South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, Swenkas are

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

Zulu men who participate in amateur competitions that are part

fashion show A fashion show ( French ''défilé de mode'') is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fa ...

and part

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

, the purpose of which is to display one's

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

and sense of attitude. The practice, called "swenking", ultimately derives from the English word " swank". These well-dressed men are proud and considered to serve as an inspiration to others. Frequently, on Saturday nights they meet up to compete in a fashion show of sorts. The Swenkas are judged both on what they are wearing (typically, expensive designer suits with well-known European names on their labels) and their choreographed movements (their 'swank'). There is an entrance fee to compete in these swank-offs and the winner of the night goes home with a portion of the money collected from the competitors. The men follow certain set values of swanking, such as physical cleanliness, sobriety and above all self-respect. In 2004,

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

filmmaker

Jeppe Rønde Jeppe Rønde (born 1973) is a Denmark, Danish filmmaker. Rønde was born in Aarhus, Denmark and worked as a professional musician until he graduated in Film Studies and Art History from the University of Copenhagen in 2002. In 2003, he directed h ...

created a short documentary entitled
The Swenkas
', free to view on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and reviewed in 2005 in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

as "a study in contrasts". Elements of so-called "African dandyism" as expressed by the Swenkas are also found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the participants are known as Sapeurs and the phenomenon is called

La Sape La Sape, an abbreviation based on the phrase Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes ( French; literally "Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People") and hinting to the French slang word ''sape'' which means "clothes" or ''sap� ...

or Sapologie. According to a YouTube documentary entitle
"The Congo Dandies"
produced by the Russian state-controlled tv network RT, Congolese soldiers returning home from France after WW2 brought with them a taste for the latest Parisian fashion, but other sources say that as early as the 1920's West African colonial workers called "Bapopo" or "Coastmen" who came to the Congo, inspired the Congolese elite to cast off notions of ingrained inferiority caused by French and Belgian colonialism.

References

Further reading

See also