Dynamic Africa

“Elegance Road” is a photo series by Belgian photographer Alexandre Van Enst that captures the non-conformist style and dandy attitudes of a Kinshasa-based fashion and lifestyle SAPE collective.

The African Society of Elegant People, the “SAPE” was born in the years after the independences of Congo-Brazzaville and Zaire.

Today there are two major schools of “SAPE”, respectively inspired by the French and Japanese aristocracy. They clash with high fashion brands, millimetered steps and gestures, from Paris to Kinshasa, during parades in honor of their founding masters, or simply at the Mass of Sunday.

Codified art of sham, glamor and “hast thou seen” for some, for others the SAPE is a metaphysic, a special relation with the question of being and appearance. Sassy, narcissistic and rebellious, the “sapeur” is a romantic.

“Elegance Road” showcases these heroes of modern times. In the decadent sceneries of the city of Kinshasa, from Lemba to Bandal through Ndjili, Matete and Limete, the “sapeurs” of the “War of hundred years” defy the power in place: the Leopards.

Led by the great masters such as Tshikose, Sesele and Kadhitoza, the Congolese dandies constantly reinvent themselves to shine.

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A few of my favourite images from Congolese photographer Baudouin Mouanda series on the immaculately dressed members of Sape (Société des ambianceurs et des personnes élégantes) in Congo.

Vintage colour black and white portraits take in Bobson Studio founded by Sukdeo Bobson Mohanlall in Durban, South Africa, in 1961.

Vintage colour studio portraits take in Bobson Studio founded by Sukdeo Bobson Mohanlall in Durban, South Africa, in 1961.

Photographs taken in South Africa during the 1950s or 1960s by Ernest Cole.

“Three-hundred years of white supremacy in South Africa has placed us in bondage, stripped us of our dignity, robbed us of our self-esteem and surrounded us with hate.” - Ernest Cole

Images of every day life for black people in South Africa under Apartheid, taken by South African photographer Ernest Cole.

Ernest Cole was born in South Africa’s capital city Pretoria in 1940. When Cole was 28, he applied for a job at Drum magazine and soon became the assistant of Jurgen Schadeberg, Drum’s chief photographer.

Cole had begin given a camera earlier in his life by a Roman Catholic priest and decided to receive some formal experience by enrolling in a correspondence course with the New York Institute of Photography in the 1960s. This encouraged him to begin to document the realities of Apartheid. In the early 1960s, after leaving Drum to work for Bantu World newspaper (now The Sowetan), Cole began to freelance for his former employer Drum as well as Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Express, making him South Africa’s first freelance photographer.

With an urge to leave South Africa for New York in the mid-60s, Cole did something unheard - he somehow managed to get the South African Racial Classification Board to re-classify him from Black to Coloured. This enabled him to leave the country in 1966 taking his photographs with him. After showing his photographs to Magnum Photos, Cole published the book House of Bondage which was banned in South Africa.

Cole later moved to Sweden and in 1990 he passed away from cancer whilst living in New York.

Watch a ten-minute documentary trailer about Ernest Cole.

Images from Mozambican photographer Mario Macilau’s series ‘The Zionists’ that ‘documents the traditional religious rituals of Mozambique’.

As a photographer, I believe in the power of images and I’ve been exploring the relationship that exists between the environment, human beings, and time. Photography has connected me to incredible moments and experiences and all the places have taught me something valuable so I try to keep an open mind.

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The intricacies of braided hairstyles captured by Malian photographer Youssouf Sogodogo.

Born in 1976, Malian photographer Penda Diakité graduated from Promo-femme: Center for Audio Visual Education for Young Women in 1999 and after several internships and apprenticeships, she opened her own photography studio in 2002 called ‘Afrique Vision’.

Penda Diakité is one of the few women photographers is in Bamako, Mali, and she specializes in portrait photography as well as special events imagery.

Her studio photography, as seen above, carries the standard aesthetic format so often seen in studio portraiture in Africa, of individuals positioned in front of two-dimensional scenery.

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The Sidis are a small community of Indians of African descent.

Photographer Ketaki Sheth has documented their lives for a new book, A Certain Grace: The Sidi - Indians of African Descent, published by Delhi-based gallery Photoink.

It is estimated that 60,000 to 75,000 Sidis live in the western state of Gujarat and the southern state of Karnataka. Fewer numbers live in the state of Goa and in the cities of Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Their ancestors, say historians, were slaves, soldiers, traders, pearl divers and Muslim pilgrims who arrived in India over centuries. A large number of them, they say, also arrived in India as free citizens.

Historian Mahmood Mamdani says the ordinary Sidi were descendants of slaves brought by Portuguese down the coast of East Africa, mainly from Mozambique. “The big difference with Atlantic slavery was that hardly any slaves were brought to India to provide cheap labour… Their main attraction was not their cheapness, but their loyalty”, he says.

Ketaki Sheth says the Sidis have lived in India for over half a century. “Except for one or two people I photographed, no-one has visited Africa. The older generation too feel rooted in India,” she says.

“Except for their dance (called Goma, from the Swahili word, ngoma, meaning both drum and dance) and some exorcism rituals which have roots in Africa, they are Indian in language, customs, dress, food and temperament,” says Ms Sheth. The Sidis of Gujarat, for example, speak Gujarati as their mother tongue.

The Sidis are “poor for the most part”, Ms Sheth says. They get some affirmative action benefits from the government as they are classified as “scheduled tribes”, one of India’s most disadvantaged groups.

Mahmood Mamdani says a Sidi elder told him that a girl marrying outside the caste or community is usually thrown out. He said the prohibition on marriage outside the community is more because of “interest than identity”. Outsiders, the Sidis fear, will take advantage of the affirmative action benefits.

“Whenever I asked a Sidi person I met whether they thought of themselves as African or Indian, I inevitably got a quizzical look. What, they seemed to think, was wrong with me: they were of course, Indians,” says Mahmood Mamdani.

(images & text via BBC)