Wodaabe Dancer

Date

1981

Description

Creator of the image: Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher
Date of the image creation: 1981
Medium of the image: Photograph
Person depicted: The winner of a Wodaabe Yaake dance

This photograph was taken in 1981 in Niger when Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher were observing a week-long Wodaabe courtship ritual called the ‘Gerewol’. The Wodaabe are a small, customary nomadic group of cattle-herders and traders who lived across the Sahel. The Gerewol ritual was the focus of a documentary film by Werner Herzog (1989) ‘Herdsmen of the Sun’. The photographers describe the Yaake dance as one of the highlights of the Gerewol:

‘Wodaabe male charm dancers from Niger perform the competitive Yaake dance. The men lighten their skins with yellow powder, lengthen their noses with a long line and brighten their eyes and teeth with an outline of kohl. The men change their facial expressions every few seconds, emphasizing their beautiful teeth and eyes. The winner, in the middle [the man reproduced here], shows off his charisma by holding one eye still and rolling the other from side to side, making him irresistible to his female judges.’

According to their website: ‘Thirty years of work on the African continent have carried Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher across 270,000 miles and through remote corners of 40 countries in exploration of more than 150 African cultures. In the process, this team of world-renowned photographers has produced fourteen widely acclaimed books and made four films about traditional Africa. They have been granted unprecedented access to African tribal rites and rituals and continue to be honored worldwide for their powerful photographs documenting the traditional ceremonies of cultures thousands of years old. As an intrepid team of explorers, they are committed to preserving sacred tribal ceremonies and African cultural traditions all too vulnerable to the trends of modernity.’

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