In the Woodabe world woman decide the woo-woo
...what with their men having to paint and preen and prance for sexual attention.
The Woodabe, an ancient group of nomadic cattle herders, consider themselves the vainest and most beautiful people on earth.
The clans spend most of their time trekking across the arid Sahel desert in central Africa in smaller family groups.
But in September, at the end of the rainy season, the Woodabe clans gather to celebrate Gerewol – a festival of music, mating and dance that lasts for seven days.
The most spectacular event of the Gerewol is the Yaake where men vie for the title of most beautiful and charming man and dance and sing to impress marriageable women.
The Woodabe ideal of male beauty stresses tallness and white eyes and teeth – the men roll their eyes and show their teeth to emphasize these characteristics.
They spend hours preparing themselves for their big moment. They paint their faces and apply thick, black kohl to highlight the whites of their eyes and show off their teeth.
The men are judged by three of the tribe’s most beautiful women who are usually chosen because their fathers won previous titles.
Also watching are the tribe’s most eligible women who are looking for their next husband.
If they like a man, the women can choose to be ‘stolen’ by one of the better-looking men, leaving their husbands behind. Those who wish to be stolen wait until their favourite man passes by and taps him on the shoulder.
Unmarried girls are allowed to have sex whenever and with whomever they wish.
Unlike the women, the men have relatively little control when it comes to sex. They have no say in whether a woman will run off with them – and even less on whether their own wives will leave them for another man.
And here is the Yaake
The 2010 ethnographic documentary Dance with the Wodaabes by Sandrine Loncke explores the complex cultural significance of Gerewol.
