The Guérewol (var. Guerewol, Gerewol) is an annual

courtship Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marriage. A courtship may be an informal and private m ...

ritual competition among the

Wodaabe The Wodaabe ( ff, Woɗaaɓe, Adlam: ), also known as the Mbororo or Bororo (Adlam: , ), or Pullo, have a name that is designated to those of the Fula ethnic group who are traditionally nomadic and considered to be "ignorant of Islam." For this ...

Fula people The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

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before dispersing south on their dry season pastures. The most famous gathering point is

In-Gall In-Gall (var. In Gall, I-n-Gall, In-Gal, Ingal, Ingall) is a town in the Agadez Region, Tchirozerine Department of northeast Niger, with a year-round population of less than 500. Known for its oasis and salt flats, In-Gall is the gathering poi ...

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 Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Al ...

. The actual dance event is called the ''Yaake'', while other less famous elements—bartering over

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

, competitions or camel races among suitors—make up the week-long Guérewol.Niger's dandy Gerewol festival
Iain Gately. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 4 July 2004 The Guérewol is found wherever Wodaabe gather: from

Niamey Niamey () is the capital and largest city of Niger. Niamey lies on the Niger River, primarily situated on the east bank. Niamey's population was counted as 1,026,848 as of the 2012 census. As of 2017, population projections show the capital di ...

, to other places the Wodaabe travel in their

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower vall ...

cycle, as far afield as northern

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

.Niger: Wodaabé wannabes
Richard Barltrop. The Telegraph (London). 22 February 2001

Annual gathering

At the end of the rainy season in September, the Wodaabe travel to

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.

Music and dance

The music and line dancing is typical of Fula traditions, which have largely disappeared among the vast diaspora of

, 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 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.Christine Nesbitt
The Wodaabe's Cure Salée
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 ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

, have prominently featured images of the stylized performance.

References

Sources

*Samuel Decalo. Historical Dictionary of Niger. Scarecrow Press, London and New Jersey (1979). *Jolijn Geels. Niger. Bradt London and Globe Pequot New York (2006). .
"gerewol."
Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 30 April 2009. *Loncke, Sandrine.
Geerewol : Musique, danse et lien social chez les Peuls nomades wodaabe du Niger
'. Société d'ethnologie, 2015, 415 p. (with a DVD-ROM including annotated music recordings, short videos and the documentary feature

')

External links

Report on a 2001 trip with a Wodaabe group to Cure Salée
from ''

Sahara with Michael Palin ''Sahara with Michael Palin'' is a four-part BBC television series presented by British comedian and travel presenter Michael Palin, and first broadcast in 2002. In it, Palin travelled around the Sahara in Northern and Western Africa, meeting ...

''
Guérewol - The Festival of Celebrating Beauty
from '' EF News International'' *
Geerewol
', by Sandrine Loncke (Website about Wodaabe ritual celebrations, with annotated music recordings and short videos featuring dance and ritual sequences. Supplement to th
book of the same author
.
Online musical archives dedicated to Fulbe Wodaabe singings
(Telemeta, CREM-CNRS).

Photos and videos

Gerewol photos by BBC Human Planet photographerVideo of Wodaabe danceVideo of Gerewol festival
National Geographic *Wodaabe dancer photos

by Amanda Jones
The Wodaabe's Cure Salée
by Christine Nesbitt
Festival of the Nomads - Cure Salée
Experience from Cure Salée festival and Wodaabé photos
Dance with the Wodaabes
documentary feature directed and produced by Sandrine Loncke, Berkeley Media distribution, 90', 2010
Wodaabe, Dance instead of War
documentary feature written and directed by Sandrine Loncke
Point du Jour International
52', 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerewol Nigerien culture Fula culture African dances Mating Articles containing video clips