Les Sapeurs
They call themselves “Sapeurs” and dedicate themselves to flamboyant dress and dancing. This counter culture sprung-up as a reaction to the difficult life in the DRC.
Papa Wemba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is widely considered the granddaddy of Sape:
In 1979, after returning from the Afrisa trip to Europe, Wemba began promoting the Sapeur ('Société Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants' thus 'SAPE' for short) as a youth cult specifically centred around Viva La Musica and its music… Wemba introduced the Sapeur cult as a challenge to the dress code strictures imposed under Authenticity. He had visited Europe and he knew how Europeans lived. Papa Wemba wanted to reintroduce the condition that, to paraphrase, made it a pleasure rather than a crime to wear something from Paris. Click here to read more.
BBC: Director-producers Cosima Spender and George Amponsah talk about Papa Wemba and the cult of the cloth.
Web Exclusive: An interview with Gerry O'Pray, former Canadian U.N. Peacekeeper.
Retired Corporal O'Pray served in the Congo from 1961 to 1963. Includes 8mm home video.
Interview with Adam Hochschild
Rubber, and the atrocities committed in Belgian-controlled Congo: watch Adam Hochschild’s 2007 interview about his book “King Leopold’s Ghost”.
Books
Chief of Station Congo, Larry Devlin
"Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied, and governmental authority had collapsed. As he crossed the Congo River in an almost empty ferry boat, all he could see were lines of people trying to travel the other way—out of the Congo. Within his first two weeks he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette, Congo style, with him." -IndigoChapters
In the Footsteps of Mister Kurtz, Michela Wrong
"During Mobutu Sese Seko's 30 years as president of Zaire (now the Congo), he managed to plunder his nation's economy and live a life of excess unparalleled in modern history. A foreign correspondent in Zaire for six years, Michela Wrong has plenty of titillating stories to tell about Mobutu's excesses, such as the Versailles-like palace he built in the jungle, or his insistence that he needed $10 million a month to live on. However, these are not the stories that most interest Wrong. Her aim is to understand all of the reasons behind the economic disintegration of the most mineral-rich country on the African continent; in so doing, she turns over the mammoth rock that was Mobutu and finds a seething underworld of parasites with names like the CIA, the World Bank and the IMF, the French and Belgian governments, mercenaries, and a host of fat cats who benefited from Mobutu's largesse and even exceeded his rapaciousness..." - Amazon
King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild (see above interview with author)
Heart of Darkness (fiction), Jospeh Conrad (1957-1924)
"Originally published in 1902, Heart of Darkness remains one of this century's most enduring--and harrowing--works of fiction. Written several years after Conrad's grueling sojourn in the Belgian Congo, the novel tells the story of Marlow, a seaman who undertakes his own journey into the African jungle to find the tormented white trader Kurtz. Rich in irony and spellbinding prose, Heart of Darkness is a complex meditation on colonialism, evil, and the thin line between civilization and barbarity." - Amazon
Blogs
Global Voices Online: DRC
Reuters DRC blog
World focus DRC
Oxfam DRC
Life as it is in kin! Tales of a South African ex-pat family living in DRC
Agence Congolaise de Presse (ACP) - state-controlled
Le Potentiel - daily
La Reference Plus - daily
L'Avenir - daily
Le Soft - weekly
Le Palmares - daily
L'Observateur - daily
Elima - evening daily
Boyoma - daily
Mjumbe - daily
Television/Radio
Radio-Television Nationale Congolaise (RTNC) - state-run terrestrial and satellite TV with near-national coverage
RTGA - private
Digital Congo - private, near-national coverage
Raga TV - private, near-national coverage
La Voix du Congo - operated by RTNC, broadcasting in French, Swahili, Lingala, Tshiluba and Kikongo
Radio Okapi - UN-backed politically-independent network, on FM and shortwave
Raga FM - private, carries some BBC World Service output
Top Congo FM - private
