The Congolese sapeurs between Marginalization and celebrity Culture

This article outlines the continuities and the modifications of the socio-cultural movement of the Congolese dandies, or sapeurs as they call themselves. They have become the object of extensive global media coverage in recent years. I shall argue
that the sapeurs themselves made use of the digital media technology to achieve the status of stars which they used for social advancement in concordance with the logic of the local economy of prestige. Their active exploitation of global media representa-
tion is seen as a novel resource for social reproduction following the breakdown of the economy of fraud.