whipping fete...

it was dawn...
the sun had just begun to rise...as the town of badjoude appeared before our eyes, people slowly trickled out of their homes and joined us at what during the day was the market...they too came to see the fight...not knowing what to expect but having had visions about it since it was first told to me, i stood there on the road waiting with great anticipation...this would be my first time witnessing such a spectacle...in the distance whistles were blown along with faint chanting...they were on their way...it seemed that they were coming from all directions...i looked down the main road but saw nothing...as the chanting and whistling got louder a different set of whistles from another direction began also followed by chanting...i kept looking in all directions trying to find the source of all this noise but nothing...just as i gave up and started walking back to the crowd something caught my eye...over the hill you could see whips suspended in the air marching towards us in unison...
the walking whips seemed to deceive us but only for a short time soon we could see that they were attached to the men who continued to march towards us...the chanting grew much louder once they came over the hill...at the same time another group of men and whips were coming from the other direction blowing whistles and chanting a different song in unison...as the men of both groups got closer i noticed something that didn't fit: some of the men were wearing woman's clothing...shirts, tight tank tops even bras that were stuffed to look like real breast...some even wore wigs and lipstick...it was a bit bizarre since there are strict gender roles and rules here: men would never do woman's work yet on this day they dress as the opposite sex...
other men were dressed in a woven cloth wrapped around their waists and usually a matching one around their heads...others were dressed in leather skirts covering their lower half with strips of leather hanging down and a string of peanuts or other things criss-crossed across their chest and back and a feathered headdress to top it off...
other older men would be carrying around several whips like a caddy carries golf clubs for a golfer... some even attached little stuffed animals to their shirts or headdress...finally as both crowds neared us they started to dance, stomp and chant in place to taunt each other...this lasted for sometime until someone jumped over to the grass area and then the two groups followed...even quicker the crowd ran to follow and i stood there for a split second wondering what to do... i decided to run right after everyone as well...the whipping started at once, disorganized and out of nowhere...men were whipping each other then would throw their arms up in the air in triumph as other men usually older would run over to cheer him on...it was complete chaos...there were men running around with animal bones pretending they were cell phones, using them to make phone calls or others had video cameras and were filming the crowd pretending to take photos of us...every once in a while a whip would come flying in my direction but i was too busy watching and taking pictures to the whipping to notice that i was getting hit...soon enough the chaos turned into organized one-on-one whipping combat...each man received three chances to whip their opponent...once he had his three they would switch and the other guy had his chance to whip three times...on the third hit the "caddies" would jump in to make sure nothing further was done and the fight was over...from another part of the field people would start pushing to clear the area...the two fighters would be the only ones left in the center...a new fight would begin...this would happen many times you never knew when or where a fight would start...sometimes i was caught right next to a fighter...i took those opportunities to take great photos but almost got crushed with a whip at the same time...at one point a friend and i held hands trying to get out of the center of one fight only to end up in the center of another...the adrenaline rush was awesome; nowhere was i going to have the chance to see something like this...our group got separated throughout the fighting and it wasn't until a few hours later when we returned to kate's house did we finally see each other again...