Gerewol Festival in Chad

People

This trip spends time visiting some of the most remote communities on our planet and we place a great emphasis on treading sensitively. This tour visits when the Mbororo tribe partake in their annual dance festival at the end of the rainy season. Despite being a colourful and open event, the festival is very important to the tribesmen, as they are judged by the women of the tribe for marriage. Our clients are carefully briefed on the festival and the tribe in order that we do not offend. Although visitors are welcomed to the festivities, we always ensure that our presence is welcome rather than simply descending en masse and overwhelming the local people, of which a lot haven't seen western travellers before. In exchange for allowing us an insight into their lives we bring gifts of items that are hard to come by for semi-nomadic people, such as soap and tea, which are gratefully received by the women of the families. We feel that it is important not to intrude upon the lives of these people and so will only stop at settlements that we know are happy to receive visitors.

Where possible we buy supplies along the way, and although our groups are small this can make a significant input into the local economy of villages which otherwise have little opportunity to trade.

We believe tourism is a double edged sword that needs to be wielded very carefully. Our philosophy is to have limited departures - usually between one and three a year - for each of our itineraries. By limiting our presence in areas where local culture can be quite fragile, we hope to avoid as much as possible the phenomenon whereby an area changes in character due to repeated and prolonged exposure to tourism. We want to visit an area as friends, not intruders, and to ensure that what we will see will also be there for others to enjoy for many years to come.