Fashion Gangs Roam Congo.
Fashion-gangs, who call themselves "sape" for the French slang for clothes, roam the ghettos of Congo. They even have their own version of turf wars:
They don't carry guns and rarely brawl, but occasionally they invade one another's turf, dressed to the nines, of course, in what they call a "Defi de Sape," or fashion challenge.
Think "West Side Story" meets "Zoolander." They flash labels, not knives.
"If we see them walking down our street, we run home, change into our best and come back out to prove that we're not nobodies," said Willy Biselele, 28, a leader of the 100 Years War.
The winner is the team with the most expensive or rarest collection. One recent standoff was televised by a local station.
