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October 03, 2005

Prepare for a long walk

"By one o’clock, the sun is indeed hammering our heads, and the landscape glares like an overexposed photograph. My water bottle is empty. The others, incredibly, have just one small water bottle between them.

“Diallo, is there a pump ahead?” I ask, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Not far,” says Diallo. When a Fulani man says “not far”, prepare for a long walk."

(From Steve's latest article published inthe Sunday Times.)

I was once travelling to a Fulani village on my motorbike. I'd only recently bought the bike, and it was my first time on such a sandy route. I now love biking through such terrain and over the sand dunes, but that first time I was very nervous. I had also rashly picked up a hitch-hiker on the way. The bike was sliding all over the place in the sand, and I could feel my travelling companion was getting tense, wondering what he had let himself in for. I was hoping I was almost there, so I stopped on the way to ask a Fulani herder if it was far. Predictable response: "It's not far now."

Trying to get more precise information, I tentatively asked if he knew how many kilometres - expecting that a Fulani "duroowo" would not know the measures. I was surprised

"It's only four kilometres," he replied with confidence.

With renewed courage I pressed on for four more kilometres. And four more. And four more... After 20 km of nervous sliding, we finally arrived at our destination, and I deposited my hitch-hiker. He seemed relieved that he had actually arrived in one piece, without being thrown in the sand by the "tubaaku", who clearly had no idea how to ride a motorbike.

Twenty kilometres... our herder friend's estimate had actually been one-fifth of the real distance. That seems to be a fair estimate of the Fulani perception of distance. If a Fulani tells you how far something is, multiply it by 5.

Now, of course, that perception is largely to do with them being used to walking long distances behind their cattle, as Steve discovered. One Fulani Christian I know used to walk 40km each way, every weekend, just to get to church. (Would you...?) But their mathematics of the distance is interesting. My own theory about that has to do with the way they count money...

The smallest coin in Burkina Faso is the 5cfa coin, which is known in Fulfulde as "mbuudu wooturu" or "one coin". From the days before the Fulani started to learn to read, they could not decipher the numbers on the coin, so money was calculated in mulitples of the "mbuudu wooturu". Thus, 50cfa is "sappo" - "ten". And so on. Transfer that to distance, and Amadu is your uncle.

So, when you come to Burkina, be prepared. That journey, or that nice Fulani blanket you want to buy, may be five times more than you think it is going to be!

Tags: burkina faso africa travel burkina fulani

Posted by Keith at October 3, 2005 08:02 AM