Wodaabe

Religion

Bororo are mainly Moslem. Although the practices take on various degrees of orthodoxy, the majority adheres to the basic principles of this religion. Some called them Moslems " of nom" because of cultural elements contrary not-Moslems with certain precepts of Islam. Islam became an important religion among Bororo during XVIe century when the prophet El Maghili précha among the elites of the north of Nigeria. The sermon of El Maghili brought the conversion of the leading classes among people Hausa, Fulani, and Touareg.

Marriage

Bororo are often polygamous. The marriages are arranged by the parents whereas the engaged couples are still children (called “koogal”). The bride remains with her husband until it is pregnant, turning over then in his/her mother, where it remains during 3 to 4 years. She gives rise to the child in her mother and becomes a “boofeydo then” what means literally, " somebody who made a erreur".

Celebrates of Gereol

Once the year, during the six days and the six nights of the Gereol, Bororos of the Niger forget in the intoxication of the festival that they are people in deferment. During all the year, the Bororos young people await the ceremony of Gereol. This great festival of the rain lasts six days and six nights. Each family clan, represented by his more beautiful dancers, clashes in a beauty contest for men whose jury is consisted the most beautiful girls of the tribe. The dance finishes by the seduction and of the exchanges in love. Bales, drug addicts with the bendore (made decoction of black bark of Banohe, Gypsum crushed and milk), the dancers raise their collars of pearls and Cauri S, their Amulette S and a feather of white ostrich to the face.

The dancers make themselves their behavior. They pass a loincloth of woman on their leather clothing. In the back a chain of cauris hangs, the Barbol, finished by a tiny water-bottle. Thus, these hard pastors are pushed by the worship of their beauty to feminize their aspect. The women do not escape this narcissistic dash. The young girls, avoided innumerable bracelets, prepare with the rites of the seduction. After the dance, they will choose that which, for one night or the life, will divide its layer.

In addition to the elaborate ornaments of which they are covered, the Bororo young women decorate their legs of bronze rings superimposed and polished with mud and sand. These atours, formerly, was carried to the second child. The married women who attend the ceremonies of Gereol show sometimes a great freedom of choice and it sometimes happens to them to disappear with a beautiful dancer.

The guns of beauty are strict but do not prohibit a certain boldness in the choice of the ornaments, such as a Calebasse on the head or of the ultramodern sunglasses. Bororo admire the oval faces, the fine features, the thin and long noses and the white and regular teeth. The dancer will owe farder a long time. He spreads out over his face of the butter mixed with Ocre. The eyes, the lips and the eyebrows are underlined with coal. A continuous yellow feature marries the dorsal line of the nose which it lengthens.

Lifestyle

Gereol is finished. Bororo leave the zones of abundance in search of new pastures. To back of ass, the women follow the herds with a complex loading assuring the survival of the pastors during the dry season. Only drynesses as in the years one thousand and nine hundred and seventy make waver the ecological balance of Bororo, which reconstitute, gradually, their destroyed livestock. The tradition and wisdom are the framework of these courageous people. However, in front of so much of misery, of many Bororo young people leave the wandering life for the shantytowns.

External bonds

Wodaabe information
People off Africa
Wodaabe dancers Photographs from Niger

References

Beckwith, Carol. Nomads off Niger . Harry NR. Abrams, Inc. 1993.

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