Congolese Sapeurs

Ik zag gisteren een tentoonstelling in Brussel van Congolose Sapeurs gemaakt door onder andere de Italiaanse fotograaf Francesco Giusti wiens werk zich richt op de sociale realiteit, de snel veranderende gemeenschappen en de daarmee samenhangende identitetsproblematiek. Zijn foto's zijn vaak buitengewoon raadselachtig, want wat toont hij ons? Zwarte kinderen en jongeren vol verwondering kijkend naar een smetteloos geklede meneer die temidden van de chaos van de armoede als een Europeaan verklede modepop rondloopt, inclusief een gele havannasigaar. Veel mensen op de foto hebben geen schoenen, maar hij wel, en ook keurig gepoetst. Wat drukt dit uit? De man is een nakomeling van de mensen die zwaar leden onder de blanke cultuur. 


Wat zien we dus op de foto hierboven? En op deze?

Welke identiteit  wordt hier uitgedrukt?

Duidelijker waren de geschreven reacties van de merendeels blanke bezoekers van de tentoonstelling: de overgrote meerderheid vond het prachtig, grappig, leuk. Kijk die grappige zwartjes eens, zelfs in de grootste misere weten ze er een feest van te maken. Zo zie je maar weer, overvloed maakt niet gelukkig. Maar ik zag vooral de kinderen in armoede levend in een land waar ook recentelijk miljoenen gewone mensen werden vermoord, en die lijden aan allerlei kwalen, van dysenterie tot aids. Vanwaar dat ontzag van die kleintjes voor de man met de gele sigaar? Vanwaar ons ontzag voor autoriteiten?

The Sapeurs of Congo: Open Gutters and Gucci Loafers

The Sapeurs adhere to a subculture of high fashion, often against a backdrop of extreme poverty. Many live in shacks bordered by stinking sewers in the southern suburbs of Brazzaville. Those of them who can work double jobs; those who can’t must beg, borrow and occasionally steal; whatever it takes to strut in Versace, Prada and Gucci. Meet the Sapeurs of Congo.

In a country where many survive on 30 cents a day, Papy Mosengo is flashing $1,000 worth of designer clothing on his back, Dolce Gabbana cap and Versace stretch shirt to his spotless white Gucci loafers.

“It makes me feel so good to dress this way,” the 30-year-old said when asked about such conspicuous consumption in a city beset by unemployment, crime and homelessness. “It makes me feel special.”

But Mosengo can scarcely afford this passion for fashion. He worked eight months at his part-time job at a money-exchange shop to earn enough for the single outfit, one of 30 he owns, so he’ll never have to wear the same one twice in a month. He doesn’t own a car. He lets an ex-girlfriend support their 5-year-old son and still lives with his parents, sleeping in a dingy, blue-walled bedroom that is more aptly described as a closet with a mattress.

http://www.africafeed.com/post/73905767/the-sapeurs-of-congo-open-gutters-and-gucci-loafers 



Zo mogelijk nog raadselachtiger zijn de sapeurs uit Kinshasa, de nazaten van de Congolezen die leden onder de terreur van Kopning Leopold van Belgie:


The story of Leopold's Congo

The story chronicles the efforts of King Leopold II of Belgium to make the country into a colonial empire. With a complex scheme of political intrigue, corruption and propaganda, he wins the assistance of one of the best-known explorers of the time, Henry Morton Stanley, as well as that of public opinion and of powerful states. Through the Berlin Conference and other diplomatic efforts, he finally obtains international recognition for his colony. He then establishes a system of forced labour that keeps the people of the Congo basin in a condition of slavery.
The book places King Leopold among the great tyrants of history. The death toll in the Congo under his regime is hard to pin down, both because accurate records were not kept and because many of the existing records were deliberately destroyed by Leopold shortly before the government of Belgium took the Congo out of his hands. Although Wm. Roger Louis and Jean Stengers[3] characterize the earliest population and mortality estimates as "wild guesses", Hochschild cites many subsequent lines of inquiry that conclude that the early official estimates were essentially correct: roughly half the population of the Congo perished during the Free State period. Since the census taken by the Belgian government (after acquiring the Congo from Leopold) found some 10 million inhabitants, Hochshild concludes that roughly 10 million perished, though the precise number can never be known.
Hochshild profiles several people who helped make the world aware of the reality of the Congo Free State, including:
George Washington Williams, an African American politician and historian, the first to report the atrocities in the Congo to the outside world.
William Henry Sheppard, another African American, a Presbyterian missionary who furnished direct testimony of the atrocities.
E. D. Morel, a British journalist and shipping agent checking the commercial documents of the Congo Free State, who realized that the vast quantities of rubber and ivory coming out of the Congo were matched only by rifles and chains going in. From this he inferred that the Congo was a slave state, and he devoted the rest of his life to correcting that.
Sir Roger Casement, a British diplomat and Irish patriot, put the force of the British government behind the international protest against Leopold. Casement's involvement had the ironic effect of drawing attention away from British colonialism, Hochschild suggests. The Congo Reform Association was formed by Morel at Casement's instigation.
Hochschild devotes a chapter to Joseph Conrad, the famous Anglo-Polish writer, who captained a steamer on the Congo River in the first years of Belgian colonization. Hochschild observes that Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, despite its unspecific setting, gives a realistic picture of the Congo Free State. Its main character, Kurtz, was inspired by real state functionaries in the Congo, notably Leon Rom. While Heart of Darkness is probably the most reprinted and studied short novel of the 20th century, its psychological and moral truths have largely overshadowed the literal truth behind the story. Hochschild finds four likely models for Kurtz: men who like Kurz boasted of cutting off the heads of African rebels and sometimes displayed them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Leopold's_Ghost

Vanwaar dan toch die imitatie van de blanke cultuur?