Scholar
Gondola, Ch. Didier. 1996. “Popular Music, Urban Society, and Changing Gender Relations in Kinshasa, Zaire.” In Grosz-Ngaté, Maria & Kokole, Omari H., eds., Gendered Encounters: Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa. London: Routledge, 65–84.Google Scholar
Gondola, Ch. Didier. 1997a. Villes miroirs: migrations et identités urbaines à Brazzaville et Kinshasa, 1930–1970. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Gondola, Ch. Didier. 1997b. “Jeux d'argent, jeux de vilains: Rien ne va plus au Zaïre.” Politique africaine 65: 96–111.Google Scholar
Graham, Ronnie. 1992. The World of African Music. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Haine, Scott. 1996. The World of the Paris Café: Sociability among the French Working Class, 1789–1914. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Calvin. 1966. The Meaning of Dreams. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Inglis, Brian. 1987. The Power of Dreams. London: Grafton Books.Google Scholar
Jewsiewicki, Bogumil. 1992. Art pictural zaïrois. Québec: Septentrion.Google Scholar
Keali'ino Homoku, Joann. 1979. “You dance what you wear, and you wear your culture values.” In Cordwell, Justine and Schwarz, Ronald, eds., The Fabrics of Culture: The Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 77–83.Google Scholar
Kellner, Douglas. 1995. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Klapp, Orrin. 1969. Collective Search for Identity. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Lauer, Jeanette and Lauer, Robert. 1981. Fashion Power: The Meaning of Fashion in American Society. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Lipovetsky, Gilles. 1987. L'empire de l'éphémère: la mode et son destin dans les sociétés modernes. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, Janet. 1993. “‘On se débrouille’: réflexions sur la deuxième économie au Zaïre.” In Omasombo, Jean Tshonda, ed., Le Zaïre à l'épreuve de l'histoire immédiate. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Martin, Phyllis. 1995. Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Phyllis. 1994. “Contesting Clothes in Colonial Brazzaville” Journal of African History 35: 401–26.Google Scholar
Mazon, Mauricio. 1984. The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
McCracken, Grant. 1990. Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Montangero, Jacques. 1993. “Dream, Problem-Solving, and Creativity.” In Cavallero, Corado and Foulkes, David, eds., Dreaming as Cognition. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 93–113.Google Scholar
Théophile, Obenga. 1979. “Habillement, cosmétique et parure au royaume de Kongo.” cahiers congolais d'anthropologie et d'histoire 4: 21–38.Google Scholar
Ranger, Terence. 1975. Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, 1890–1970. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Roche, Daniel. 1989. La culture des apparences: Une histoire du vêtement, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Rochu, Gilbert. 1995. “Du contrôle des frontières au racisme ordinaire.” Le Monde diplomatique, 06.Google Scholar
Safouan, Moustapha. 1982. L'inconscient et son scribe. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Jack. 1963. “Men's Clothing and the Negro.” Phylon 24: 224–31.Google Scholar
Scott, James. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sesep, N'sial Bal-Nsien. 1990. Langage, normes et répertoire en milieu urbain africain: l'indoubil Québec: Centre international de recherche sur le bilinguisme.Google Scholar
Silverman, Kaja. 1994. “Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse.” In Benstock, Shari and Ferriss, Suzanne, eds., On Fashion. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 183–96.Google Scholar
Steele, Valerie. 1988. Paris Fashion: A Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Terence. 1980. “The Social Skin.” In Cherfas, Jeremy and Lewin, Roger, eds., A Cross-Cultural View of Activities Superfluous to Survival. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 112–40.Google Scholar
Vassal, Gabrielle and Vassal, Joseph. 1931. Français, Belges et Portugais en Afrique. Paris: Pierre Roger.Google Scholar
Vogel, Susan, ed. 1991. Africa Explores. 20th Century African Art. New York: Center for African Art.Google Scholar