Guérewol
Encyclopedia
The Guérewol is an annual courtship
ritual competition among the Wodaabe
Fula people
of Niger
. Young men dressed in elaborate ornamentation and made up in traditional face painting gather in lines to dance and sing, vying for the attentions of marriageable young women. The Guérewol occurs each year as the traditionally nomadic Wodaabe cattle herders gather at the southern edge of the Sahara
before dispersing south on their dry season pastures. The most famous gathering point is In-Gall
in northwest Niger, where a large festival, market and series of clan meetings take place for both the Wodaabe and the pastoral Tuareg people. The actual dance event is called the Yaake, while other less famous elements -- bartering over dowry
, competitions or camel races among suitors -- make up the week long Guérewol. The Guérewol is found wherever Wodaabe gather: from Niamey
, to other places the Wodaabe travel in their transhumance
cycle, as far afield as northern Cameroon
and Nigeria
to gather salt and participate at the Cure Salée
festival, a meeting of several nomadic groups. Here the young Wodaabe men, with elaborate make-up, feathers and other adornments, perform dances and songs to impress women. The male beauty ideal of the Wodaabe stresses tallness, white eyes and teeth; the men will often roll their eyes and show their teeth to emphasize these characteristics. The Wodaabe clans will then join for their week-long Guérewol celebration, a contest where the young men's beauty is judged by young women.
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
ritual competition among the Wodaabe
Wodaabe
The Wodaabe or Bororo are a small subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group. They are traditionally nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel, with migrations stretching from southern Niger, through northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, and the western region of the Central African Republic....
Fula people
Fula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
of Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
. Young men dressed in elaborate ornamentation and made up in traditional face painting gather in lines to dance and sing, vying for the attentions of marriageable young women. The Guérewol occurs each year as the traditionally nomadic Wodaabe cattle herders gather at the southern edge of the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
before dispersing south on their dry season pastures. The most famous gathering point is In-Gall
In-Gall
In-Gall is a town in the Agadez Region, Tchirozerine Department of northeast Niger, with a year-round population of less than 500...
in northwest Niger, where a large festival, market and series of clan meetings take place for both the Wodaabe and the pastoral Tuareg people. The actual dance event is called the Yaake, while other less famous elements -- bartering over dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
, competitions or camel races among suitors -- make up the week long Guérewol. The Guérewol is found wherever Wodaabe gather: from Niamey
Niamey
-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...
, to other places the Wodaabe travel in their transhumance
Transhumance
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...
cycle, as far afield as northern Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
Annual gathering
At the end of the rainy season in September, the Wodaabe travel to In-GallIn-Gall
In-Gall is a town in the Agadez Region, Tchirozerine Department of northeast Niger, with a year-round population of less than 500...
to gather salt and participate at the Cure Salée
Cure Salee
The Cure Salee, or "Festival of the Nomads" is a yearly gathering of the Tuareg and Wodaabe peoples in the northern Niger town of Ingall. Cure Salée marks the end of the rainy season, and usually occurs in the last two weeks of September...
festival, a meeting of several nomadic groups. Here the young Wodaabe men, with elaborate make-up, feathers and other adornments, perform dances and songs to impress women. The male beauty ideal of the Wodaabe stresses tallness, white eyes and teeth; the men will often roll their eyes and show their teeth to emphasize these characteristics. The Wodaabe clans will then join for their week-long Guérewol celebration, a contest where the young men's beauty is judged by young women.
Music and dance
The music and line dancing is typical of Fula traditions which have largely disappeared among the vast diaspora of Fula people, many of whom are educated, Muslim, urbanites. This is characterized by group singing, accompanied by clapping, stomping and bells. The Wodaabe Guérewol festival is one of the more famous examples of this style of repeating, hypnotic, and percussive choral traditions, accompanied by a swaying line dancing, where the men interlink arms and rise and fall on their toes. The Guérewol competitions involve the ornamented young men dancing the Yaake in a line, facing a young marriageable woman, sometimes repeatedly over a seven day period, and for hours on end in the desert sun. Suitors come to the encampment of the woman to prove their interest, stamina, and attractiveness. The participants often drink a fermented bark concoction to enable them to dance for long periods, which reputedly has a hallucinogenic effect.Tourism
The Guérewol ritual has become a foreign tourist attraction since western films, and magazines such as National Geographic, have prominently featured images of the stylized -- and to some Westerners androgynous -- performance.External links
- Report on a 2001 trip with a Wodaabe group to Cure Salée, from Sahara with Michael Palin
- Guérewol - The Festival of Celebrating Beauty, from EF News International
Photos and videos
- Gerewol photos by BBC Human Planet photographer
- Video of Wodaabe dance
- Video of Gerewol festival, National Geographic
- Wodaabe dancer photos: part 1, part 2
- Wodaabe photos, by Amanda Jones
- Mr Sahara 2004
- The Wodaabe's Cure Salée by Christine Nesbitt
- Festival of the Nomads - Cure Salée Experience from Cure Salée festival and Wodaabé photos