Imagine a scene where vibrant colours swirl in a mesmerising dance, where tradition and love intertwine in a captivating display of culture. This is the enchanting world of the Wodaabe courtship dance of the Fula tribe. Step into a realm where beauty meets tradition and hearts are won through graceful movements and vibrant expressions. Let’s delve into the magical allure of the Wodaabe courtship dance and unravel its captivating essence.
The Wodaabe Tribe
The Wodaabe tribe are nomadic pastoralists of the Sahel region in Africa. Their migratory journeys cover the expanse of northern Africa, where they travel with their cattle and families across the arid areas of Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic. A small, isolated branch of the Fulani ethnic group, they are considered by neighbouring tribes as wild, uncivilised people. As a result, they are labelled as “Mbororo” or “cattle Fulani” – those who dwell in cattle camps. They speak Fulani but do not read or write the language, and the Wodaabe place great emphasis on beauty and charm, as this plays a vital role in their culture.
Beliefs
The Wodaabe tribe believe in a God, but they do not profess a proper religion with specific rites and rules. They call their god “Allah” because of the influence of their Islamic neighbours, but conceptually, he is a supreme force that can bring fortune or misfortune. He is hailed when hope is needed.
Values
In Fulani, Woodabe means “people of the taboo”. The code of ethics “pulaaku” of the Wodaabe emphasises (reserve) and “semteende” (modesty), “munyal” (patience and fortitude), “hakkilo” (care and forethought), and “amana” (loyalty).
The greatest value of life for the Wodaabe is their livestock. They live in symbiosis, developing a special feeling for their animals, all of whom have names chosen based on their physical appearance.
In addition to ensuring their survival, the size of herds and the types of animals they have symbolise social status. The more cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, camels, and animals they have, the richer they are, or the more important the family is and the easier it is to feed all its members.
Children are another factor of great importance to the Wodaabe tribe because they believe children will be the staff of their old age. They believe, “A couple without children is like a tree without fruit, and they will be alone in old age.”
However, they prefer to have boys because “the girls will go to their husbands when the time comes.” They may adopt one of their nephews if they have no sons, which the whole group will accept because it is a matter of maintaining the inheritance and “perpetuating the family name”.
A Wodaabe marriage
In the Wodaabe group, which is polygamous and polygynous, the responsibility falls to the man to attract the attention of a woman when establishing relationships. When a woman finds a man attractive, she makes her intentions known and awaits his consent to solidify their relationship. For this reason, men invest time, money, and effort into beautifying themselves and performing dances and songs to impress women at a festival called “Gerewol”, which is usually held once a year at the end of the rainy season in September.
Gerewol: The courtship dance of the Wodaabe festival
According to custom, men are the ones who have to attract potential female candidates. So, the Wodaabe men dress up as much as possible, adorn themselves with various colourful face paints, and show off to impress the females. In fierce competition, they all struggle to attract women’s attention.
During the festival
In the Gerewol competitions, the ornamented young men dance the Yaake in a line at the women’s camp to prove their interest, stamina, and attractiveness, sometimes repeatedly over seven days and for hours in the desert sun. The participants also drink a fermented bark concoction to enable them to dance for long periods, which reputedly has a hallucinogenic effect.
The men’s outfits are vibrantly decorated and embellished with beads, feathers, buttons, and baubles in the brightest colours. Mirrored tunics and hats also add to the vitality and adornment. The ideal beauty of the Wodaabe men stresses tallness, white eyes and teeth; the men will often roll their eyes and show their teeth to emphasise these characteristics and show off their sex appeal to the women.
The men dress in many colours, and beads and apply the most colourful make-up possible using red, ochre, yellow, white and black. They enlarge their eyes with kohl and outline their nose with a vertical line to highlight their lips with black or blue. A feather on the head and a hat make the face more stylised, as well as a clean-shaven forehead.
The Woodabe dance
Fully dressed, the men gather to dance in a circle. The music and line dancing are typical of Fulani traditions, characterised by group singing, clapping, stomping and bells. The Wodaabe Gerewol festival is one of the more famous examples of this style of repeating, hypnotic, and percussive choral traditions, accompanied by swaying line dancing called Yaake, where the men interlink arms and rise and fall on their toes.
If a Wodaabe man is not handsome (according to their aesthetic criteria), he must compete with what is called “togu.” This includes a seductive voice, an intense gaze, a sense of humour, friendliness, sociability, and so on.
When a woman notices the man she likes among all those dancing, she moves forward to touch him gently, and if he looks back at her, she lowers her eyes in acceptance. He then approaches her to talk, and over the next few days, they meet to chat and get to know each other better.
To participate in the Gerewol, the marriageable young women must have menstruated before the festival to prepare themselves to have sex with the chosen Wodaabe man. This could result in a one-night affair or last longer, sometimes culminating in marriage.
After the festival
Sometimes, the relationship doesn’t take off in the Gerewol, but if the man is very much in love, he meets her as often as it takes to convince her, even if this means walking several or many kilometres to her camp.
However, in the Wodaabe tradition, marriage is not “forever”. If a married woman establishes a relationship with another man at the Gerewol festival, he is allowed to come for her and “kidnap” her at night, taking her to his camp. His family then accepts her, but she sleeps in a secluded place until she dissolves her relationship with her prior lover.
This begins a process that can last several days. The abandoned husband may try to convince the abductor not to take his lover, but the new suitor rejects his pleas. Meanwhile, the woman moves closer to her new lover’s camp each night until she officially renounces her former lover.
If things go well with the new partner, it will last as long as their love lasts. They can find new partners in the next Gerewol if things don’t work out. Some women may have several husbands, although they can only keep the children of their current husband or orphans if they are widowed.
The Gerewol is undoubtedly one of the most fantastic spectacles to be seen in Africa. It is one of the only African cultures which allows girls to take the lead in choosing their betrothed, and even married women have the right to take a different man as a sexual partner.
