The Wodaabe wife-stealing festival: Stunning images from the world's vainest tribe

The Wodaabe wife-stealing festival: Stunning images from the world's vainest tribe It’s the world’s most spectacular beauty pageant – that is more fiercely contested than Miss World. At stake? The chance to go down in folklore – and to win the heart of a new wife. Because this competition is not for women, but for the men of the Islamic polygamous Wodaabe tribe - an ancient group of nomadic cattle herders who are the vainest and most beautiful people on earth, so they say. The most important date in the Wodaabe calendar is September at the end of the rainy season when sexually liberated tribe gathers ahead of their transhumance migration – to celebrate Gerewol. Most of the time the tribe spend their time in smaller family groups travelling across the harsh Sahel desert, mainly in Niger. They can also be found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad and Nigeria. After months of trekking through miles of arid desert, Gerewol is the chance for them to come together for a traditional catch up – a festival of music and dance, which last for seven days and nights. Its location is usually kept a closely guarded secret - and is only revealed days before the event is due to take place. And by far the most eye-catching of all the dances is the Yaake – a mating call for men to battle it out for sexual supremacy, perform in front of three female judges. In the ultimate test of male prowess, the Yakke is the highlight of Gerewol, where men’s status as sex gods are set in stone or lie in tatters. o finish the look they put white ostrich feathers in their hair, which makes them appear taller – and they have a white stripe painted down their noses to make them look sharper. The time is worth it: when they step out in front of the expert eyes of the women who line up to watch the display, they are truly spectacular. During the dance the men stand shoulder to shoulder and slowly move in a circle. The men are judged by three of the tribe’s most beautiful women, chosen, normally, because their fathers have won previously won the Yaake. Each female judge gets to choose her own winner – and winning brings with it acclaim and their pick of women in the tribe. Watching on are also the tribe’s most eligible women who are looking for their next husband. If they like a man, the women can chose to be 'stolen' by one of the better-looking men, leaving their husbands behind. Those who wish to be stolen wait until their favourite man passes by and tap them on the shoulder. 'We love to go and watch the men at the Gerewol - one look and they know that you like them,' one of the women told the documentary ‘Wodaabe Dance of Warriors’. The fact that the women watching may already have a husband is not important to this polygamous tribe – because in the Wodaabe women have all the sexual freedom – and are allowed more than one husband. Women have all the power when it comes to sex in the Wodaabe tribe. Unmarried girls are allowed to have sex whenever and with whomever they wish. Their first marriage is traditionally arranged by their families when the couple are children – called koogal – or they can marry because of love and attractions, called teegal. A bride stays with her husband until she becomes pregnant, after which goes to live with her mother. She delivers the baby at her mother's home when she becomes a 'boofeydo', which literally means 'someone who has committed an error'. While she is boofeydo, she is not allowed to have any contact with her husband, and he is not allowed to express any interest in either her or the child. After two to three years, she is permitted to visit her husband, but it is still taboo that she should live with him or bring the child with her; this only becomes permissible when her mother has managed to purchase all the items that are necessary for her home. But by then the woman maybe ready for her second marriage - likely to be men of their own choosing at the Gerewol - and it is all about the looks. Wodaabe, who speak the Fula language and herd long-horned Zebu cattle, is the vainest of the African tribes and consider themselves the most beautiful. No self-respecting man, it is said, would be without his pocket mirror. 'A woman with an ugly husband will try to escape,' a tribal woman observed. 'If she doesn't, it is because she really loves her husband!' Unlike the women, the men have relatively little control when it comes to sex.