Bonjour. Hi. I am the Republic of the Congo. You can find me in central Africa. Do you know that there are two countries in Africa with the name Congo? The other country is to my east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is much bigger than me, about seven times bigger. The Congo River flows between our capital cities.
By the way is the deepest river in the world. My land is about the size of Japan, and about half of it is tropical rain forests. If you want to meet gorillas up close, I am just country for you.
My capital city is Brazzaville, and my official language is French. I am hot and humid all through the year. The average temperature is about 25 degrees Celsius. And more than 70 % of population is Christian.
My country has exrienced some difficult times, and most of my people are not rich. There are many people who find it hard to feed their families. But even in such an environment, you will meet very fashionable people wearing colorful clothes walking on the streets of my capital city. They are called sapeurs. This word comes from a name meaning a group of fashionable and elegant gentleman. The sapeurs wear top designer brand suits, shoes and accessories. You will know a sapeur immediately when you see one. They are colorful, elegant and clean, too. They even have a unique way of walking to show their stylish clothes. This is not just a fashion style, but a way of living and a way of thinking.
You ask why they dress like this? Well, you see, do you remember that I told you there were difficult times in my country? You have to have peace to enjoy fashion. So as sapeurs say, You can't have war and be a sapeurs at the same time. It's one way to show that they are against wars. And you have to take care of your hair, smell nice and be well dressed as a famous sapeur singer sang in one song. There is no always enough water, so it is easy to get dirty. If you are always too dirty, you might get sick. But these sapeurs take good care of themselves so they won't get sick. It's good for many reasons.
The sapeurs are men with ordinary jobs like taxi drivers, shoemakers and police officers. But after they get off work, they spend many hours choosing their clothes and accessories. Then, they walk around the city. They walk as sapeurs to make people happy and show them that life is good.
The sapeurs, tropical rain forest safaris, gorillas and forest elephants are all here. Aren’t I an amazing country?