Business imposed by poverty, not out of passion

False eyelashes and manicure... The profession of men in Central Africa

Dupontour: “The main reason men turn to manicures is Mali.”

AFP

With a delicate motion, Dubonor Cole dyes his young client's nails in his small, dusty shop. Manicures and pedicures, seen in the West as a women's specialty, are also a men's vocation in Bangui, the capital of Central Africa.

Dubonor, 27, looks after the hand of a young woman who used to come to his shop in the Ngaraghba district, at the foot of the city's hills.

Focusing all his attention, he delicately applies the pigment with a brush, then looks up smiling, having completed the task of drawing a knot on the keratin.

Many women know this young man in Bangui la Coquette, meaning “Bangi the Coquettish”, an adjective long ago applied to the capital of Central Africa, due to the sweetness of life that once characterized it.

"He puts on eyelashes and false nails very well," says Benina, 23, in full glamour.

She adds, “Every time, everyone asks me who got me done.

I like to come to Dubonor because after that I feel beautiful!”

But the latter did not choose this profession out of passion.

"There is no work," he says with a sigh.

He notes that "the main reason for men's demand for professional manicure is financial."

The unemployment rate is 24.2% in this country, which has been suffering from a civil war since 2013, and is considered, according to the United Nations, the second least developed country in the world. Consequently, many of its people are forced to fend for themselves to earn a living and become part of the informal economy.

Wearing jeans and a Muhammed Ali T-shirt in his chair, Dubonneur sits amid walls dotted with posters of American music stars and football players, to the beat of American rap music, as a fan cools down to the hot and humid weather in the shop.

The art of getting things done

The young man recounts that he left school when he was fifteen "because of the discontinuation of the funding program that was provided by a non-governmental organization."

After Dupontour had to drop out of school, he moved to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the other side of the Zongo River.

"There I learned in four months manicure," he says.

On his return to Bangui, he worked as a street dresser and soon established his shop in 2019. “I found a site where I pay 30,000 CFA francs ($53) a month for rent and built my cottage on it,” he says.

Dubonor goes monthly to provide his work supplies to BK5, the Muslim quarter of Bangui, considered the capital's economic lung.

"This is the only place where I can find cheaply the products I need, such as artificial nails, glue or nail polish remover," he says.

informal economy

Dupontour's income varies daily, as it may be limited to two thousand francs on few days of work, and exceed 20,000 francs on holidays or weekends, i.e. between 3.5 and 35.3 dollars.

The minimum monthly wage in the formal sector is $42.3, according to the World Bank.

About 80% of young people between the ages of 20 and 29 work in the underground economy, in occupations including motorcycle taxi driver, phone card seller, drug dealer, furniture maker and construction worker.

Today, Dupontour's young business is doing well, and he has trained a number of people to meet the growing demand, including his younger brother Emmanuel, who is 25.

Emmanuel, who dreams of becoming a nurse, says: "I work in the field of manicure until 11 in the morning in my brother's salon, in order to secure the cost of my studies, and I am a motorcycle taxi driver in the afternoon."

Emmanuel:

• “I dream of becoming a nurse, so I work as a manicurist until 11 in the morning, and as a taxi driver in the afternoon, to secure the costs of my studies.”

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