Planning and Implementation Tug Of War

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By Madaraka Katana Balancing planning and implementation is one of the most significant challenges faced by leaders in community-driven projects. I’ve come to understand this deeply through my personal journey, serving in dual roles as Operations Manager at RegisTree, a community-based waste management and composting enterprise, and Chairperson of Dabaso Youth for Green Future, a youth-led organization focused on environmental action and empowering sustainable livelihoods. From the outside, planning and implementation may look like two natural stages of a project. One lays the foundation, and the other builds on it. But in reality, these stages often conflict, overlap, or even clash, especially in a grassroots setup where time, support, and resources are thin. Where the Struggles Begin Sometimes, the greatest challenge lies in spending so much time planning that implementation never really begins. You draft strategies, create to-do lists, organize meetings, and map out grand visions, b...
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The Wodaabe Wife Sterling Festival- The African Traditions

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 In Africa, we believe that the man is responsible to sadduce a lady when he wants to start a relationship, women naurish their beauty with makeup and all sought of things to attract men for marriage. When you come to the wodaabe tribe, things are the opposite.
What is unique about their culture? Join me in yet another episode of my culture and learn more about the wodaabe and their controversial courtship dance.
The wodaabe courtship dance

The wodaabe and their cultural survival.

The wodaabe also known as mbororo 
Or bororo are a sub-group of the fulani living in the Sahel region.
They are about 200,000 in population.
Thay are nomads and they usually travel with their cattles and families in the semi arid regions of Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and The Central African Republic.
The wodaabe are usually divided into 15 lineages.
The lineages are classified according to blood and they are supposed to move together as they are searching for pasture.
Their food is mostly milk and serials which they get from trading with their neighbours.
Beef is only eaten during ceremonies among the wodaabe 

Marriage and Courtship

Their are two type of marriages among the wodaabe:  The Koobegal marriages is the only marriage allowed among members of the same linage. It is planned right from the birth of the child and it should be known to elders too. 
The other type of marriage is The Teegal marriages. This one takes place during the Gerewol ceremonies. 
It involves wife stealing traditions.
The Gerewol (wife stealing festival)

The Grewol ceremony

This ceremony happen once in a year. It happens at the end of the rainny season and its date is not known nor the place where it will be performed untill a day before.
During this ceremony, all the lineages come together and a dance is arranged done by the young boys.
The boys are supposed to decorate their faces with red clay, use eyeliners on their eyelashes to make them appear light and also wear a shade of lipstick to make their teeth appear white 
A wodaabe man applying makeup

During the dance, the men are supposed to roll their eyes and show their white teeth so as to attract the women.
Wodaabe men showing their white teeth to
attract brides

The girls are supposed to have undergone menstruation some days before as after the ceremony, they will be allowed to have sex with the man they have chosen if the man accept. This would last for only a night or can continue and lead to marriage.

The wife stealing friction.

It's during the ceremony where a woman who is already married can come and look for another husband. This here is done with the concert of the wife but not the husband.
The man who will succeed to run steal a woman without being seen will be alloys to marry her by the elders.
The woman here is given freedom but she should leave the children to the Ex husband.

If a husband is infertile, he may ask his tribesman to impregnate his wife and in some cases, men would allow their husband to have sex with the most handsome men so as to have handsome and beautiful children.
Children are seen as a sign of wealth and labour.
Cattle was a source of wealth and it was rare to eat them. They were purely vegetarians eating cereals an milk.

The Gerewol ceremonies and other traditions were performances for themselves hence the culture of the wodaabe is not much known by many. Not many tourists have witnessed this type of the dance.

Read, enjoy, leave a comment and share the interesting cultural journey with others. Don't forget to follow me regularly for more about "my culture.







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