Djibril Gueye Marvin does what he can with what he has but always manages to transform people into their beautiful and chic selves
Djibril Gueye, also known as Djibou, the most popular Central African makeup artist, applies final touches to a bride-to-be at his beauty salon in Bangui.
Image: Barbara Debout / AFP
As a child, Djibril Gueye Marvin dreamed of being a make-up artist, no easy feat in the chronically unstable Central African Republic, where he faced ridicule for doing a "girl's job".
Help came from an unusual source: the make-up tutorials that have flooded YouTube over the past decade, launching influencers across the globe and generating billions of dollars in beauty sales.
"There is no make-up school in Bangui, without YouTube tutorials I would not be where I am now," said the 23-year-old, nicknamed Djibou, who lives in the country's capital.
Today, his services at a small Bangui beauty salon are highly sought after, and his TikTok account has more than 36,000 followers.
Djibou is all smiles, but life has not been easy in what the United Nations says is the world's second-least developed country, gripped by armed rebellion and daily violence.