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Cure Salee

Cure Salee Trip

Caravan Itinerary –

Thurs, Sept 14th  - Depart Abuja for Maradi, Niger.  The drive is approximately 8-10 hours.  Overnight Maradi Guest House

Friday, Sept 15th – Depart Maradi for Tahoua .  We will meet up with and caravan with a group from a CLO trip coming from Niamey.  Arrive in In-Gall and overnight in tents. 

Saturday, Sept 16th – Cure Salee Festival and overnight in tents

Sunday, Sept 17th – Cure Salee Festival and overnight in tents or possible overnight trip to Agadez.

Monday, Sept 18th – Return to Abuja

We will be camping within the Governor of Tahoua’s compound in In-Gall for security, with a latrine, bathing & cooking water provided. You will need to bring your own food and drinking water.  There is no hotel in In-Gall.

Let me know as soon as possible if you want to go and if you can drive.  We will need 3-4 SUVs.  The trip should not cost more than $300 even with an overnight in Agadez.  If we decide to go to Agadez for an overnight, we will be staying at the l'Auberge D'Azel  http://www.agadez-tourisme.com/en/index_en.html.

Following is some information on the festival.

The thunder of rainy season in Niger lasts from August through September. As the rains become less frequent, the nomads of Niger gather to celebrate. The Wodaabe, one of the only Fulani groups to wholly preserve their traditionally nomadic life have gathered, as they do every year, at the Cure Salee (Salt Festival) in InGall and they are dancing.

Ideas about the origins of the Fulani range from Iran to Egypt; their nomadic lifestyle takes them nearly as far. Animal husbandry is at their essence; milk from long horned zebu cattle, along with millet, is a staple in their diet. Ancestral migration routes take the Fulani from the south, where the rains begin, to the north. When dry season is at hand, they will migrate from well to well, until the rains begin again.

These Wodaabe are in the InGall area to provide their animals with salt; some will travel as far north as Tiggidi n’Tessoum where salt is gathered in crystallized cakes from evaporative pools of water. The tradition, possibly hundreds of years old, is not easy to maintain and even the Cure Salee—an event that dates back nearly a 100 years under the name “Zulee,”—is, each year, increasingly formalized, government influenced, and organized with tourists in mind.

There is a small window in time for nomads and their traditions—and the spectacle of the Wodaabe dancers is a glance through it.

The Wodaabe men show their beauty, and search for beauty—in the shiny zippers, locks and keys incorporated into their gris gris good luck charms; in the designs embroidered into their their ankle-length embroidered tunics. Lines of red, orange, yellow, and blue represent themes of a winding road, snake, visitor and encampments. The tunics may take as many as six months of a woman’s work. They seem to be designed to accent the men's curved narrow waists and elongated features. Below the tunics the men wear tanned goat skins, thin and supple.

Leather arm-bands hung with feathers and cowrie shells emphasize the lissome arms and thin fingers. Chests and backs are criss-crossed with strings of white beads.

The reds, greens, yellow, oranges and blues of the intricately embroidered indigo and black striped clothes are lost as the sun sets on the marketplace and darkness deepens.

They descend and rise as it begins. Clapping, slowly, slowly. “Ya Naaaa,” “Ya Naaaa.”

This dance, the yaake, brings attention to the features the Wodaabe consider most important: eyes and teeth. This is why the eyes roll and widen; why the cheeks puff and split. But with this dance it is not only the physical features they display, charm and charisma are at work as well.

The line of dancers ebbs and flows. A poem is woven as they call and respond. Each person in turn chooses a word to call and the others repeat. It is like a game—who will call next? Who will choose the next word?

Text and photos of Wodaabe Dancers are from National Geographic.com.

Here are some links to more information and images.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/dinoquest/profile_01_dispatch3.html

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=In-Gall+Niger