Photographer Tariq Zaidi has spent the last 10 years photographing people and cultures in over 30 countries across Africa. His new book entitled "SAPEURS: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo" is about an extraordinary fashion culture in the capital cities of Congo Kinshasa & Congo Brazzaville: La Sape, Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Ambiance-Makers & Elegant People). Its followers are known as »Sapeurs« (»Sapeuses« for women). Most have ordinary day jobs as taxi-drivers, tailors and gardeners, but as soon as they clock out they transform themselves into debonair dandies. Sashaying through the streets they are treated like rock stars – turning heads, bringing ‘joie de vivre’ to their communities and defying their circumstances. True Sapologie is about more than expensive labels: the true art lies in a sapeur’s ability to put together an elegant look unique to their personality. As Papa Wemba (Congolese singer and fashion icon who popularised Sape) once said: “White people invented the clothes, but we (Africans) make an art of it.”

You can order the book directly from the publisher (Kehrer Verlag) - link here [ Ссылка ] or via your local bookstore or Amazon

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In search of truly unique images, Tariq continues to travel around the world. He can be contacted through his website [ Ссылка ], his Facebook page @tariqzaidiphotography, twitter @tariqzaidiphoto or Instagram @tariqzaidiphoto.

Music - Ghana by Harpo Marks - licensed by PremiumBeat.

Video, text, photos copyright of ©Tariq Zaidi. All Rights Reserved.

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