▷ Trip to Chad: Gerewol and Red Arabs

FULLY BOOKED | 7th - 15th Oct. 2022 (9 d./ 8 n.) / TRIP COMPLETED

Trip designed to witness the Gerewol ceremony in Chad.
During the month of October, the Peul-Bororo nomadic herders gather in the Dourbali region, three hours from N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. This gives us the opportunity to live with one of the most exciting peoples of the African Sahel and see the unfolding of its culture and aesthetic beauty during the three days that the ceremony lasts, which is based on unifying the clans and that the Mbororo women find a partner The men unfold their full potential to attract the girls who are looking for a partner and we will be living with the different clans to be able to enjoy and photograph all this ethnographic spectacle.
During these ten days of travel we will also visit other nomadic Peul communities and the Red Arabs who camp near Lake Chad during the month of October.

The guide for the trip will be Aníbal Bueno, ethno-photographer, great connoisseur of Chad and its landscapes and tribal societies. More information about the guide.

Gerewol Festival

Annual festival of the Peul-Mbororo or also Woodabe They are nomadic shepherds and are taller from the rest. Their facial features are slim and have a natural elegance which they complement with a delicate worship of body beauty. Many of them will say they are Islamic, but all of them preserve animistic beliefs and perform ancestral magic and fetishism practices. Their medicinal treats and talismans are very much in demand from other tribes. They also keep a very special and unique relationship with cattle. The Woodabe, as nomadic shepherds, move their herds according to season. In July and August, they look for the green pastures after occasional rains, and then they take their animals to the In Gail area to have the “salty cure”. This is the so called Worso, when several clans gather and gossip about latest news (weddings, births, dead ones), they can solve misunderstandings, perform rituals of initiation to adulthood and organize camel races. Also, to prepare the ceremony which is about to start: the Gerewol. The ceremony lasts several hours and its main objective is to call the attention of the women, who are also dressed up for the occasion, and join individually to the dance to point at the man who have chosen. She esdo so by touching the man’s heart with her hand, and after this, the couple disappears into the night.