Natural Environments and Culture of the Wodaabe Tribe of Niger

Abstract

Many people tend to perceive minorities who lived with long-standing tradition and culture under difficult geographical circumstances and conditions as barbaric and inferior. However, the value of the world’s unique tradition, culture, and natural environment inherited from ancestors should be newly illuminated through research. Wodaabe tribes, the last nomadic tribe in West Africa, have lived with nature for a long time. Their geographic isolation allowed the indigenous traditions to remain intact. This study, first, analyzes the natural ecosystems where they have to move with their livestock based on the geographic characteristics, and to survive the rainy and dry seasons. Their ethnic identity and economic survival are based on livestock raising cattle raising. So their ethnic identity is closely related to the natural environment. Second, this study examines the world view of the Wodaabe people: to coexist with nature, even as they are compelled to move to several places owing to the effects of climate and seasons on livestock farming. They make different interpretations depending on what they apply to their own situations and geographic conditions. The third aim is to investigate the value of the Gerewol festival and to find out the significance of this festival in their lives from the aspect of a taboo art. Through this study on cultural minority, it intends to reflect on the diversity of the world and its unique traditions