This past weekend 4 other PCVs, a guide/friend and I headed out to Gerewol- which turned out to be one of the coolest cultural experiences I've had in Niger....
Gerewol is a big festival held each year around this time for about a week by the Wodaabe- which are a subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group. The festival is pretty much a beauty pageant- for the men. The young Wodaabe men come with elaborate clothes and put on makeup to accentuate the whites of their eyes and teeth. Wodaabe beauty also stresses height, thus the high turbans and feather add height. The Wodaabe are sexually liberal- women come to the event just to check out the men and maybe even hook up with a man for the night.
Wodaabe man putting on makeup
On Friday, we all headed out from Niamey to Abalak on an 11 hour bus ride. When we finally got to Abalak we hopped in an open back truck for about 35k into the bush. Each one of us had loads of questions- we really had no clue as to what Gerewol exactly was until we got there...
When we arrived it was just tents everywhere....not any type of Niger tent, but a tent you would buy from REI- nearly every single Wodaabe has one at the event. We got in at night time, and just heard from a distance the singing going on. When we finally got settled we all headed over to check it out. It was a tight circle of men, standing shoulder to shoulder in all of their makeup and clothes, singing a song. Our guide took us into the middle of the circle- and I could just feel the energy of the entire circle. That night it was almost a full moon, so we could see people but not quite see their faces. They were so interested in us- being tall people they would just bend from all directions to see our faces. People would just come to touch/stroke our hands and arms. It was like they were looking at us as "creatures", but we were doing the same!
On Saturday morning we walked around the festival for a bit. The first place we were at was the men's beauty contest. The men (who are extremely vain and go everywhere looking in their handheld mirror!) put makeup all over their face then line up in a straight line. They have quite a bit of momentum however, and sing and move with the song. Eventually a woman comes and declares the "winner" by kind of like throwing a cloth at them to point them out. During the day there was also a women's housing exposition, where each women had their housewares on display. Several days during the festival there is also a camel race, but we weren’t lucky enough to see it.
Beauty Pageant
That afternoon I got my hair braided- Wodaabe women braid their hair in three braids, one on each side then one in the back, then in the front is a big "poof". No other way to explain it. Luckily, because my hair had been braided for several weeks it was nearly exactly like their hair. It did the poof with no problems! Everyone was interested to come to see if my hair was real- I’ve never had so many people pulling on my hair in my life! As we walked around, what felt like every person there had to talk to me, due to my new hairstyle. When other guys asked our guide about me, he made up a story: "She's also Wodaabe. She's from America. Her father was here at the beginning of the festival, but her mother couldn't make it." People would answer with a "WOW! We knew she was one of us, she has our hair, but we could tell by her nose!" (A defining feature of the Wodaabe tribe is their more pointed nose whereas Zarma's tend to have flatter noses). After hearing so many times that they wanted to marry me off to a Wodaabe, I finally told one women that I was already married. She lit up with excitement and told me we should swap husbands for the night! Which is normal for Wodaabes….
On the last night we were at Gerewol we heard more dancing. Although we were tired we finally went to go see what was going on. When we arrived, there was a dancing circle, but this time the men were singing for the women as they danced. As they were all happily dancing with a few hundred spectators, a prominent Wodaabe man came. The men started talking quietly to the side as everyone went quiet. The entire group broke up; when we asked the women they told us that this man didn’t agree that the men and women could dance together. And with that, due to this one man, the entire party of the night ended.
Overall it was a fantastic time. It was fun to hang out with friends up there and camp out(as if we don’t camp enough already). Unfortunately I don’t speak Fulfulde(the language of the Fulans) so Claudia was constantly translating. But one things for sure- my sign language has vastly improved! Although next time I would bring something better to sleep on- sleeping on just a sheet on the ground isn’t the most comfortable, and definitely doesn’t help with the bugs crawling all over me at night! I even managed to get a short video up of the men’s beauty contest- not the best sound quality but gives an idea of their singing/dancing style. Also check my flickr page for more photos. And with that, Gerewol 2008 is finshed and it's back to the bush again.
The women's housewares exposition
Gerewal video-beauty pageant
