The Gerewol Festival’ The Wife Stealing Festival of the Woodabe Tribe in Chad
The Gerewol Festival is a yearly courtship custom competition among the Woddabe Fula people in Niger. Young fellows wearing elaborate ornamentation and made up in customary face painting compete for the consideration/attention of single young ladies.
The Gerewol Festival happens every year as the customarily migrant Wodaabe dairy cattle herders accumulate at the southern edge of the Sahara.
The most renowned assembling point is In-Gail in northwest Niger, where an enormous celebration, market and series of faction gatherings happen for both the Wodaabe and the peaceful Tuareg people.
The genuine dance occasion is known as the Yaake, while other less known activites, for example, bargaining over dowry; contests or camel races among admirers make up the weeklong celebration. The Gerewol is found any place the Wodaabe gather.
Toward the end of the stormy season in September, the Wodaabe travel to InGail to assemble salt and partake at the Fix Salee celebration, a gathering of a few migrant gatherings.
Here the youthful Wodaabe men, with intricate cosmetics, feathers and different enhancements, perform moves and melodies to dazzle ladies.
The male excellence ideal is for a man to be tall, with white eyes and teeth. The man will frequently roll their eyes and show their teeth to underline these qualities.
The Wodaabe groups will then, at that point, consolidate for their weeklong Gerewol festivities, a challenge where the young men beauty is decided by young ladies.
Also Read: The Amazing Blood Drinking Culture of the Bodi Tribe of Ethiopia
Where could the Gerewol Festival Celebration be?
The Gerewol Festival history is held in the southwest of Chad after the rainy season, around the last seven-day stretch of September.
The Gerewol is the main event uniting the Woodabe people. Different clans might allude to them as the Mbororo meaning ‘dirty shepherd.’
Where Do the Wodaabes Reside?
Wodaabe are Sahelian migrants hailing from northern Cameroon to Chad, Niger, and upper east Nigeria. The Wodaabe people number somewhere in the range of 160,000 and 200,000.
The Hausa and Tuareg, among others, view the Wodaabe as wild people.
Also Read: Blood Drinking, Lion Hunting All about The Maasai Tribe in Kenya
The Yaake Dance of the Gerewol Festival
This celebration is held every year during the rainy season in the Niger district. Many Wodaabe clans assemble for this celebration.
They wear striking outfits with unique features such as feathers and other delightful decorations used to charm young women.
It’s a beautiful, exceptionally old celebration. Men put on cosmetics, dress up, and play out a progression of baffling moves to charm another wife. In the event that they don’t get a spouse, they, at any rate, score a night of pleasure.
Men awaken at sunrise to paint their faces with red ochre, draw white spots, wear pieces of jewelry. They likewise apply a shade of dark or blue lipstick during dressing meetings that keep going for an hour.
The Gerewol Festival incorporates feasting, socializing, and camel racing. It comes full circle in a last dance show in which three women of eligible age who have firmly noticed the moves during the previous few days pick their three winners.
The young ladies will proceed following the Wodaabe pulaku, or code of conduct to choose their preffered man. Then, at a point, each woman taps their number one man, and everybody surges in to commend and praise the victors.
From that point forward, the ladies return to their camp to stand by. They will follow in the event that the picked men like them.
For what reason Do Woodabe Men Wear Make Up to the Gerewol Festival?
In the wodabe community Everybody is contributing to assist the folks with putting their best self forward.
A few beauty care products have mysterious properties, and the Wodaabe go to impressive lengths to safeguard them. The orange face powder is found in Jongooria area of Niger, and a few factions should go 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) full circle by walking to get a stockpile.
The folks utilize a blend produced using broken earth, stones, and animal bones to makeup to their faces. A few men were accepted to paint their lips dark with synthetics from batteries to underline their white teeth.
ALSO READ: The Most Spoken Languages In Africa
Conclusion
The celebration reaches a conclusion at nightfall, and the visuals are something you will always remember.
The Wodaabe will then, at that point, return to their roaming life as herders after the extended celebration is finished. Fruitful couples’ pair up and begin the marriage arrangements. This ceremony has been occurring all through the Gerewol celebration history.
The Wodaabe are intriguing individuals. In spite of what could appear as though a previous lifestyle, they have stayed consistent with their way of life.
