Wodaabe - Herdsmen Of The Sun

April 28, 2010 7:52 PM

Short segments from Wodaabe - Die Hirten der Sonne. Nomaden am Südrand der Sahara (Herdsmen of the Sun), a 1989 documentary by Werner Herzog.
posted by puny human (6 comments total)

Where to begin?

Top left corner: Hidden somewhere in this noisy, chaotic morass of society is our fellow traveller -- Waldo; A man unstuck from place and time..
posted by Anything at 9:57 PM on April 28, 2010

Thanks. For contrast, a regular National Geographic video on Guérewol. I love Herzog's documentaries, and one thing they always make me think about is the meaning(fulness) of the concept documentary.

(The strange voice in the first Herzog clip belongs to Alessandro Moreschi.)
posted by The Mouthchew at 2:43 AM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Wodaabe are awesome. I read a National Geographic article on them ages ago called "People of the Taboo" (can't find it online, but it was written in 1983, it seems). One of the men tried to get the writer of the piece to stay with him and be his (second or third) wife, but she politely declined, despite the fact that the Wodaabe are the (self-proclaimed) "most beautiful people in the world."

I also remember reading that the Wodaabe consider the whites of the eyes to be particularly attractive, so the men would line up for a dose of the writer's eye-drops before they danced.
posted by duvatney at 7:35 AM on April 29, 2010

They are weirdly beautiful. If aliens landed on Earth, and asked me to where the most beautiful people on our planet were, I'd tell them to go see the Wodaabe. Might as well, right?
posted by Xoebe at 9:32 AM on April 29, 2010

Thanks so much for this post, puny human, I had never heard of that documentary. I love this culture. Someday I would like to take one of these nomad tours - but there have been a few discouraging incidents in recent years.

I made a post on the Wodaabe several years ago - the main link is broken but can be found here: Wife Thief.
posted by madamjujujive at 3:21 PM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

- I think I remember that issue duvatney. MY parents had a closetful going back to the seventies.

- That was a nice post madamjuju. The customs and ways link is very informative.

- here they are on the cover of the Ornette Coleman album Virgin Beauty.
posted by puny human at 6:30 PM on April 29, 2010