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Pageant Contestant

Portrait of a young Wodaabe man during the celebration of the Gerewol festival (Chad).

 

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The Wodaabe, are a nomadic subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group, primarily found in Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad.

The Gerewol is their annual courtship ritual competition that occurs each year as the traditionally nomadic Wodaabe cattle herders gather at the southern edge of the Sahara before dispersing south on their dry season pastures.

This is a beauty pageant for the young men so that they might be selected by the girls of the tribe.

Young men dressed in elaborate ornamentation and made up in traditional face painting gather in lines to dance and sing, vying for the attentions of marriageable young women.

 

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Uploaded on November 7, 2025
Taken on September 28, 2023