Graceful aliens and the Gerivol festival: Nina Shatskaya visited the Fulani tribe

It is these people who hold a male beauty contest in Niger

Traveling to West Africa has always been considered an extremely exotic vacation. However, such adventures attract more and more tourists from all over the world. The diva of Russian romance, performer of jazz and lyrical ballads, Honored Artist of Russia Nina Shatskaya also made an unforgettable trip to these colorful places. She spoke about her wanderings in the west of the Black Continent on the pages of MK.

For me, there has long been no doubt that the quality of a trip depends on the host, and fortunately, I was lucky again with the guide…

Mika, in addition to his knowledge of local customs, a wonderful sense of humor and focus on my preferences, turned out to be a popular person – wherever we went, be it a museum, a restaurant, a border post or a nature reserve, he was greeted with open arms everywhere.

Therefore, when, on the road from Senegal to Gambia, Mika suggested that we look into the village of his fellow Fulani tribesmen, I agreed without hesitation.

Having stocked up on goodies – tea, sugar, soap and children’s joy – Chupa Chups – after a couple of hours of travel, we reached the village, or rather, several straw huts near the road…

Without going into details, I’ll tell you about the largest tribe in the world, nomads and herders – the Fulani…

Firstly, it was a discovery for me that it is the Fulani tribe that holds the Geriwol festival in Niger, which I have been dreaming of attending for at least 10 years. The essence of the festival is a male beauty contest, the subject of evaluation is the whiteness of the teeth and whites of the eyes, which is emphasized by bright makeup. Young men dressed in festive clothes dance to the roar of drums, grin furiously and roll their eyes. The girls choose the main handsome man, and here comes a very delicate moment for me.

While dreaming about Geriwol, I never thought about what the Fulani fair sex looked like. I received the answer yesterday… They look like aliens… Very tall, with incredibly narrow, harmoniously built bodies. Their proportions, slender profiles, fragile wrists and ankles are strikingly graceful, and their chests and flat stomachs seem devoid of internal organs.

At the same time, quite recently, elf girls were married off at the age of 12-13, and only in recent years has the age of marriage risen to 16-17. Of course, there can be no talk of marriage for love; the union is created by agreement of the parents. The newlyweds are given a separate hut, the groom’s parents, as a sign of the seriousness of their intentions, give the newlyweds a herd of cows – the main value and concern of nomadic men…

As for women, their main concern and wealth are children, and given that polygamy is allowed in the Muslim tribe, children from different wives are not separated, they are looked after by the whole family. …Fulani women are for the most part provocatively beautiful, moreover, beauty is considered a cult in the tribe.

Already in early childhood, girls’ ears are rolled, they are dressed up in bright, flowing dresses that highlight the golden-reddish skin tone, the result of a mixture of Berber and Guinean blood.

The only thing that confused me about the Fulani traditions was not even the scars on the faces, inflicted at an early age as a sign of belonging to the tribe. The girls’ chins and gums tattooed in black look creepy.

The essence of the ritual is the girls’ ability to endure pain; the process of tattooing, endured with dignity, becomes the key to an easy birth, a kind of agreement with the Creator about the opportunity to be heard during the process of prayer…