webPulaaku
Ethnologie/Anthropologie
Mette Bovin
Nomads Who Cultivate Beauty.
Woɗaaɓe Dances and Visual Arts in Niger
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. Uppsala, Sweden. 2001. 110 p.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Chapter 1. — Meeting Woɗaaɓe Nomads
Our first meeting
Wodaaɓe: “The People of the Taboos”
The Fulani people
Chapter 2. — The importance of beauty
Words for beauty, and making oneself beautiful
The first story: The mirror and the ox
The second story: The search for saffron-coloured clay
The third story: Yiɗi, the beautiful girl who lost an eye
Narcissism
The young male dancer and the ideal look
On beauty and charm.
The young female dancer and the ideal look
Chapter 3. — The symmetrical principle in cattle, the human face, body paintings and tattoos
Aesthetics conceming cattle
The human face
Designs and structures in designs
Colour symbolism
The material in Woɗaaɓe Costumes
Fashion changes over time
Chapter 4. — Making-up before dancing
Chapter 5. — The dance performances
Dances and songs of beauty, seduction and love
The dancers
Feathers of seduction
Performance 1: Ruume
Performance 2: Borno
Performance 3: Yaake
Performance 4: Moosi
Performance 5: Jeerewol
Performance 6: Jooyde and Ji'ere
Woɗaaɓe performances compared with Fulɓe Soro
Chapter 6. — Racism or “ethnocentrism”
To be red-skinned, boɗeejo
The importance of “having nose”
The ethnic hierarchies
Chapter 7. — Why the cult of male beauty? Exoticism
Chapter 8. — Woɗaaɓe architectural aesthetic—“nomadic aesthetic”
The spatial organization of a Woɗaaɓe camp
Number symbolism and balance
Chapter 9. — Poetry and gender roles
Beauty in poetry
“Mr. Woɗaaɓe” not “Miss Woɗaaɓe”
Jealousy and love stories
“Dance is like war”
Chapter 10. — Conclusions: Cultural archaism and self-exhibition
Summary in Danish
Literature
Newspapers and magazines
Films
Appendix: Photographs
