Wooed by The Wodaabe, Niger

The men of the Wodaabe — a North Nigerian tribe and a subgroup of the larger Fulani people — decorate their faces and accentuate their bone structure with colored clay for the annual Gerewol courtship ceremony. They apply black eyeliner and lipstick, then stick ostrich plumes in their hair. The ceremony precedes the rains that relieve the dry season in the Sahara. With the women serving as judges, the dolled-up guys line up and enact a series of facial movements and sounds including eye rolling, tongue clicking and teeth baring. Wodaabe men typically have one primary child-bearing wife and three other partners.