Niger: The Wodaabe Beauty Contest and the Sahel's Ancient Crossroads
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The Gerewol is a festival of the Wodaabe people — nomadic Fulani cattle herders who travel the Sahel of Niger, Chad, and surrounding countries — in which men compete in beauty contests. Men spend hours applying intricate makeup, wearing elaborate headdresses, and performing dances in which they roll their eyes and display their teeth to emphasise physical features the Wodaabe consider beautiful: white teeth, the whites of the eyes, high cheekbones, and a long, narrow nose. Women judges select the most attractive men. The reversal of conventional beauty contest dynamics — women judging men — is entirely deliberate and entirely Wodaabe.
Niger is the largest country in West Africa and among the most sparsely populated, because most of its territory is Sahara Desert. The southern strip — the Sahel — is the productive zone, where millet, sorghum, and cowpeas are grown and where cattle herders like the Wodaabe move with their animals following seasonal pastures. The Air Mountains in the north rise dramatically from the desert and contain Tuareg communities who have navigated the Sahara for centuries.
Agadez — the ancient Tuareg city in the Air Mountains — was a medieval trans-Saharan trade hub of considerable importance, the point where caravan routes from sub-Saharan West Africa converged before crossing the desert to North Africa. The Grand Mosque of Agadez, with its distinctive mud-brick minaret bristling with wooden poles, is one of the great examples of Saharan architecture. The city's crafts tradition — particularly leatherwork and silver jewellery — continues in workshops that have been in the same families for generations.
