CHAD
“We need to take a moment now and then to trade stories about what it really means to be a human being.” –
Chris Rainier
My “Still Points in a Turning World” magazine is now available for purchase!
In Chad’s Sahel desert, the nomadic Wodaabe people spend months on the move, searching out pastures for their herds and shelter for their families. Once a year, when the rains are good, the clans come together to celebrate an extraordinary courtship ritual and beauty contest called The Gerewol ... and it's the men who are on parade. The Wodaabe men in feathered headdresses, their faces wildly painted, wear technicolor dreamcoats with colorful beads and amulets. They stomp their feather-tasseled staffs on the ground and their sashes of plastic whistles jangle together and add to the mesmerizing beat. The intensity rises throughout the night; the coaches fire up the dancers in their charge, to achieve a trance state. It is a test of their endurance.
As the dance continues, the men bat their eyes and smile widely chanting loudly as they compete for the favor of the young female judges who have been chosen to decide the winners of the contest. Finally, after hours of dancing and singing, the judges shyly approach their selected winners indicating their choice with a soft gesture of their hand. The festival continues and many different romantic arrangements are made. Some for the night, some for a lifetime. All is possible at the Gerewol…