CONGOLESE COLDIERS RETURNING FROM FRANCE AFTER WW2 BROUGHT BACK THE LATEST PARISIAN FASHIONS AND TOOK TO DRESSING AS DANDIES.
THEY FORMED A GROUP CALLED “THE SOCIETY OF AMBIANCEURS AND ELEGANT PEOPLE” OR LA SAPE.
[child] We’ll arrest you if you don't come, ok?
THE CONGO DANDIES 00:00:47:01 00:00:51:09 [Maxime Pivot] When you dress up, you really are the best, the king of colour.
When I wear my bright suits I look splendid.
In my area, people start shouting,
‘The God of Clothes, the God of SAPE!’ 00:01:30:13 00:01:34:19  [man1] The all-time champion, Maxime Pivot!
He's the one! He's unbeatable!
The pride of our area! Maxime Pivot!
[Maxime Pivot] A Sapeur must own different outfits,
a Sapeur mustn't have just one, but several, in order to create...
harmony and ambience in how they dress.
To stand out you must have lots of clothes and shoes.
That makes a dandy. You mustn't be boring. 00:02:25:23 00:02:29:12 [Amabelle Elialimbe Manie, Pivot’s wife] My name is Amabelle Elialimbe Manie.
I'm his wife and mother of these children, the two children over there.
[Amabelle] When he was young he sold clothes.
He came to sell me clothes, because I liked to dress well.
At the time I didn't have a guy,
and he told me that he loved me…
[Amabelle] Maxime had a lot of girls who wanted him.
But he preferred to have children with me!
So, you see? He loves me!
[Maxime Pivot] This is a pair of Westons.
These are Westons.
They sell for... Westons are expensive.
[Maxime Pivot] I bought them because, as a Sapeur, I had to.
You must own a pair of Westons.
I saved up to buy them, and it took me almost two years.
[Maxime Pivot] Normally, if I hadn't bought this pair,
I'd have bought a plot of land.
[Maxime Pivot] As a Sapeur and someone well-known,
for my dignity, my self-esteem, I had to buy this pair.
[Amabelle] When we're invited somewhere, he's always late to leave.
Because he takes his time, people wonder,
'Why does he do it? Does he think he's better than everyone?'
No, no, no.
He just takes his time, and eventually it annoys me.
[Amabelle] He takes a long time, over an hour,
or two hours, honestly.
He takes a lot of time.
[Amabelle] He says, 'Go without me, I'll catch you up.'
[man 2] These are alligator boots!
[Maxime Pivot] After the Second World War our former servicemen came back home.
But when they were in France,
before they came back home,
they bought clothes, shoes, ties, shirts, everything.
Each Sunday, they'd meet up...
They'd meet up to show off, to be seen as the best.
That's how 'La SAPE' started.
[Elvis Makouezi] Hello, I'm Elvis Makouezi, author of the 'Dictionaire de La SAPE'.
And, well, I welcome you to Congo-Brazzaville.
And the River Congo is what separates Congo-Brazzaville, where we are,
from the Democratic Republic of Congo,
or RDC, or ex-Zaire.
And this is the River Congo, where we used to come to bathe,
and some of our predecessors used to swim across it.
Over there is Kinshasa, and here is Brazzaville.
If you can take a picture of it!
[Journalist] What do you want to say with an outfit?
[Elvis Makouezi] - The trousers are white.. [Journalist] - So be careful about dust!
[Elvis Makouezi] I will go to change!
[Elvis Makouezi] In general, the Sapeurs don't wear fakes.
Because if you put fake thing everybody will know!
[Elvis Makouezi] La SAPE is known as,
'The Society of Ambianceurs and Elegant People.'
In fact, it's a gentlemen's society,
but it's also a way of being,
behaving and dressing.
[Lucontrau Dupererra] My other outfits are in the room.
[Lucontrau Dupererra] My name is Lucontrau Dupererra.
I'm a Sapeur of a different dimension.
[Lucontrau Dupererra] This is a Kenzo.
Of the most expensive suits I own...
First of all, I have one by Kenzo,
one by Giorgio Armani,
and a suit jacket by Yves Saint Laurent.
[Bakachuka Patriali Karli Didi] My name is Bakachuka, my father's name, and my first name is Patriali Karli Didi.
[Bakachuka] I'm wearing a Kenzo, made in Italy,
and a pair of Weston shoes,
from a new series, a new collection.
[Bakachuka] People see what I'm wearing. but they don't understand the cost!
I can't say, as the sums are so enormous, they wouldn't understand.
[Bakachuka] As far as clothing goes, there's no limit.
Whatever I like...
Whatever I like, I buy!
[Bakachuka] This is Brazzaville.
More precisely, Bas-Congo, the Southern part.
This is the area with lots of Sapeurs and where La SAPE is discussed the most.
[Bakachuka] Everybody comes to show off their clothes to one another,
but Saturday and Sunday is when we meet up.
That's where there are rivalries.
It's where people see you show off your clothes,
see how you dress, how elegant you are, and how handsome!
[Bakachuka] What matters is how stylish your clothes are, and the price.
But that's hard, because the labels are hidden.
But there are connoisseurs of clothing,
who know how much they cost.
As soon as you put it on, they understand it's the real thing.
[Severin Muengo] I'm Mr Severin Muengo.
Severin Muengo, 'The Badass of La SAPE'.
[Severin Muengo] All the Sapeurs, the best ones, know me.
They know me not for my vulgarity, but for doing things properly.
And for the items of clothing that I have.
[Severin Muengo] So, now the clothes.
There are plenty of them.
All of this is clothing...
All this. This is clothing, all this.
All this is clothing... This is clothing.
[Severin Muengo] These are weapons! They kill! They kill!
All these are for wearing in your pocket…
With an arsenal like this, how can I be short of an accessory?
No... No...
Here there are ties.
Here they are.
How could I be short of an adjustment?
[Severin Muengo] Yes, I get credit, as I'm a civil servant. I take out credit for the clothes.
[Severin Muengo] For La SAPE... four times, in all.
The first time I borrowed 8 million ($8,600).
8 million... then 6 million ($6,500),
then 7.5 million ($8,000), just to buy clothes.
I go to the bank, get credit, and I buy, buy, buy!
[Severin Muengo] We have sisters, children...
When your sister, who's away in the village,
finds out you have a pair of shoes,
which are in contact with the ground
and you paid 3.5 million ($3,800) for them…
When your sister is suffering there,
to earn money you have to work in the field,
and you give her nothing.
If she found out about it, would she be happy?
She'll curse you.
[Severin Muengo] I don't tell them. What do you expect?
I don't want to anger my family.
It's 3.5 million ($3,800).
[Severin Muengo] I don't know how to explain it.
I feel as though I'm the richest person of all!
Because when I wear my clothes,
everywhere I go, people say, 'Ah, Severin! Ah, Severin!'
And I'm in heaven!
[Maxime Pivot] I founded my own NGO, " Sapeur In Danger".
What does it mean?
A Sapeur is in danger, since he sacrifices his life
for the sake of his loved ones, for beauty, for fashion,
but in the end gets nothing.
[man 3] Sapeur Pivot!
Long live the Sapeur!  END OF PART ONE
[man 4] We in Brazzaville, Congo, we're suffering.
Because we feel like slaves.
Look, the people are suffering.
[man 4] It's hard for them. It's hard, it's hard.
Even in countries like Libya there is running water.
It's the desert but there is running water.
They can shower when they want!
But here, where the Congo River runs, there is nothing.
We have money, oil money, but still there's nothing.
[man 4] Here in Brazzaville, Congo, we suffer. Because we're slaves.
Look, people are suffering. It's a very difficult life for them.
We live poorly here in Congo.
We live like slaves.
[Amabelle] She's making a sauce from palm nuts.
That's the sauce.
[Amabelle] La Moambe, that's what we call palm nuts,
and we eat that really often.
We cut it small, small, small.
[Amabelle] We only find this in the forest.
But it's expensive now at the market.
But we don't have transport to go to the village and come back.
That's why we buy it.
[Amabelle] We call this bread, or saka saka.
We tend to eat beans.
You can have them with a sauce.
[Amabelle] - We burn these woodchips... [Woman 1] - Not gas!
[Maxime Pivot] I know someone who won a lot of money.
He won a lot of money. He played the lottery.
He won more than 11 million francs ($11,800).
But he didn't do anything with it.
He didn't buy any land, he went to a boutique,
bought himself clothes, all the fine things in life,
and ended up with nothing.
[Maxime Pivot] I don't have my own story, it was my older brother.
Our father was a mason. He made bricks here.
So we had a brick-making business.
My brother became the head of our business.
As the eldest, the leader, he had to save the family,
he had to manage it. But he couldn't.
He destroyed it. He spent all the money on clothes.
[Maxime Pivot] - Madam, how are you? [Woman 2] - Fine, and you?
[Maxime Pivot] - Good, good.
[Maxime Pivot] This is our eldest brother.
Our family's eldest brother, the leader of the family.
He was a great Sapeur, who initiated me in La SAPE.
This is him.
[Maxime’s brother] We decided to raise livestock and sheep.
We cultivate cassava,
and we work in the garden.
We have vegetables,
and a few banana fields.
[Maxime’s brother] For me the glory years were the 80s, 90s,
as far as sapologie goes.
In any case, we were among the rising stars.
[Maxime’s brother] My Dad put me in charge of the business.
We had a few workers, 5 or 6, whom Dad paid each month.
[Maxime’s brother] At the time, it was Jean Marc Weston
that obsessed us so we had to...
We'd buy the shoes from Parisians when they came back to Congo.
[Maxime’s brother] At that time, I worked as a cashier.
As I wasn't very bright...
I... I... I started to steal...
From then on, my Dad's business went downhill.
[Maxime’s brother] We had to spend a lot of money, a lot.
A lot of money.
This was the reason why everyone in our generation pick-pocketed our parents.
[man 5] Hello!
[Maxime’s brother] Hello! These are my neighbours.
Here's my younger brother, the Sapeur.
[man 5] Yes, we've heard about him.
[Maxime Pivot] I founded my school in 2010,
when I was elected 'Best Sapeur in Congo.'
But I was disappointed,
when I didn't get what I'd been promised.
It was a contest, there were 32 of us.
Each sapeur was supposed
to appear on stage four times.
We went on stage four times, on the same evening.
It was the first time such a contest had been held in Congo.
I spent a lot of money on the contest.
Even my wife was against it.
Before the contest I had about 600,000CDF ($6,500) in savings.
They promised me 2,5 million ($2,700),
a return trip to France for a month,
But he didn't keep the promise.
[Maxime Pivot] I created my NGO "Sapeur in Danger",
as I'd seen what my older brothers had done.
They sacrificed their lives for La SAPE and got nothing.
I love fabric. I created this.
It's my own design.
This here, I designed myself.
The other Sapeurs have a complex.
But me, I want to develop my art, as I'm the creator of what I do.
[Maxime Pivot] The other Sapeurs have a complex about wearing what's made here.
The school of La SAPE. Everyone's talking about it.
La SAPE isn't synonymous with expensive clothes. It's not!
You know me. I've got little money and no work.
[Maxime Pivot] Don't get upset thinking la Sape calls for suits costing millions.
This isn't true. A Sapeur isn't about buying a 3 million francs suit.
No. It is all about colour combinations. It's a school.
Combining colours is more important than the price.
[Taxi Driver] I wanted to become a Sapeur because of him.
I like the way Maxime dresses. He's like an older brother.
I grew up in this neighbourhood, he's an idol to me!
[Maxime Pivot] We live on the same street.
He was always around, he liked dressing up,
but he had no money,
and it was an obstacle.
So he couldn't get involved, but was still interested.
Then, with Lord's help he learned to drive a car and became a taxi-driver.
[Taxi Driver] In order to gain respect in the world of La SAPE like my teacher,
or "Dad" as I always call him,
I'm making an effort every day to look good and neat even despite my small income.
Because in La SAPE it doesn't matter where you work, who you are,
if you're driving a taxi or not.
My job might be modest,
but I'll work hard,
and I'll make it to his level!
[Taxi Driver] This is my wife,
the wife of a future Sapeur!
My wife...
[Taxi Driver] Of course, our family has difficulties, but there's no life without them.
[Taxi Driver] But one must try to be neat and take care of your child.
One must earn money to support the wife and children, younger brothers, older brothers…
So my means are pretty limited.
[Maxime Pivot] Now, young people know they don't have to make sacrifices to buy expensive things.
They understand La SAPE isn't the same as buying expensive clothes.