The Wodaabe’s wife stealing night dance

The Wodaabe ethnic group can be found in the northern parts of Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, the western region of Central Africa Republic and southwestern Chad. It’s a subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group.

In their customary festivity, members of the community go dancing at night. There is nothing strange with the dance, but one thing is for sure, the whole night is not all about dancing. In the stillness of the night, men are also allowed to steal women from their tribe. It doesn’t matter if the woman is married or not, the man is allowed to keep her unless the woman refuses or her husband catches the man in the process of stealing the woman.