VIDEO: "Dress In Modern Clothing Only To Work" Meet Lissanga Bakoko Men Changing Congo's Fashion Narrative

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Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo: A group of creative artists in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo are promoting African culture through clothes and ornament. The group, known as Lisanga bakoko, designs clothes from beads, bamboo fiber and other plant materials to preserve their rich cultural heritage. CGTN’s Chris Ochamringa caught up with them in Kinshasa and brings us this story.

It’s harvest time in Congo -Santral province in western DRC. These men are not collecting crops for eating, but rather for designing clothes and shoes. They turn plant material, beads and even snakes into outfits at their workshop in Kinshasa. Their group is known as Lisanga bakoko, which means the Association of Grandparents in Lingala.

“Our ideology is all about preserving the African culture. Our mission is to bring back the ancient clothing that our forefathers left us.”

The group belongs to a church that teaches worshippers to return to their African traditions.

“The way things are, we advise Congolese to dress in modern clothing only when going to work. They should always dress in these traditional outfits on important occasions.” It takes them several weeks of painstaking work to produce these costumes.

The ornaments and clothes that these men from the Lisanga bakoko group design are a reflection of their deep African cultural roots. They hope their fellow Congolese citizens will start dressing like them during ceremonies. But many people in the DRC prefer dressing in African print fabrics. That has not dampened these men’s resolve to continue designing their outfits.

And occasionally, they hit the streets of their neighbourhood to show off their clothes. A trend they learned from Kinshasa’s saperes, a group of men and women who love dressing in stylish clothes. It’s known as voata kovwata in Kikongo, a language spoken in Western DRC. There are lots of talented people in the arts and culture industry in the DRC, but many of them haven’t been successful due to decades of conflict and political instability.