Wodaabe Culture of Wife-Stealing and other Uniqueness of the Wodaabe Culture: A Niger Republic Experience

Culture is culture whether it's Western, Asian, Sight l South American or African. We must place emphasis on respecting our different cultures. These cultures were developed from the traditional norms and customs of the people in the past. Today everyone wants to align with the Western cultures, but most of them don't know the process of evolutions it has gone through before it became what it is today. In today's post we look at the Wodaabe people from the Niger Republic. There culture looks awkward but we must learn from the positives and understand that must of the people practicing it today were initiated into these cultural heritage by their parents. Let's see Wodaabe in full. Greetings from @salvadornkpara.

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Geographical Location of the Wodaabe People
Geographical the Wodaabe people are located in several parts of West and central Africa namely; Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and some parts of Democratic Republic of Congo. Wodaabe people are Fulani people, but are described by other Fulani tribes as Wild-Fulani.

Marriage and childbearing
One of the main reasons of writing this post is in the area of marriage and the cultural practices associated with marriage. Wodaabe are largely polygamist and marriages are often arranged by parents. Once a bride is impregnated by her husband, she moves back home with her mother to take care of the child. After the birth of the child, the woman becomes a “boofeydo” (a pariah or taboo) and both the wife and the husband are not permitted to speak with each other for a few years.Source This aspect of marriage amazes me because of the wife and the husband just got married for a year period and the child comes that's the end of the marriage. Then what's the joy of being married. The woman can get another man for herself if the husband was not interested in her any longer. One of the colorful aspects of the culture is the part of stealing a wife from her husband. This is legal according to the Wodaabe culture and the husband does nothing to retrieve his wife from the wife-thief.

Lineage-group membership doesn't exclude people from Teegal marriages, but such marriages often cause friction. They usually involve "wife-stealing," often with the consent of the woman but never with that of her husband. Teegal marriage is also a source of friction between the new wife and previous ones. More wives means that fewer resources, such as milk from the husband's herd, are allocated to each. Eloping in a Teegal marriage that carries little stigma allows a Wodaabe woman considerable freedom, but she must leave her children with the ex-husband. The system guarantees the children's place in society while permitting spontaneity and flexibility to the parents.Source

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Gerewol ceremony
The most important ceremony among the Wodaabe is the Gerewol, where men compete to be selected by women as the most beautiful. The men will sing, dance, and model themselves to appear attractive to women. After the beauty contest, the winners may or may not sleep with the women. It all depends on the woman’s wish.Source This kind of festival and ceremony gives the woman a upper hand to make her choice of man and not the man making his choice of woman. It's important that all culture concerning relationship must not be the same. Wodaabe culture to me is very unique in it's own. The major thing that surprises me is the fact that these men are herders who usually carry cattles around to feed them. How come they're very committed to their culture.

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What's the Usefulness of women in Wodaabe
Wodaabe women have more sexual freedom than their significant others and may sleep with two men (at the same time) before marriage. If a woman marries an unattractive man, the husband will allow her to sleep with an attractive man to produce better-looking babies, since beauty is held in such high regard within the culture.Source

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Culture they said is the way of life of a people. The Wodaabe culture to me is very important to study and research upon to understand better why they do what they do instead of condemning the totality of the cultural practices. I think every culture have what visitors could emulate from and also have what people will definitely condemn. Study more about the Wodaabe culture for yourself.