the wodaabe

7/28/2019 The Wodaabe

1/25

Derrick J. Stenning.

Savannah Nomads:

A study of the Wodhaabhe Pastoral

Fulani of Western Bornu Province,

Northern Region, Nigeria.Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press

London. Ibadan. Accra. 1959. 257 pages

1


2/25

Foreword

The Council of the International African Institute in 1950 approved acontribution of funds and facilities for the encouragement of more intensiveresearch and publication on the-social life of the pastoral Fulfulde-speakingpeoples of the Western Sudan. These peoples, known in Nigeria by theHausa term Fulani, call themselves Fulbhe (sing. Pullo). They probablynumber some six million and are dispersed in many widely scattered groupsextending over more than 2,000 miles from Senegal on the west to beyondLake Chad in the east. Despite their far-flung and dispersed distributionthey speak closely related dialects of a common speech and show in theirphysique that they are, in the main, descended from a single and distinctivestock which has, over a comparatively short period, proliferated eastwards

through the savannah zone between the Sahara and the forest belt of WestAfrica. They have many Similar social usages and their values and traditionsarc in great measure focused on the maintenance of their herds and thecontinuance of their pastoral life. The Wodhaabhe of north-eastern Nigeria,

with whom Dr. Stenning is concerned in this study, exemplify these featuresto the full.

The political and economic situation of these pastoral peoples has beenundergoing considerable changes over the last half century, during whichFrench and British Administrations pacified the Western Sudan and laid the

foundations for new lines of development. The fruitful adaptation of theirpastoral economy and of their social relations with other peoples has oftenpresented perplexing problems to the Fulbhe, to their neighbours, and togovernments in many parts of West Africa. Until recently, however, little wasknown of the details of their economy or of the pattern of social relations

within and between the seasonally migrating camp groups. Both for theintrinsic interest of a better understanding of a way of life that appearedlikely to undergo far-reaching change in the near future, and ascontributions of knowledge that could assist the harmonious development ofthe peoples of the Western Sudan, intensive field studies of Fulbhe

communities in different areas were clearly needed.

The Institute undertook to provide for discussions on needs andopportunities for such research, and to assist its eventual publication. It wasalso able, thanks to the generosity of the Rockefeller Foundation, to sponsorone such study. Some of the results of that work, which was undertaken byMr. C. E. Hopen among the pastoral Fulani of Gwandu on the western

border of Northern Nigeria, have recently been published in his book ThePastoral Fulbhe Family in Gwandu. At the same time, Dr. Stenning, of theUniversity of Cambridge, was awarded a Goldsmiths Studentship which,

with further assistance from the British Colonial Social Science Council,enabled him to carry out a field investigation in Western Bornu. Asubstantial part of the results of that inquiry is presented in this volume. It

2


3/25

was also arranged thatMlle Dupire, of the Institut Frangais d'Afrique Noire,should during the same period pursue similar field studies in the NigerProvince of A.O.F. and in the French Cameroons. It is hoped that the resultsof her researches will be fully published in the near future.

To assist in the exchange of ideas and information in the course of thesestudies, a meeting of these field research workers was arranged at Joe in1952, to which Mr. F. W. de St. Croix, of the Nigerian Veterinary Service,contributed valuable suggestions and advice based on his long experience of

work among the pastoral Fulani of Northern Nigeria. As a result of theserecent intensive and systematic observations in the field, a numberof'penetrating studies of the pastoral Fulbhe are coming forward which willmake it possible for scholars and administrators to gain a fuller and deeperunderstanding of their social life and its ecological conditions.

To this task, Dr. Stenning has in this monograph on the Wodhaabhe ofWestern Bornu made a notable and most welcome contribution. Its detailedand vivid portrayal of a way of life that is severe and onerous, but also deeplyrewarding to those who have been reared to accept its values and to face itsdifficulties, is of compelling interest. It will be welcomed by socialanthropologists for its analysis of the structure and ecological foundations ofthe household and kinship system of a pastoral people. The systematicaccounts of the various aspects of Wodhaabhe life, of the physical andtechnical conditions to which they are related, and of the wider political andeconomic contexts on which they depend, will also prove most instructive forall who are in any way concerned with problems of policy and administrationin the further development of Northern Nigeria and, indeed, of the whole ofthat vast sub-Saharan territory in Africa known as the Western Sudan.

In his introductory chapter Dr. Stenning gives a succinct but comprehensiveaccount of present knowledge of the character and distribution of theFulbhe-speaking peoples over the whole area of their extension. The skilfullycontrived use of ethnographic and documentary sources has also enabledhim to reconstruct the changing material and political conditions through

which the Wodhaabhe have passed during more than a century and a half.Their paramount need to maintain the symbiosis of household and herd has,

as he shows, made them throughout essentially opportunist, not only withregard to choice of their grazing areas, their seasonal and long-termmigrations, and the pattern of social relations among themselves, but also intheir contacts with other peoples and political authorities. And it is in thislight that Dr. Stenning finally considers the possibilities for, and the needsattending, a future and more productive integration of Fulani pastoralism ina more developed economy in Northern Nigeria.

Daryll Forde

Intrenational African Institute

March 1958

3
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/mdupire/tdm.htmlhttp://www.pulaaku.net/defte/mdupire/tdm.html


4/25

Introduction. The Fulani

Pastoral Fulani population which is the subject of thisbookis only a smallpart of a numerous, widespread, and diverse African people, about whommuch has been written.

Present Distribution and Numbers 1

Fulani populations are scattered over the vast West African savannah belt ofwooded grasslands, from Senegambia in the west to French Equatorial Africain the east. Considerable difficulties have been encountered in estimatingthe total numbers in populations describing themselves as Fulani orspeaking the Fulani language. It is likely that they total well over sixmillions, distributed roughly as follows:

Territory Approximate numbers Reference

Afrique Occidentale Franaise:

Mauritanie

Sngal

Soudan

Dahomey

Guine

Niger

Cte d'Ivoire & Hte-Volta

Afrique Equatoriale Franaise:

Tchad

Oubangui-Chari

Cameroun Franais

Brit. Cameroons & Nigeria

Gambia

Gold Coast

Guin Portuguesa

12,000

250,000

600,000

54,000

720,000

269,000

52,000

No figures available

No figures available

305,000

3,630,000

58,700

51,500

36,500

Westermann & Bryan(1952)

"

"

"

"

"

"

Rapp- Ann. (1954)

Pop. Cens. (1951-3)

Col. Rept. (1954)

Pop. Cens. (1950)

Moreira (1948)

The most important concentrations of Fulani are found in:

Senegambia, including Senegal and the Gambia

4
http://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=121422&elid=9169#do_redirhttp://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=121541&elid=9288#do_redirhttp://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n1%23n1http://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=121422&elid=9169#do_redirhttp://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=121541&elid=9288#do_redirhttp://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n1%23n1


5/25

Highlands of French Guinea; The Fouta Jalon Upper Niger (Macina, French Sudan) Middle Niger (Niamey, French Niger) Northern Region of Nigeria (provinces of Sokoto, Katsina, Kano, Bornu,

Bauchi, and Plateau) Adamawa Highlands, comprising Adamawa Province in the Northern

Region of Nigeria Bamenda in the British Cameroons and French Cameroons

Names

These populations are known by various names in different areas. The Wolof

term Peul(s) is widejy used by the French. The British in Gambia call

them by the Bambara term Fula. In Nigeria and Ghana they are known by

the Hausa term Fulani . The Kanuri and other peoples of the Chad Basin

call them Felaata. In German works they are termed Fulbhe. This, with

its singularPullo, is their own term for themselves. Following Northern

Nigerian usage, they will be called Fulani in both singular and plural in thisbook.

Races

The Fulani are not basically of Negro stock, although it is clear that throughthe centuries Fulani populations have interbred in various degrees with theNegro populations among whom they are dispersed. Fulani communities, as

well as individuals within them, display a remarkable range of combinationsof Negroid and non-Negroid physical traits. Whatever their observed physicalcharacteristics, Fulani communities in general recognize as an ideal thedistinctive characteristics of the purest of the stock; light copper-colouredskin, straight hair, narrow nose, thin lips, and slight bone structure. 2

Languages3

The classification of the Fulani language, generally known as Fulfulde, haslong been a matter of controversy. In part, this has been due to several

distinctive features of the language such as noun classes and initialconsonant alternation 4which were considered anomalous in relation to theother languages of the Western Sudan. Confusion has also arisen throughattempts to correlate the distinctive features of the Fulani language with thefacts of their non-Negroid physical traits and with hypotheses concerningtheir dissemination over the Western Sudan. Thus

Mller (1884) posited a Nuba-Fula group of languages Delafosse (1912) considered Fulfulde to possess Aramaic features Meinhof (19 12) attempted to show that Fulfulde was an Hamitic

language.

5
http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n2%23n2http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n3%23n3http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n4%23n4http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n2%23n2http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n3%23n3http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n4%23n4


6/25

Structural similarities between Fulfulde and Western Sudanic languagessuch as Wolof, Serer, and Biafada have long been pointed out, notably by:

Faidherbe as early as 1875 Klingenheben (1925) Homburger (1939) Greenberg (1949)

Fulfulde is currently classified as belonging to the West Atlantic group ofSudanic languages (Greenberg, 1949; Westermann and Bryan, 1952).

Although the massive task of a detailed overall study of the dialects of theFulani language has not been attempted 5, the following appear to showsignificant dialect differences:

Fouta Sngalais Fouta Jalon Upper and Middle Niger, High Volta, North-western Nigeria; Northern Nigeria, Adamawa and Cameroons Bagirmi (French Equatorial Africa)

There are some structural differences between these dialects, such as thenumber and content of noun classes employed and the pronominal formsassociated with them. But the major differences lie in the vocabulary, whichis adapted freely from the dominant or autochtonous, languages of the areaconcerned. In addition to their own tongue, Fulani usually speak the locallingua franca where this is not Fulfulde, and often masteran additionalminority language. Moreover, the mobilityof certain sections of the Fulanipopulation must always have placed, as it does today, speakers of differentFulfulde variants in the same community. Continuous and often rapidlinguistic changes occur. Numerous writers, especially Fliegelmann (1931,1932), have commented upon the comparative richness, refinement, andflexibility of Fulfulde, which must be due in large part to thesecircumstances.

Fulani Populations

Pastoral Fulani

Fulani populations show marked differences in their mode of life, socialorganization, and degree of political autonomy. A number of types may bediscerned.

The first of these is the cattle-owning population, or Pastoral Fulani. Theyare known popularly by similar terms (which they do not use themselves) in

various areas. In Senegambia they are called Fulbhe Burure , and in theChad region Abore . Elsewhere they are called Bororo or Bororoje .

They retain non-Negroid physical characteristics to the greatest extent,speak the purest Fulfulde, and have in general been least amenable toconversion to Islam. Pastoral Fulani populations are found in those areas of

6
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n5%23n5http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=122275&elid=9816#do_redirhttp://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=122307&elid=9848#do_redirhttp://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=123124&elid=10665#do_redirhttp://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n5%23n5http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=122275&elid=9816#do_redirhttp://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=122307&elid=9848#do_redirhttp://new.trafficsector.com/ezula_proc.php?uid=65290&ezid=123124&elid=10665#do_redir


7/25

the savannah belt where the population density is lowest, principally at itsnorthern limits in the Sahel or semi-desert scrub zone, and in well-favouredhighland areas such as the Jos Plateau and the Adamawa Highlands. Theirsubsistence and wealth derive solely from their herds of cattle, sometimessupplemented with small holdings of sheep, goats, or camels. In Damagaram

in French Colonie du Niger, and in Sokoto and Bornu Provinces in theNorthern Region of Nigeria, live a Fulani tribe known as Udaen, who subsiston their flocks of sheep. Pastoral Fulani live on dairy produce, surpluses of

which are sold or exchanged for grain in the markets of agricultural villages.In the dry season herds are dispersed southwards in response to shortagesof pasture and water, and congregate again in the north to avoid tsetse fly inthe wet season. A wide variation in the distance and impetus of thesemovements is found, depending on local variations in savannah habitat, butseasonal movement is a consistent feature of Fulani pastoralism throughoutthis zone. Exceptions to it occur in highland areas, where movement is either

reduced to a minimum or follows a hill-and-valley pattern. These are not theonly factors which determine seasonal movement; presence of bovine diseaseand availability of markets are also taken continuously into account. 6In Pastoral Fulani populations today the simple or compound family has alarge measure of economic independence. The household head is the herd-owner, his sons are his herdsmen. His wife or wives have rights to the milkof all or part of the herd; in most areas, it is the women who do the milking.

Their daughters assist them in its preparation and marketing. The familysubsists on its herd and the herd depends for its effective increase on thepastoral skill of the family. Meat is eaten only on ceremonial and ritual

occasions and cattle are sold only to meet an overriding need for cash,principally to pay taxes or fines, or to buy consumer goods. The materialequipment of the Pastoral Fulani family is slight, being limited to the amount

which can be readily transported on pack oxen or donkeys; dwellings arerudimentary shelters. Where the syntrophy of the family and herd breaksdown, assistance is found primarily among the group of herd-ownersconstituting an agnatic lineage group. 7

The agnatic lineage group preserves a partial endogamy by a system ofpreferred cousin marriages. Widow inheritance within this group ensures thesupport of widows and orphans and maintains patrilineal inheritance ofcattle. The agnatic lineage group has a leader selected by acclamation

according to criteria of patrilineal descent, age, and prosperity. Herepresents his group in external affairs, and brings the weight of hisexperience and authority to camp councils in which herd-owners decidetheir future moves.

Agnatic lineage groups are linked to form clans by putative agnaticrelationships of their several male ancestors. Although dispersed for most ofthe year, the clan, like the agnatic lineage group, is endogamous, and is aunit of cooperation with regard to cattle and labour. In some areas the clan

was formerly a congregation for the observance of rites connected with thefertility of cattle, the puberty initiation of youths and maidens, and their

induction into married life. Whether in former times Pastoral Fulani (forreasons of defence) characteristically moved in concert by clans or by agnatic

7
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n6%23n6http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n7%23n7http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n6%23n6http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n7%23n7


8/25

lineage groups cannot be ascertained. It seems likely that the ecologicalconditions of most of the savannah belt of the Western Sudan imposed somedegree of dispersal, and that areas where continuous organization fordefence was required were avoided in favour of those where pastoralinterests could be pursued unhindered. Today, when considerations of

defence do not apply, the clan and the agnatic lineage group show aninherent instability engendered by the relative independence of the simple orcompound family.In general, the pursuit of their pastoral interests has kept the PastoralFulani aloof from the life of village and town, and from the convulsions whichattended the foundation and aggrandizement of the States of the WesternSudan. But this detachment should not be exaggerated. Except possibly inthe Sahel, in what the French call the Zone Nomade , the pastoral life ispursued not in isolation, but in some degree of symbiosis with sedentaryagricultural communities. Alongside the continuous exchange of dairy

products for grain and other goods, there have existed, possibly for manycenturies, arrangements for pasturing cattle on land returning to fallow, andfor guaranteeing cattle tracks and the use of water supplies. Pastoral Fulanidid not, and do not, merely graze at will, but obtained rights to the facilitiesthey required from the acknowledged owners of the land. The payments inkind made for obtaining these rights were not merely economic transactions

but involved the Pastoral Fulani in the local ritual observances relating toland. When Pastoral Fulani pastured in Muslim States, other duties towardsthe territorial authorities were added to these local relationships. Rights tograze were affirmed by the payment of tribute to the ruler or his local

representative. Pastoral Fulani further became liable to a tax on livestocksanctioned by the Muslim law of public alms. Although the jurisdiction ofthe State was ill-defined in just those areas which the Pastoral Fulani foundmost congenial, there is evidence that these bonds were recognized, if rarelyimplemented. The Pastoral Fulani gained their ends by the peaceful meansof economic reciprocity in the local context, and carried out their obligationsto Muslim States only when they deemed it politic or were forced to do so.

They participated in State wars usually when this served to extend theirrights to grazing ground, and only rarely for ideological motives. 8

Semi-sedentary Communities

There are many variants of this pastoral way of life which give rise topopulations of Fulani best described as semi-sedentary, whose members notonly raise cattle but also have farms. This is not mixed farming in theaccepted sense of the term. It is rather a reliance on a dual mode ofsubsistence in which farming and stockraising at once complement andcircumscribe each other. Farms are made according to local practices ofshifting cultivation. They are likely to be smaller than those held by thesedentary population, and planted with grain crops rather than with cashcrops or local market crops. At the same time, herds are likely to be smaller

than those held by Pastoral Fulani in the same area and to be moved in amore restricted cycle of transhumance. The area in which the farm is located

8
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n8%23n8http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n8%23n8


9/25

is regarded as the home area. Often, but not necessarily, this lies at thepoint in the transhumance cycle most convenient for the transfer of labourfrom pastoral to agricultural activities, especially farm clearance andharvesting. A common feature of the semi-sedentary Fulani community isthe split household and the, split herd. The household head remains in the

home area where the farm lies, sometimes keeping a small herd of milchcows. His married or unmarried sons deploy the herd away from the homearea in the wet or dry seasons, returning to the locality in time to help withfarm clearing or harvest. Where these duties cannot be carried out by thepersonnel of the family itself, co-operation in herding is sought fromkinsmen, or paid labour engaged to help in farm work. Sometimes (duringthe period between clearance and harvesting) the whole family resides in thearea in which its farm is located; stores its grain in the granaries ofsedentary kinsmen and friends; moves off to dry-season pastures, collectingthe supplies it needs throughout the dry season, and returns to its home

area as the wet season becomes due.There is little doubt that semi-sedentarism arises principally through lossesof cattle by disease, when widespread reductions in the size of herds belowthe level necessary for entire subsistence upon them render inoperable themechanisms of loan or gift which enable the Pastoral Fulani herd-owner torecoup his losses. Semi-sedentary communities have been viewed astransitional communities in which erstwhile Pastoral Fulani are movingtowards absorption in the cattleless agricultural communities whichsurround them. This transition is often marked by the abandonment, in thehome area, of one of the traditional types of Pastoral Fulani shelter in favour

of the hut type common among the sedentary population. The pressuresinvolved in maintaining this dual economy, as well as the attractions of thesedentary life, are largely responsible for this. There is, however, evidencethat Pastoral Fulani who engage in agricultural pursuits as a consequence ofcattle losses do succeed in re-establishing herds capable of supporting themcompletely, and then take up the nomadic life once more. Short-term studiesof semi-sedentary communities would give the impression that this mode oflife is well established under certain ecological conditions and densities ofpopulation. The return to pastoralism or the relapse into sedentaryagricultural life can rarely be documented.Semi-sedentarism may not necessarily be the result of poverty in cattle. For

example, Pastoral Fulani moved on to the Jos Plateau in Northern Nigeria asrecently as 1910. They found there a high, fly-free grazing ground withabundant water and pasture. Their seasonal movements decreased in scopeand their herds multiplied. The growth of the tin-mining industry and theestablishment of creameries assured them profitable markets for their dairysurpluses. At the same time the pagan inhabitants increased theiragricultural holdings. Favourable pastoral conditions made extensiveseasonal movements unnecessary; the need to establish permanent rights to

wet-season pasture which in the absence of the pastoralists would readily betaken over by the agriculturalists, made a form of settlement desirable. A

considerable number of Pastoral Fulani in this area have in the last twentyyears or so established permanent household sites around which some cattle

9


10/25

graze throughout the year, while the remainder move down the valleys to thesavannah lowlands in the dry season. The Pastoral Fulani surround theirsettlements with gardens of Indian corn which are cleared, planted, tended,and harvested by pagan labourers paid in cash. Pagans also assist asherdsmen in the wet season, and are recompensed, in the traditional

Pastoral Fulani manner, in kind. On the Jos Plateau, it is the richest cattle-owners with the largest families who adopt this form of settlement. They dono agricultural work, and some of the work of the herds is turned over tonon-Fulani. Semi-sedentarism is here correlated, not with poverty in cattle,

but with its converse. 9

Sedentary Communities

A considerable proportion of the Fulani communities of the Western Sudanare sedentary and agricultural. They merge into the major ethnic groupings

among which they are found and with which they have many culturalaffinities, sometimes including a common language. Their traditions linkthem in various degrees to Pastoral Fulani populations and theydemonstrate a further stage in the progress towards a sedentary way of lifeoutlined above. The principal concentrations of sedentary populations of thissort are :

the Toucouleurs of Senegal (Delafosse, 1912) the Khassonke of Kayes on the Upper Niger in French Sudan (Monteil,

1915; Delafosse, 1912; Tauxier, 1937)

the Wassulonke of Wassulu on the Upper Niger in French Guinea(Delafosse, 1912) the Fulanin Gida, the Hausa Fulani of Hausaland in Nigeria and

French Niger Colony (de St. Croix, 1944)

A further population of sedentary Fulani, described by the Pastoral Fulani asNdoowi'en, has emerged in Bornu, Adamawa, and the eastern parts ofFrench Niger Colony. We should perhaps add to this category of sedentaryFulani the populations of pilgrims who are forced to settle and farm forshorter or longer periods on their way to Mecca across what was formerly the

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. They are known as Takarir, a term derived doubtlessfrom the ancient kingdom of Tekrur in Senegal. These sedentary populationsshould not be confused with communities of serf cultivators and formerslaves of the Fulani, which will be discussed below.

Holy Men

We have so far described Fulani communities which are distinguished bytheir mode of subsistence. Living in these communities, or in contact with

them, are specialists, the Muslim holy men (Ful. moodibbhe, sing.

moodibbo). 10Their specialism consists in their relation with the

supernatural which is manifest in their possession of sanctity (barka) a

10
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n9%23n9http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n10%23n10http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n9%23n9http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n10%23n10


11/25

term common to many Western Sudanese languages, and to the Berberdialects of Maghrebine North Africa. Sanctity may be inheritedgenealogically, or acquired from one's teachers. Ultimately, barka derivesfrom Allah himself, through the Prophet and his Companions. Holy men may

belong to one or other of the Islamic fraternities Kadiriya, Tijaniya,

Mahdiya, and so on, which ramify throughout the Western Sudan. Holy menlive on the fees, obtained by the performance of their special tasks, whichhave the quality of alms for the Muslim donor. But many also have farms, orare craftsmen or traders. They may work alone in a community or they mayform hamlets, around which they farm, and from which they travel inpursuit of their calling.

The term holy man covers many degrees of proficiency in magic, Islamicritual, law, and tradition, but in general the status of a holy man dependsupon his ability to read the Arabic of Koranic texts and such Maghrebine

writings as are copied and circulated in the Western Sudan. Some holy men

are little more than magicians or diviners, fashioning amulets, makingdecoctions of the ink in which pious texts have been written, manipulatingsand patterns, or telling the stars. Others have received a more extensivegrounding in Muslim ritual and dogma after years of study by rote in aKoranic school. In addition to practising as magicians and diviners, theymay instruct others in the niceties of religious observance, or officiate atname-givings, weddings, and funerals. They may compose disputes byrecourse to the principles of Islamic law as they understand them. They mayacquaint their listeners with details of the lives of Islamic divines who haveattained sainthood, and whose tombs they have visited. Yet others achieve a

wider fame after making the pilgrimage, studying in Cairo, or travellingbetween Western Sudanese centres of learning. They establish their ownfollowings and schools, with whose members they have a continuing bond

wherever they may be.Each holy man has his own sphere of influence, proportional, we may say, to

hisbarka. As we shall see, in the past, Muslim divines had great influence in

the States of the Western Sudan, converting princes, reforming systems ofadministration, and, in the last resort, leading popular uprisings. Men of thiscalibre are today found in high administrative or judicial posts, their talentscurbed, perhaps, by the demands of European government. Their religiouszeal, we may rest assured, is no less fervent. Others remain in the

background, maintaining their links with the Islamic Middle East, leadingtheir fraternities, and encouraging the dissemination of their doctrines. Yetothers have a more restricted sphere of action in the towns and countrydistricts, continually transmitting by precept and example the fund ofIslamic learning, the observance of its rites, and the rudiments of its law.Finally we come to the holy man of the village the scene of compromiseand the amalgamation of Islamic popular beliefs and practices with those ofpagan origin and sometimes of Christian dissemination.

Their efforts at proselytism are, at best, circumscribed by their own narrowvision; or, at worst, merely batten on the credulity of those who seek their

aid. But whatever their accomplishments or fields of activity the holy men

11


12/25

are the spearheads, blunt or keen, of an Islam which is distinctively WesternSudanese. 11

States

For many centuries the Western Sudan has seen the rise of States andpolitical organisms to which the term Empire has been applied. A study ofthe more general works on the history of the Western Sudan shows thatsome of these endured for centuries, others were short-lived, but the careerof all was marked by continuous warfare, extensions and contractions ofterritory, and internal rivalries and insurrections.But alongside this sanguinary aspect lies the other face of the WesternSudan State. Cities were established, and within their walls were to be foundnot only the pomp of the king's court and the splendour of his militarypower, but also more peaceful manifestations of urban culture. Some cities

became centres of Islamic learning. Most displayed considerable diversity intheir arts and crafts, whose practitioners were organized into guilds underthe king's patronage. Many were commercially important, not only gatheringinto their markets the produce of the surrounding countryside, but alsomaintaining a far-flung caravan trade with other Western Sudanese citiesand with commercial centres on the opposite Maghrebine shore of the sandsea which is the Sahara. Many of the urban populations of the WesternSudan could truly be called cosmopolitan. The city was the nodal point ofthe State, which more often than not was described by the city's name.Surrounding it to a greater or lesser depth was the city's countryside, from

which produce was drawn and to which the city's products percolated.Within this area, as in the city itself, the affluence of the State wasmaintained by the arts of peaceful administration, in the levying of all

manner of tolls and taxes, the quidpro quoof which was effective defence.

Still farther out was the zone entrusted to governors who, though oftenresiding in the city, were responsible for the defence of its various, sectors,and the safeguarding of such trade routes as passed through them. Herepublic administration was manifest not in tax, but in tribute, collected frompopulations only loosely bound to the State. The affluence of the State didnot depend solely on the maintenance of a vigorous internal and externaltrade, fostered by peaceful conditions. Apart from the trade in gold, salt, anddiverse consumer goods, one of the principal resources of the WesternSudan was its human material, in the form of slaves. These were sought in amore distant zone outside the governors' domains, which was a no-man's-land between one State and the next. In the Islamic era in the WesternSudan, these zones assumed a dual importance and the activities of Statesin them had an ideological as well as an economic impetus. They lay outsideDar-el-Islam, the Community of the Faithful; their populations were either to

be subdued and converted by force and thus brought into the web of MuslimState administration, or carried off as slaves. Thus on the States' peripheries

the art of government merged into the art of war. Where the territorialinterests of one State collided with those of its neighbour, the slave-raiding

12


13/25

column became an instrument of aggression. Here too, ideological reasonswere brought to bear, and accusations of backsliding in the faith were usedas justifications for extending territorial claims.

The State was thus committed to a ceaseless course of expansion; trade hadto be guaranteed and tax and tribute levied in order to support further

military endeavours in the name of Islam, which, if successful, brought notonly new wealth but also new administrative problems.

This expansion was facilitated by geographical and technologicalconsiderations. The savannah zone of the Western Sudan rarely affordsnatural barriers upon which a frontier line can be established. The horse

was widely used in warfare and made possible military formations of greatmobility. It was therefore not surprising that, in periods of affluence, thenominal boundaries far outran the area which could be effectivelyadministered, and that in periods of adversity the periphery of the State wasquickly overrun. Moreover, at all points in the territorial organization of the

State a strong governing hand was required. At the centre, in the city, therewere the inevitable court intrigues; merchants with diverse and distantconnexions; peripatetic Muslim preachers and holy men. In the countrysidethe peagants were always seeking to avoid taxation. In the governors'domains, military forces at the disposal of local commmanders might beindispensable to the State, but were equally likely to be used against theruler. Here, too, the tributepaying populations might be of diverse ethnicorigins, with their own local traditions and religions, eager to regain asemblance of autonomy, and willing to ally themselves with any power that

would help them. Outward again, the no-man's-land was the home not only

of pagan tribes jealous of their time-hallowed customs, but also of bands offreebooters, selling their services at will. And throughout the State roamedthe pastoralists, elusive and unpredictable, now innocent herdsmen ofcamels or cattle, now welldisciplined bands of bowmen or cavalry, with anunrivalled knowledge of the bush. 12

Fulani have played their part in the foundation, administration, andoverthrow of States throughout the course of Western Sudanese history. TheFulani founded pagan kingdoms, but the Fulani States which confrontedEuropean powers at their annexation of West Africa, and which survive inmodified form today, are Islamic.

Some writers (Delafosse, 1912; Bovill, 1933) suggest that the founders ofMelle were the forebears of the Fulani, though this is open to doubt. Theprincipal pagan States founded by Fulani were Fouta Jalon in the tenthcentury, and Fouta Senegal, founded in the sixteenth century by the Fulaniclan Denianke, who fled westwards from the rule of the Songhai. The Fulanidynasties of these States were noted for their persecution of Muslimpopulations. Other pagan principalities, founded by Fulani before theeighteenth century, arose in Macina, Yatenga, Gobir, and Bagirmi.

But the most striking contribution to the history of the States of the Western

Sudan was the Fulani creation and usurpation of Muslim States which wereno less fanatic than their pagan predecessors. These Muslim States arose

13
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n12%23n12http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n12%23n12http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/


14/25

within a century in widely separated parts of the Western Sudan, and at onejuncture it seemed likely that they would be united under a single emperor.So marked was this essentially Fulani development that some writers(Richard-Molard, 1949; Gouilly, 1952) have seen in it a concerted effort

which could be described as the Fulani phase of Islamization . The first

manifestation occurred in Fouta Jalon. During the seventeenth century thiswell-endowed highland area was the scene of a considerable immigration ofFulani pastoralists who, although of different clans, were all Muslims of theKadiriya persuasion. In 1725 a Muslim Fulani known as Alfa Ba put himselfat their head and declared a Holy War (jihaad) not only against the paganSosso and Mandingo inhabitants but also against the pagan Fulani dynasty

which ruled the country. Alfa Ba died during the course of preparations forthe Holy War, but his son, a holy man, known as Ibrahim mo Timbo orKaramoko Alfa, continued his work with the aid of a war leader, IbrahimSori. They conquered and converted by force all except the least accessible

parts of the country and established a territorial organization which,although much modified, is the basis of present-day administration. There

were nine provinces (Diwe ; sing. Diiwal) under regional chiefs. These were

divided into parishes (Misside) which in turn were composed of

settlements of freemen (Fulaso) and of slaves (Runde). Dissensions between

the war leader's party (Soriya) and the followers of the holy men (Alfaya) led,in 1840, to a cumbersorme compromise by which administrative officesalternated every two years.

The second Muslim Fulani State was Fouta Toro, which, during thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had been ruled by a pagan Fulani

dynasty, the Denianke. In 1776 the Muslim Fulani minority rose under Abd-el-Kadr Torodi and established the Muslim State. In Fouta Toro there waslittle of the internal dissension seen in Fouta Jalon. Abdel-Kadr had bothpreached and waged war, and his kingdom consisted of provinces under therule of Muslim divines. The State expanded after the death of Abd-el-Kadr in1788 and its dependencies in the Senegambia region Dimar, Damga, andBoundou were in situ on the arrival of the French.

The Bambara kingdom of Macina was the scene of the creation of the nextMuslim Fulani kingdom. Here the Muslim Fulani had for long beentributaries of the Bambara. One of them, Amadu Sisi, led the revolt and

proclaimed himself Amir of Macina. His conquests included Jenn

andTimbuktu and his rule was marked by a fanaticism which included thedestruction of mosques whose devotees he declared to be lax in theirreligious observances.

The greatest feat of empire-building on the part of the Fulani was the Jihadof Usuman dan Fodio, who established a widespread empire in what is nowNorthern Nigeria, both founding new States and usurping the rule of the old-established Hausa kingdoms. Usuman was a Fulani of Degel in Gobir. He

was brought up strictly in the Maliki rite and at an early age found hisvocation as teacher and writer, but above all as a preacher. In his sermonshe was at pains to point out the errors and shortcomings of the Hausa, who

mixed pagan with Muslim practices. This disquieted Nafata, king of Gobir,who, although formerly a pupil of Usuman's, saw in these activities a threat

14
http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/


15/25

to his position at the centre of the pagan rites of kingship. Before his death,Nafata made proclamations designed to restrict the effect of Usuman'sefforts. His son Yunfa was more energetic and in 1803 attacked Gimbana, animportant Muslim village, destroying the scribes' writings and carrying offtheir wives and children. In February 1804 Usuman declared a Hegira or

Flight from Degel, which was a demonstration of defiance of the constitutedgovernment. It took the Muslim leader into an ill-administered part of thekingdom, from which messages might be sent to Fulani communities urgingthem to join the instigator of the rising, and from which the firstdeployments of insurrection might be made. Usuman was speedily joined inhis flight by a considerable number of fervent supporters. In June 1804Usuman met Yunfa in battle at Kwotto lake and defeated him. The victoriousMuslim army proclaimed Usuman Commander of the Faithful (Arab. Amir alMuminin; Hausa Serkin Musulmi; Ful. Laamiidho Julbhe) and he wasthenceforth known as Sheik or Shehu. He declared Holy War against the

enemies of Islam and, in the next decade or so, Shehu, or his son andsuccessor Bello, gave the flag of Holy War to trusted followers who tookexisting kingdoms by insurrection or carved out new ones by war. Usumanhimself retired early to a life of contemplation, and is revered to this day as asaint.By 1810 four of the seven Hausa States Katsina, Kano, Zaria, and Daura

were taken by the Fulani, and the city of Sokoto, from which the Empirewas to be governed, had been established. During the next twenty years,Fulani dynasties were set up in other States, principally Ilorin and Nupe.During the same period new kingdoms were established, chief among which

was Adamawa. On the eastern borders of the Empire developments tookplace with which we shall be more concerned later in the text. Bornuresisted the Fulani invaders, but in large portions of its western territorysmall kingdoms, such as Hadeijia, Katagum, Bauchi, Misau, and Gombe,

were established by the Fulani. The history of the Fulani States during thenineteenth century is one of attempts at expansion and internecine strife,

which neither the military power of the suzerain State of Sokoto nor thereligious authority of its ruler were able to compose. Nevertheless, on theirarrival in Northern Nigeria, the British recognized the legitimacy by conquestof the Fulani rulers, and the present Emirs of the States are for the mostpart the descendants of the flag-bearers of the Jihad.

The final manifestation of Fulani Islam was the rise ofUmar Saidu Tal. He

was born in 1797 into a family of holy men of Podor in Senegal. He went onthe pilgrimage in 1827 and studied in Mecca, Medina, and Cairo. Hereturned to the Western Sudan in 1838 and was well received in Bornu,Sokoto, and Macina. The Fulani rulers of Sokoto and Macina gave him theirdaughters in marriage. He attempted to seize power in Fouta Toro but wasunsuccessful, although he succeeded in raising followers prepared to preachthe Holy War elsewhere. He moved to Dinguiraye in Fouta Jalon, which heestablished as a fortress and centre of learning. He led a Holy War in theBambouk country and by 1861 had established his son as king of Macina.

Under his hand, Nioro, Bandiagara, and Segou became important religiouscentres. But in 1857 he was checked at Khosso by the French, and in 1861,

15
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/david_robinson/toc.htmlhttp://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/david_robinson/toc.htmlhttp://www.fuuta-jalon.net/


16/25

was defeated near Bandiagara by the dispossessed Fulani of Macina. HadjUmar Tal's career was one of spectacular failure. French writers (Richard-Molard, 1949; Gouilly, 1952) see in him the potential unifier of all theMuslim Fulani empires and States of the Western Sudan, whose pursuit ofthis hegemony was foiled only by the arrival of the French and British as

colonial powers. However, we may speculate that, had his career goneunchecked, his empire would have suffered the same internal instability as

beset others in the history of the Western Sudan. 13

Slaves

The Fulani Muslim States, founded and ruled by holy men carrying out thefinal duty of the believer, that of waging the Holy War, were, at least at theoutset, militant theocracies. Space does not permit a detailed discussion ofthe variations in Fulani administration in different parts of the Western

Sudan, but we should note one common feature. The Fulani rulers added totheir proselytizing zeal an ethnic consciousness derived no doubt from theirlong history as alien minorities among the Negro populations of the WesternSudan. In their tribally heterogeneous kingdoms they preserved manyfeatures of the earlier administration, but interpreted them in accordance

with their own notions of ethnic dominance. Fulani were free; they wererulers, divines, herdsmen. Pagan Fulani, principally Pastoral Fulani, were to

be converted but not taken into slavery. Within the kingdom the variousnon-Fulani occupational groups organized by families or clans the

blacksmiths, metal-workers, butchers, leather-workers, weavers, tailors,

dyers, and minstrels were subject to special taxes and their output orservices were at the disposal of the king or his local representatives. In thegovernors' domains, tribute was often paid in slaves. Some of these rose highin the king's military or administrative service and certain titles werereserved for men of slave origin. Slaves were in large measure the currencyof tribute; with horses, they were also the means of rewarding servicesrendered to the king. Thus throughout the Fulani kingdoms there were

communities of slave cultivators (runde, ruumde'en, ruumdanko'en, in

different dialects) whose Fulani masters claimed their share of produce.

Slaves (maccubhe, sing. maccudho) and female slaves (horbhe, sing.

kordho) also served in menial positions in Fulani households. Concubinageand miscegenation took place, and the operation of Muslim law in theserespects gave rise to communities of enfranchized slaves or serf cultivators

(rimaybhe, sing. diimaajo).

Just as the economic and military power of a kingdom depended in largemeasure on these non-Fulani groups, so the latter were part of the Fulanisocial order at all levels. They had their place in Fulani ceremonial, masteredFulani etiquette, and spoke the Fulani language, and many of their membersmight claim to be part Fulani. In spite of the decrees and ordinances ofcolonial governments against various forms of slavery, these relationships

persist, although with many modifications. Communities of slave orserforigin may have the outward appearance of Fulani communities of sedentary

16
http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n13%23n13http://www.guinee.net/bibliotheque/sociology/dermanhttp://www.guinee.net/bibliotheque/sociology/dermanhttp://www.guinee.net/bibliotheque/sociology/dermanhttp://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n13%23n13http://www.guinee.net/bibliotheque/sociology/dermanhttp://www.guinee.net/bibliotheque/sociology/dermanhttp://www.guinee.net/bibliotheque/sociology/derman


17/25

farmers, semi-sedentarists, or even pastoralists. Their origin and presentstatus require careful elucidation. 14

Problems and Methods

Confronted with the wide and discontinuous distribution of Fulani, theirnon-Negroid physical characteristics, the distinctive features and doubtfulorigin of their language, and the variety of social systems in which theyparticipate, European writers have addressed themselves to a number ofethnological and linguistic problems concerning them.

The first of these was the absorbing problem of origins. The second was thatof the antiquity and the mode of the dispersal of the Fulani throughout the

Western Sudan. The third was the problem of the evolution anddifferentiation of Fulani communities. The fourth and this was often the

vehicle of the foregoing inquiries was the observation and ethnographicdescription of specific Fulani communities.

Origins

Ethnologists and others have been provoked to seek the origins of the Fulanifar outside their present habitat, in remote periods and states of society, andto describe the successive migrations which are supposed to have broughtthem into their present habitat before documentary evidence from the

Western Sudan became available. Considerable ethnological debate has

surrounded the widely divergent hypotheses of the origin of the Fulani.Tauxier (1937) lists the majority of these.

Some writers (e.g. Guiraudon, 1888; Delafosse, 1912; Morel, 1902)affirmed their Jewish or Syrian origin and suggested a migration

westwards along the North African littoral, southwards into theWestern Sudan and, thence, in historical times, eastwards.

Others (e.g. Mollien, 1820; Seligman, 1930; Barth, 1857-8) suggestedEthiopian affinities and inferred a prehistoric movement westwardfrom Ethiopia into the Western Sudan.

According to others (e.g. Passarge, 1895; Meyer, 1897; Crozals, 1883)Fulani were North African Berbers, There was a body of thought (e.g. Bayol, 1887; Machat, 1906; Gautier,

1935; Palmer, 1923, 1928, 1936) which compromised between theBerber and Ethiopian theories.

Other more fanciful hypotheses including the Hindu (e.g. Golberry,1805; Binger, 1892), Malayo-Polynesian (Eichtal, 1841)

Gypsy theories, complete the list of elaborate surmises on Fulaniorigins.

The myths of the Fulani themselves do little to confirm hypotheses linkingthem with events of the Classical or Near Eastern world. They often describethe marriage of a Muslim Arab or Moor with a Negress which is blessed with

17


18/25

children. One infant is left in the care of an elder brother while their mothergoes to draw water. It cries and is comforted by its brother in anincomprehensible language which the mother overhears on her return. Sheruns to tell the father, who takes this as a sign, predicted by the Prophet,that the child will be the founder of a new people who do not speak Arabic,

but will be the saviours of Islam. This child is the ancestor of the Fulani. Insome versions his brothers learn the new language, Fulfulde, from him andfound the four great branches of the Fulani people. In others they becomethe ancestors of other, Negro, populations of the country. In all its versions(e.g. Madrolle, 1885; de St. Croix, 1944) this myth relates the racial affinitiesof the Fulani, their linguistic peculiarities, and their historical role intheWestern Sudan.Other, less homely, traditions have been encountered. Clapperton (1829)records the statement of Shehu Bello of Sokoto that the Fulani are of Jewishorigin. Delafosse (1912) records the myth that the four ancestors of the

traditional major divisions of the Fulani in the Niger-Senegal region theBa, Bari, So, and Diallo are the offspring of a Jewess of Sinai and herhusband Okba who was sent by the Caliph Omar (634-64) to convert the

Jews and later became governor of Egypt. Variants of this myth are found inGuebhard (1910), Vicars-Boyle (1910), Lauture (18556), Clapperton (1829),and Logeay (1909). These and similar traditions appear to be current inIslamic circles and are disseminated by Fulani preachers (Tauxier, 1937).But, as we have seen, by no means all Fulani shared the beliefs and outlookof the Islamic communities of the Western Sudan or were conversant withtheir myths. Pastoral Fulani, who have always been least amenable to

conversion, had their own myths of origin, which were bound up with theorigin of cattle. A common version (de St. Croix, 1944; Stephani, 1912) runssomewhat as follows. The first Fulani to own cattle is expelled from a Fulanisettlement. The context of this expulsion is not stated. He wanders alone inthe bush, enduring great hardship. A water spirit appears and tells him thatif he obeys his orders he will acquire great wealth and be the envy of those

who despised him. In one version he waters all the wild animals in turn,until finally, in reward for his exertions, the spirit sends him cattle to water.In another version the Fulani is enjoined to wait patiently by a lake until thesource of his future wealth appears. The water spirit then tells him to leadthe cattle away and never to fail to light a fire for them at dusk, lest they

revert to their wild state and leave him. The settled Fulani despise thenomad and pour ridicule upon his harsh way of life. But he takes a wife fromthem, and his progeny are eventually able to pursue their pastoral existence

without intermarriage with those who spurned their ancestor. Whileexplaining and justifying the way of life of the cattle-owning Fulani, thismyth retails a stereotype of the relations of Pastoral and sedentary Fulani. Inaddition it gives a faint clue to the nature of the pre-Islamic Pastoral Fulanireligion, which has been characterized as bomanie sans bolatrie thoughits beliefs and practices have eluded description.

The search for the origins of the Fulani was based on racial and linguistic

criteria, and attempts were made to link these with Classical, Biblical, andNear Eastern history. No convincing case has been made for linking the

18


19/25

Fulani, as an identifiable ethnic group, with historical events outside theWestern Sudan. A more tenable supposition, based on the same evidence, isthat they are a product of the long and sustained impact of pastoral tribes,themselves of Mediterranean affiliation, upon the indigenous Negropopulations of the Western Sudan, and lets the matter rest there. The nature

of this impact in its early stages can only be conjectured. From the earliestrecords of the Western Sudan by Arabs and Europeans, commencing with

Yakubi in A.D. 872 (see Bouche and Mauny, 1946), the Fulani have beenessentially a Western Sudanese phenomenon, part of its geography, history,and sociology.

Antiquity and Mode of Dispersal

The dispersal of the Fulani within the Western Sudan has been documentedby a number of European writers, principally those mentioned on the

question of origins, with the addition of Delavignette (1932), Duhring (1926-7), and Gaden (1890). The reconstruction of this migration relies for the mostpart on Fulani oral traditions. These traditions are in part substantiated by

Western Sudanese chronicles such as those of Kano, Bornu, and Agades(Urvoy, 1936; Palmer, 1928) since the latter recount in summary form someof the events in the history of the Western Sudan with which the Fulani wereconnected. It is greatly to be regretted that many of the State chronicles weredestroyed by the Fulani themselves on their assumption of power. In turn,recourse has been had to Arab or Moorish travellers' accounts, principallythose of El Bekri (Slane, 1859), Es Sa'adi (Houdas, 1900), and Leo Africanus

(Brown, 1896). The writings of European travellers before the colonial era,such as

Barth (1857-8) Clapperton (1829) Caille (1830) Denham and Clapperton (1826) Golberry (1805) Lander (1832) Park (1799) Rohlfs (1872) Staudinger (1889) Nachtigal (1879, 1881)

complete the sources of our information.Although the details of these migrations may be open to doubt, their generalsense is quite clear. The general mass movement of the Fulani (known byone or other of their various names) within the Western Sudan has beenfrom Senegal eastwards. The periods at which stages of this movement wereaccomplished are not so clear. It appears that the exodus of the Fulani fromthe kingdom of Tekrur in Senegal occurred in the eleventh century A.D.

(Delafosse, 1912). It is clear that by the time of the rise of the Fulani MuslimStates in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Fulani formed

19


20/25

more or less substantial minorities in the various regions in which their HolyWars were fought, since these were in no case invasions, but insurrections.Since that period, largely owing to the pacification of hitherto inaccessibleareas by colonial administrations, Fulani have penetrated farther into areassuch as the Jos Plateau in Nigeria and parts of British and French

Cameroons. We may conclude that the present distribution of the Fulani wasmore or less completed during a period of at most eight hundred years.

There is little doubt that the main impetus of this vast ethnic movement wasprovided by the pastoral elements of the population. The transhumancesystems of the Pastoral Fulani have probably always been of a conservativenature, involving close knowledge of the grazing potentialities of relativelylimited tracts of country. The independence of the simple or compoundfamily with its own herd has militated against the formation of extendedkinship groups having well-defined grazing and water rights in specific tracts

which might be defended by force. Thus herds have been maintained, not by

cattle-raiding, feud, and war, but by the continuous adjustment oftranshumance patterns to subtle changes of an ecological nature. Theresultant movement may be described as migratory drift , and it is thistype of movement which accounts for the spread of Pastoral Fulanipopulations. As we have seen, Pastoral Fulani have always formed minorities

within wider societies, and intolerable political conditions within these havebeen countered by a more dramatic form of movement migration from thescene of war, excessive tribute, and the like. Pastoral Fulani have remainedpastoralists, in the sense we have described, only by continuous seasonalmovement, which develops imperceptibly into migratory drift, and by

periodic migration. They have left behind them Fulani populations moreclosely wedded to the soil, the semisedentary and sedentary populations.But in affirming the importance of the pastoralists in dispersingcommunities of Fulani throughout the Western Sudan, the role of holy menof Fulani descent should not be minimized. They served to crystallize thesegroups into self-conscious communities which later became the nuclei ofFulani States. For the pastoralists the savannah grassland of the WesternSudan was a vast potential grazing ground. For the holy men it was a field ofmissionary and reformist endeavour among the courts of pagan and Muslimrulers no less than among Fulani populations. We may suppose that Fulani

were converted to Islam before the eleventh century owing to the efforts of

Malikite Mauretanian Arabs in Senegal (Delafosse, 1912). These werefortified by the establishment of the Almoravid Empire on the ruins of thekingdom of Ghana (Bovill, 1933). These events gave rise to the Fulani

Torobhe (those who pray to Allah). The Fulani Torobhe of Senegal themselvesmoved eastwards in the wake of the Fulani migrations, initiating members ofFulani sedentary communities and forming their widely dispersed

brotherhoods. These men not only preached among existing Fulanicommunities wherever they found them, forming links based on their owninfluence with the central authorities of the alien States; they also oftenformed the foci of new communities drawn together by real or imagined

persecution and cemented by a common language and common faith. Suchdissident communities were formed by the Flights of holy men and were

20


21/25

located in ill-administered parts of the States in which they were found.The rise of the Fulani Muslim States through the activities of the Fulani holymen thus depended in large measure on their influence among communitiesof their own people. But to describe the Holy Wars as demonstrations of

Fulani nationalism is not entirely accurate. In Fouta Jalon, Fouta

Senegal, and Macina, the Fulani reformists ousted pagan Fulani dynasties.In Hausaland Fulani resisted the agitations of Usuman and on occasionfought on the side of the Hausa kingdoms, while Shehu Usuman gave flagsto Hausa and Bornuese preachers as well as to Fulani. Finally, MuslimFulani themselves belonged to rival sects of the Malikite rite. Hadj Umar

belonged to the comparatively recently formed sect of the Tijaniya. His failurein Fouta Toro and his war with the Fulani of Macina were due as much todoctrinal differences as to conflicts of political ambitions.

Evolution and Differentiation of Fulani Communities

The work of numerous writers on the Fulani makes it clear that no simpleformula for the evolution and differentiation of Fulani communities can belaid down. Communities of pastoralists persist, and will continue to do so intheir present form in regions of the savannah belt where sedentarypopulations remain at a low density. 15 Administrative action coupled withecological reform may create demarcated areas where cattle-raising willflourish on a basis more akin to ranching; enclosure may lead to mixedfarming. 16 Communities of semi-sedentarists do not represent an inevitablestage in the process towards a sedentary way of life; they may arise through

poverty in cattle, or its reverse. Sedentary Fulani populations are evidence ofthis process of sedentarization, but here again, there are populations of non-Fulani origin who have been included in the orbit of Fulani politicaldomination and who regard themselves as Fulani. Finally, from the evidenceat our disposal, it is not possible to refer the development of WesternSudanese States to a race of Fulani shepherd kings . The earlydevelopment of centralized government may have been due to Berberinvasions, and the early pagan Fulani kingdoms may have been of thisnature. But before the establishment of the Fulani Muslim States there werepowerful Negro kingdoms in the Western Sudan. The Fulani States

themselves, which persisted until the period of European colonization, werelargely usurpations of existing State systems, and owed their rise, not toinvasions of warlike nomads, but to the ideological and political ambitions ofholy men, whose principal adherents were Fulani communities alreadysubject in some degree to the States' jurisdiction.

This book deals with changes in some of the salient features of the way of lifeof a community of Pastoral Fulani in only one small part of the WesternSudan the Wodhaabhe 17 of Bornu Emirate in North-eastern Nigeria.

Although their material equipment is rudimentary, their social groupingssmall, fluid, and isolated, the Wodhaabhe are not in the classical sense a

primitive people. In the pages which follow, the reader will see that none ofthe features described above for Fulani communities in general are alien to

21
http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n15%23n15http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n16%23n16http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n17%23n17http://www.fuuta-jalon.net/http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n15%23n15http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n16%23n16http://www.pulaaku.net/defte/djStenning/introduction.html#n17%23n17


22/25

the Wodhaabhe. They have migrated to their present habitat, and some havemoved on eastwards. They have experienced the pressures towards thesedentary life, and some have capitulated. They trade and bartercontinuously with non-Fulani communities whose languages they speak.Some have briefly visited capital cities in the Muslim States-Maiduguri, Yola,

Kano, Zaria-where they have lived, not as homeless immigrants ill-adjustedto the life of the city, but in centuries-old 'quarters' where people of theirown regional or ethnic background congregate. The Wodhaabhe have beenconverted to Islam by holy men. They worship, however imperfectly, the Godof millions of co-religionists. They help on his way to Mecca the pilgrim fromfar places; some of them have themselves made the pilgrimage. They are

being drawn into the legal and administrative system associated in WestAfrica with Islam. Their legends are those of Muslim kings, and the religiouswars which have swept the country. Their tribal heroes are men who profitedby the wars, who acquired slaves and horses for services rendered to kings.

The Wodhaabhe, like other Fulani communities, are historically andculturally part of the Islamic world of the Western Sudan.Nevertheless, the reader will detect a vein of opportunism in the dealings ofthe Wodhaabhe with the alien States and communities in which they move.

They have accepted the protection of States when it was convenient to do so.They have traded or fought with neighbouring communities of non-Fulani aspolitical events dictated. They have accepted only those forms of Islamiccanon law which suited them, and have evaded the rest. These attitudesextend to the administrative provisions current under the system of IndirectRule which affect them.

The yardstick of this involvement with, or withdrawal from, a wider socialsystem, has been the welfare of Wodhaabhe herds and the maintenance ofthe family system with which cattle are so closely bound. And the success oftheir opportunism has been due to the mobility with which families and theirherds are endowed. Social change for the Wodhaabhe, as for many another Pastoral Fulanicommunity, does not lie, even today, in the impact of Western technology,modes of distribution, and the new forms of social organization and ideologyattendant upon them. The main manifestations of social change for the

Wodhaabhe are their incorporation into an Islamic State organization,administrative system, and ritual idiom, with which, until the post-war

period, British administration had little concern. This, for the Wodhaabhe,has been a slow process, lasting for perhaps a century and a half. Thestresses in Wodhaabhe society resulting from these changes may be slightcompared with those described for African societies confronted moresquarely with changes of a Western origin. This book attempts to chroniclethem.

Notes1 See map p. 24.2. Tauxier (1937) discusses work on the physical anthropology of Fulani communities,principally that of Verneau (1931), Deniker (1926), Buisson (1933). and Chantre (1918).

More recent work is that of Pales (1951, 1952, 1953). Casual references in the literature onWest Africa to the physical characteristics of Fulani, particularly the beauty of their women,

22


23/25

are too numerous to be mentioned here.3. An extensive bibliography of the Fulani language is to be found in Westermann andBryan (1952). See also Struck (1911-12) and Labouret (1955).4. A succinct description of these structural features is furnished by Greenberg (1949).5. See the recent work of deTressan (1951, 1952). In 1955-6 D.W. Arnott, of School ofOriental and African Studies, made extensive tape recordings all areas where Fulani are

found. See Arnott (1957).6. For a discussion of the factors affecting the various forms of pastoral movement practised

by the Pastoral Fulani see my paper Transhumance, Migratory Drift, and Migration;Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism (J.R.A.I, vol. 87, pt. 1. 1957).7. The maintenance of the economic independence of the family household within theagnatic lineage group is described in my paper Pastoral Fulani Family Development (Cambridge Annals of Anthropology, no. I, 1958).8. For observations on the life and social organization of the Pastoral Fulani, see:

o Arensdorff (1913)o Brackenbury (1924)o Dupire (1954)o Fourrier (1934)o Gabus (1948, 1955)o Genin (1930)o Guebhard (1910)o Malbrant (1931)o Meniaud (1912)o Outresoulle (1950, 1952)o Pfeffer (1937)o Reed (1932)o de St. Croix (1944)o Trentinian (1896)o Wilson-Haffenden (1927)

9. Descriptions of semi-sedentary communities are found in Hopen (1958), de St. Croix(1944), and Tauxier (1912, 1917, 1937). I carried out fieldwork on the Jos Plateau between

April and September 1953.10. Hausa: mallam.11. There is a French bibliography of Western Sudanese Islam in Gouilly (1952), in whichthe works of Marty, especially (1920), are of particular importance. For a rsum of thehistory and organization of Islamic fraternities and the function of the holy man within themsee also Gouilly (1952) and Pottier (1947). In English, there is a discussion of the relativestatuses of Islamic and pre-Islamic belief in a Nigerian society in Nadel (1954). The relevantinstitutional and historical background is analysed, for the same society, in Nadel (1942),Greenberg (1946) describes the work of holy men, and in Smith (1954) there is a first-handaccount of a holy man's expedition of conversion. Fremantle (1911-12) summarizes theinfluence of holy men upon pagan rulers.12. The best general description of the rise and fall of Western Sudanese States in a generalhistorical setting is that of Bovill (1933). Delafosse (1912) and Hogben (1930) are useful foraccounts of the rivalries of States in French West Africa and Nigeria respectively. Theincorporation of various ethnic groups in the State is analysed by Nadel (1942). First-handaccounts of Western Sudanese State administration, rivalry, war, slave-raiding, and life inthe cities are found in Barth (1857-8).13. In addition to those mentioned above on the States of the Western Sudan, including theFulani Muslim States, there are a number of works, mostly in Fulfulde with translations,

which describe the Holy Wars and eulogize the motives and characters of their leaders:

23


24/25

o Arnett (1922)o Daniel (1926)o Jeffreys (1950)o East (1935)o Jamburia (1920)o Tyam (1935)

14. In addition to works mentioned above see the following for organization andadministration in Fulani States:

o Arnaud (1932)o Froelich (1954a, 1954b)o Labouret (1935)o Mizon (1895)o Northern Nigeria, Annual Reports (1900-11)o Patenostre (1930)o Sanderval (1899)o Smith (1955)o Traore (1948)o Vieillard (1939)

15. The plight of Pastoral Fulani in Bamenda, where onward migration is inhibited bygeographical conditions, is described by Stapleton (1948).16. Proposals for these developments are discussed in Shaw and Colvile (1950) and inProceedings of a Conference called to consider the Report of the Nigerian Livestock Mission,Lagos, 1952.17. Sing. Bodhaadho.

24


25/25

the wodaabe

Documents