Trip to the Gerewol Wodaabe Festival, nomads and Gerewol Festival of Lake Chad together with Ennedi
We present a new trip to Chad in which we will combine attendance at the classic Gerewol festival of the Wodaabe nomads, one of the most impressive in Central Africa.
We will continue to the Lake Chad basin, where we will visit the fascinating cattle camp of the Boudouma with their thick-horned Kouri cows. In this region of Lake Chad we will also stop at another interesting nomadic camp to witness a rare ‘Gerewol’ of the Yayai people, very different from the Wodaabe.
We will continue to the north to reach the Ennedi plateau where we will spend several days touring its formidable landscapes of rock and sand. A proposal of culture, landscape and nature that turns out to be one of the most spectacular and complete options to discover CHAD.
Travelling to Chad in October
October is a month of seasonal change, a transition from rainy to dry season in Chad. It is likely to rain in the centre of the country and you may find tracks and roads flooded in the rain. Days are very hot with temperatures in the 40s.
That said, and knowing that the weather conditions are not the best, the month of October offers travellers visiting Chad an explosion of nomadic cultures all along the way. This is something you won’t find in any other month of the year.
In all likelihood, we will encounter dozens of nomadic groups on the move. Some of them will provide us with the most memorable images we will take away from our journey.
If you are interested in nomadic cultures combined with the landscapes of the Ennedi, this is the trip for you.
3 days with the Wodaabe at the Gerewol festival
Towards the end of September and during the month of October, coinciding with the end of the rainy season, the Wodaabe Gerewol festival, one of the biggest cultural spectacles in this part of the African continent. It’s not easy to get there, but it’s well worth the effort.
Every year, two large Wodaabe clans (the Sudu-Sukaya and the Njadpto) gather around Dourbali for an impressive ‘beauty contest’. Their aim is to find a mate, as these nomadic pastoralist families have few opportunities to socialise in their nomadic daily lives.
The Gerewol is a ceremony where men dance and compete to be the most beautiful. The women are the judges and can choose their future husband.
The Woodabe are one of the largest nomadic peoples in Africa, belonging to the large Peul or Fulani family.
For the Wodaabe or Bororo (Peul nomads) there are three essential motives in life:
- The personal aspect. They proclaim themselves to be the most beautiful people in the world.
- Cattle. Cows with big horns are their most precious commodity.
- Family and clan relations.
As a result of this cult of aesthetics, the Wodaabe are an unmistakable ethnic group. The men wear tunics and turbans and shave the front of their heads to keep their foreheads clear. The women wear dark tones in everyday life and bright colours at parties. Their hairstyle usually includes two braids that frame their face and give them magical protection. Both have numerous facial tattoos.
During the festival, men will be seen applying elaborate make-up to enhance their attractiveness during the dances that take place at dusk and in the evening.
This trip to Gerewol in Chad is therefore a unique opportunity to get closer to the different nomadic cultures of the Sahel. If you want to know more about the Wodaabe and the Gerewol Festival, visit our blog post: Travel to Chad’s Gerewol.
Lake Chad Basin
The exciting Lake Chad region is one of the most culturally attractive in the Sahel. It is the crossroads of four different countries, and a semi-aquatic labyrinth full of islands. Different ethnic groups such as Fulanis, Boudoumas, Arabs, Kredas or Kanouris, all of them different, live and graze there.
After numerous journeys in Lake Chad and its basin, deepening and investigating their sedentary and transhumant cultures, we have located many of the largest nomadic Fulani and Boudoumas cattle camps.
Buduma herders, ‘the people of the pastures’ (or the people who know how to swim).
We will travel to a gigantic seasonal camp of the Boudouma with their impressive Kouri cows, endemic to Lake Chad and very recognisable by their thick horns that help them to swim between islands. At this time of year they are found around Lake Chad.
The rare Gerewol (Gero) festival of the nomadic Yayai of Lake Chad
We continue to discover the nomadic cultures of the Lake Chad region to try to locate another huge nomadic cattle camp. That of the nomadic Yayai belonging to the great Fulani family.
Gimul and Gero (similar to Gerewol) of the Yayai nomads. Celebration, dance, beauty and courtship:
During our visit to the Yayais we will witness a powerful celebration consisting of two highly energetic ritual dances. One is the Gero (with many similarities to the Gerewol festival) and the other is the frenetic Gimul, where men and women mix.
Fantasy landscapes on the Ennedi plateau
After attending the Gerewol festival and visiting the nomadic groups of the Lake Chad Basin, we will head for northern Chad. If you thought you had an adventure at the Gerewol, another highlight awaits.
We will travel to the Ennedi Plateau (UNESCO), considered one of the most spectacular deserts in the world.
Travelling to Ennedi is like being on another planet. It is not a ‘monotonous’ desert, quite the opposite.
Ennedi is home to canyons, ravines, oases and one of the largest collections of stone arches in the world. There are also numerous cave paintings depicting nomadic life thousands of years ago, as well as wildlife including the beautiful desert foxes or fennecs, even ostriches.
The day begins with the sunrise cutting through the stone formations, and ends with the star-studded night. We move around in 4×4 cars with local guides and drivers, making numerous stops to walk and experience the desert.
In Kumakonda we always choose the most spectacular places to camp, but they are not hard to find. Around every bend, around every corner of this desert, the views are incredible.
In addition to the scenery and nature, along the way we will meet fascinating ethnic groups, many of them nomadic, such as Arabs, Tubus or Fulani. These will be new opportunities to interact with the local people and observe their way of life around livestock and water wells.
