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Festivals & Celebrations

Gerewol: The Festival Where Men Compete to Be Beautiful

Once a year in the Sahel, Wodaabe men paint their faces, line up and dance for hours, while women judge who is the most beautiful. Here is the story of Gerewol.

By Amos Hope Jnr · · 3 min read

Illustration of Wodaabe men with painted faces, beads and feathered headdresses performing at Gerewol

As the sun drops over the Sahel, a line of tall young men forms on the sand. Their faces are painted red and yellow, their lips blackened, their eyes rimmed with dark kohl. White ostrich feathers rise from their turbans. For hours, they will sway, chant and roll their eyes, baring their teeth in wide smiles — because tonight, they are being judged. This is Gerewol, the celebrated festival of the Wodaabe people, and it may be the only beauty contest in the world where the men are on display and the women decide.

Who are the Wodaabe?

The Wodaabe are nomadic cattle herders of the Sahel, found mainly in Niger and Chad, with communities in Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic. They are a branch of the vast Fulani (Fulbe) people, who stretch across West Africa from Senegal to Sudan, and they speak a dialect of Fulfulde. They are Muslim, but have kept many older customs, and they are known for their pride in their traditions and their long, arduous migrations with their herds of zebu cattle.

When and where

Gerewol takes place once a year, usually around September, at the end of the rainy season, when the grass is green, the cattle are fat, and scattered families can gather in one place. The location changes from year to year. The best-known gathering is at In-Gall, near Agadez in northern Niger, where the Wodaabe camp alongside the Tuareg during the Cure Salée — the "salt cure," when herders bring their animals to graze on mineral-rich pastures.

The festival lasts several days. By day there is trading, courtship and the renewal of friendships; at night, the dancing begins.

Beauty, Wodaabe style

The Wodaabe have a clear idea of male beauty, and the makeup is designed to emphasise it:

  • Height and slimness — ostrich feathers and tall turbans add inches.
  • A long, narrow face and nose — emphasised by a painted line down the forehead and nose.
  • Bright white eyes and teeth — set off by black kohl around the eyes and blackened lips. Dancers roll their eyes and grin widely to show them off.
  • Grace, stamina and charm — the ability to keep dancing, smiling and chanting for hours.

Men spend hours preparing, helping each other with paint, beads, cowrie shells and embroidered tunics.

The dances

The Yaake is the heart of the festival. The men stand shoulder to shoulder in a long line, on tiptoe to seem taller, and perform a slow, rhythmic dance, singing in a hypnotic chorus. Three young women, chosen by elders for their patience and fairness, walk along the line, inspecting each dancer, and finally step forward to indicate the man each has chosen as the most beautiful.

A second dance, the Gerewol itself, involves two lineages competing, with red face paint and a more intense rhythm. On the last night, dancing can continue until dawn. Dancers sometimes drink a bark-based infusion that they believe gives them energy.

Love and marriage

Gerewol is also a time of courtship. Wodaabe first marriages are usually arranged within the family, but the festival allows for love matches: a woman may choose a man she admires, and the two may go on to form a relationship or a marriage. This freedom for women, and the open celebration of male beauty, has fascinated visitors for decades — though the Wodaabe themselves see it simply as their way.

Men dressing with such care has a parallel elsewhere on the continent: the sapeurs of Congo make elegance a philosophy, in a very different setting.

Pressures on a tradition

Life in the Sahel is becoming harder. Drought and desertification are shrinking pastures; insecurity in parts of Niger and Chad has disrupted migration routes and reduced visitor numbers. Some families have given up herding for towns. Yet Gerewol continues, and younger Wodaabe still prepare for it with the same intensity as their parents.

Why it matters

Gerewol turns many assumptions upside down: here, men are judged on beauty and charm, and women do the choosing. It is also a reminder of how a nomadic people, living in one of the world's toughest environments, make room each year for joy, art and dance. As the Wodaabe themselves put it, in the words of a well-known saying, beauty is a kind of wealth — and they are rich.

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