Before we go into the details of the Wodaabe Wife Stealing festival, let us take some time to understand the History and Culture of the Wodaabe people.
The History and Culture of the Wodaabe Tribe
The Wodaabe are nomadic cattle-rearers and traders of the Sahel region in Africa.
Their migratory journeys stretch over the expanse of northern Africa, where they travel with their cattle and family across the arid regions of Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic.
The Wodaabe are a small, isolated branch of the Fulani ethnic group. They are so small that in 2001 had an estimated number of 100,000.
Neighboring tribes consider them to be wild, uncivilized people and labeled them as Mbororo or ‘Cattle Fulani’- those who reside in cattle camps.
They speak the Fula language but do not read or write the language. In Fula, woda means ‘taboo’, and Woodabae means ‘people of the taboo.’
This sometimes is translated as “those who respect taboos,” referring to the Wodaabe isolation from broader Fula/Fulani culture, and their satisfaction that they retain older traditions than their Fula neighbors.
The Wodaabe keep herds of long-horned Zebu cattle.
The dry season lasts from October to May. Their annual journey during the wet season follows the rain from the south to the north. Several dozen relatives, particularly several brothers with their wives, children, and elders, travel on foot, camel, or donkey.
They camp at each grazing spot for a couple of days. The most important possession of each family is a large wooden bed, and when camping it is surrounded by some screens.
The Wodaabe women also carry calabashes as a status symbol. The tribe practices polygamy, so a man or a woman may decide to have more than one partner.
Their diet consists of milk and ground millet, yogurt, sweet tea, and oftentimes goat or sheep meat. Wodaabe religion is predominantly Islamic.
Although there are variable degrees of orthodoxy exhibited, most of them adhere to at least some of the basic requirements of the religion.
The Wodaabe code of behavior (pulaaku) emphasizes reserve and modesty (semteende), patience and fortitude (munyal), care and forethought (hakkilo), and loyalty (amana).
The Wodaabe also place great emphasis on beauty and charm as this plays an essential role in their culture.
On the matter of establishing relationships, the responsibility falls to the man who is required to attract the attention of a woman. Because of this, Wodaabe men invest large amounts of time, money, and effort in beautifying themselves.
With this said, let us discuss at length the Wodaabe Wife Stealing Festival, also known as, Gerewol.
The Wodaabe Wife Stealing Festival/Gerewol
At the end of the rainy season in September, these nomads gather to hold festivals in several traditional locations before the beginning of their dry season transhumance migration.
Among these festivals are the In-Galls Cure Salée salt market, the Tuareg festival, and the Gerewol/Wife Stealing Festival.
The Gerewol is the most important of all the annual festivals. It is a 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. They do so for the attention of both marriageable women and wives of other men as the most beautiful.
The Wodaabe male beauty ideal emphasizes tallness, white teeth, and white eyes. Therefore, they are made up to accentuate such features.
They paint their faces with red clay, use eyeliners to make their eyes appear whiter, and wear a shade of lipstick that makes their teeth look whiter. To make themselves appear taller, they wear ostrich feathers in their hair.
Before the festival, the men take up to six hours to get ready to dance and show themselves off.
During the festival, three of the tribe’s most beautiful women are picked to judge the most beautiful of them. The men put on a display through a dance known as the Yaake dance, moving in circles.
Other women, most of whom are wives of other men, admire men they desire to choose as their second husbands. If a man “steals” a wife without being caught, the man automatically becomes her husband and the marriage is accepted.
As the Wodaabe tribe is polygamous in nature, Wife Stealing is widely accepted. However, men who don’t want their wives to be stolen, do not allow them to participate in the festival.
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