Fashion meets culture - 10th March 2023

It's Sapper Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It's a special day for these people. They are sapeurs. They wear special clothes.

The name of the style is 'La Sape'. La Sape fashion started with West African colonial workers. They moved to the Congo with this style. Rich people in the Congo started dressing like them. They didn't want to look like poor people. Young people wore it too. But they made some changes.

Sapeurs don't have a lot of money. Some of them don't have jobs. But, their fashion is very important to them.

Papa Kimwanga: "I work as a master painter and I am also resourceful. I ask the government to give me a job. I have children and with what I earn, I buy clothes."

La Sape is important in the Republic of the Congo and the DRC. The Republic of the Congo's president likes La Sape. He says it's important. It's history and culture.

But in the DRC it's not the same. The sapeurs there want help. Six Lokoto says La Sape is art too.

Six Lokoto: "We sappers are abandoned. You only support the players and musicians. Today, you have taken musicians on tour to Dubai and Turkey. Why not us sapeurs? We are artists, we are very efficient. We ask our government to support us 100%."