<\/p>\n
The frock coat, accordion and gramophone<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Belgian Congo. \u2013 Bangala Boys\u201d, postcard, circa 1905. \u00a9 Manuel Charpy Private Collection<\/p>\n Even before colonisation, the kingdoms of Kongo and Loango were connected to the Atlantic region through slavery, West Africa through trade and Europe through traders and missionaries. But it was not until the 1880s \u2013 with the setting up of factories and colonial administrations \u2013 that powder, copper, brandy and what are still called \u201ctrade goods\u201d (fabric, sewing machines, old clothes, accordions, guitars, etc.) arrived in large quantities. These \u201cbarter goods\u201d were used to take possession of land, ivory and rubber. Clothing quickly became the focus of relationships between colonisers and the colonised. The myth of the \u201cnoble savage\u201d overshadowed the splendour of the Kingdom of Kongo in such a way that clothing manufacturers saw the Congo as a market <\/a>waiting to be conquered[1]<\/a>. The trade in fabrics and second-hand goods did indeed flourish, but merchants were surprised to discover that the \u201cnatives\u201d had taste and preferred clothes made in Paris \u2013 sometimes ordered by post \u2013 to what they referred to as \u201ccheap tat\u201d.<\/p>\n Christian missionaries imposed European clothing on them to cover their bodies in a decent manner. Students were dressed in uniforms and \u201cChristian weddings\u201d were celebrated dressed in the European style. Clothing denoted the bodies of those who had been converted, like a flag on conquered land. The \u201ccivilisation\u201d of bodies also involved the harmoniums and gramophones that punctuated Christian life.<\/p>\n As clothing and music became political and social markers, local chiefs got hold of used suits, introduced the accordion into royal music and covered their tombs with umbrellas and hats <\/a>[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n From the end of the 19th century, these \u201cchefs de pacotille<\/em>\u201d (tacky chiefs) or \u201cchef d\u2019op\u00e9rettes<\/em>\u201d (operetta chiefs) were mocked and \u201csavages\u201d caricatured in frock coats and top hats with bare legs and feet. Sarcasm also focussed on the \u201cnasal melody\u201d of the accordion and the \u201ccacophony\u201d of religious and military fanfares. For Europeans, the natives clumsily \u201caped\u201d<\/em> the colonisers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Danses \u00e0 la cit\u00e9 indig\u00e8ne\u201d [Dances in the indigenous city], 3 December, 1922, photographed by a settler in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo). \u00a9 Manuel Charpy Private Collection<\/p>\n Sidestep<\/strong><\/p>\n But from the 1900s onwards doubts began to set in. The colonial powers were worried about these defiantly elegant houseboys, workers and administrative employees. White shoes, panama hats or colonial helmets, waistcoats and pinned ties became subversive. Were these \u201cnegroes\u201d better dressed than the settlers? Refinements and melodies threatened to undermine the hierarchies and foundations of colonisation, especially as male bodies were at the centre of the political game. In neighbouring Angola, carnivals at which people dressed up as Portuguese settlers were banned. The \u201cnatives\u201d also manifested their refusal to be a colonial labour force in this way. In Tintin in the Congo<\/em> (1931), the reader can only laugh at the Congolese man wearing a boater, cuffs and tie, who refuses to work for fear of getting dirty.<\/p>\n The police scrutinised these dandies, especially as they seemed to have joined forces with the anti-colonialists, including Matsoua\u2019s spoof Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de l\u2019\u00c9toile des Savoyards de Brazza [Society of the Savoyards Star of Brazza]. <\/em>The investigators stressed \u201cthe attitude taken by a certain category of natives in their immediate relations with Europeans: no external deference to the agents representing authority, and [\u2026] a kind of perpetual sneering from the workers\u201d. There was concern about the influence of anti-colonialist ideas on \u201cthis sort of elite [\u2026], of which there are many who live largely in Brazzaville, imitating our ways as closely as they can, dressing richly if not with elegance, [using] the rarest if not the most appropriate terms\u201d. As well as worry about these brains that functioned like \u201cgramophone records<\/a>\u201d[3]<\/a>. The administrations were so ill-at-ease that they tried to promote the most \u201cadvanced\u201d natives to assist them, instilling them \u201cgood manners\u201d when it came to dressing and mastery of the French language.<\/p>\n By the 1920s, this \u201celite\u201d of administrative employees, houseboys and \u201cliterate unemployed\u201d were organising themselves in clubs around fashion and music. Encouraged initially by the administrations, they became more common in Brazzaville in the 1950s and 60s: the \u201cExistos [Existentialists]\u201d, \u201cLes \u00e9l\u00e9gants in\u00e9galables [The incomparable dandies]\u201d, \u201cSimple et bien [Simple and good]\u201d, \u201cClub des Six [Club of Six]\u201d, etc. Each club had its own codes, but everyone would dress in ready-to-wear to distinguish themselves from the population dressed by local tailors. They exchanged clothes so they would not have to wear the same thing twice and talked about fashion.<\/p>\n S\u00e9verin Mouyengo parading in Bacongo, early 1970s. \u00a9 S\u00e9verin Mouyengo Private Archives \/ Digitised by Manuel Charpy<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From the 1900s, young people gathered in \u201ctam-tams\u201d, to use the colonial term, to dance to the sound of percussion instruments, accordions and guitars. In the 1920s, the fashionable dance, the agbaya<\/em><\/a>[4]<\/a>, was performed in a circle to show off dancers\u2019 clothing - like the \u201cdanse des griffes<\/em>\u201d [literally, \u201clogo dance\u201d] of today\u2019s Sapeurs. But as early as 1904, the administration banned these gatherings except on Saturdays. The segregation of Brazzaville and Leopoldville into \u201cindigenous cities\u201d and European neighbourhoods solved the issue by banning the mixing of populations in the evening<\/a>[5]<\/a>. From then on, fashion and music mingled in Poto-Poto, Bacongo and Matonge every Sunday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Simmering under the surface<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite discrimination and curfews, both cities teemed with international influences during the 1920s. Goods would come from all over the world: wax cotton from The Netherlands and Manchester, ready-made and used clothes from Paris, helmets from Marseille, shoes from Japan\u2026 Tailors were known as \u201cFayettes\u201d because they copied department store catalogues, from Galeries Lafayette in particular, and fashion magazines. Paris fashion was \u201cexasperated\u201d by the dandies.<\/p>\n Dance clubs run by Greeks and Portuguese, at the margins of power, made residents boogie, alongside returning infantrymen, Europeans passing through and West African workers, among others. People would strut in fine dress to the rumba. Rumba was finding its way back \u2013 having been carried away by the Kongo slaves - from the Caribbean through West Indian soldiers stationed in Brazzaville, bands performing on both banks and records. In the 1930s, it was listened to alongside the Charleston at colonial festivals - street markets, beauty pageants, Bastille Day celebrations, races - much to the dismay of the religious authorities<\/a>[6]<\/a>. The locals played maringa and palm-wine music - originally from Ghana, remixed with guitars brought by West African workers and, increasingly, rumba. As gramophones were everywhere, 78s made this music popular. The dandies\u2019 soundtrack was a mixture of traditional music played with European instruments, religious choirs and music from the Caribbean. The Sapeurs made this way of mixing cultures, including colonial ones, their own. Was there a touch of irony when the \u201cGallo-Roman\u201d club founded in the 1970s announced: \u201cCome and taste Spanish rice, Brazilian \u201cbrede<\/em>\u201d, English chicken, French cassoulet, Dutch omelette and Italian spaghetti. Weston shoes required\u201d? And continued: \u201cFor more than 400 years, the Gauls imitated the Romans. They got used to their way of living and learned their Latin language. Gradually, you could no longer tell the difference between them and the inhabitants of Gaul were all called Gallo Romans.\u201d <\/a>[7]<\/a> Melting pots can be subversive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sans-titre-1-191x300.png\")
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