The Fulani

The Fulani or Fulbe are found throughout the Sahel of West Africa, on the southern edge of the desert, from Mauritania in the West, to Sudan in the east. There are about 20 million of them spread through about 16 countries. In almost every country they are a minority.

Of obscure ancestry, ethnically distinct from the surrounding peoples, the Fulani remain separate by their culture, their way of life and their beliefs. Typically they are paler-skinned, and slighter in build, and their language, Fulfulde, is of a completely different family group.

Three elements have been the focus of Fulani identity: cattle, Islam and a value system called pulaaku.

Cattle

Traditionally, the Fulani were pastoral nomads, wandering with their cattle in search of good pasture and water, exchanging milk for millet with the local farmers. As land use became more pressured with population growth and with the advance of the desert, some Fulani began to settle, to farm, and to engage in religious study. Today, most Fulani are more sedentary, and yet wherever they are, cattle are still at the heart of their identity, and there is still a nostalgia for the nomadic life.

Religion

The Fulani were the first people south of the desert to become Muslims, and were responsible for spreading Islam throughout West Africa through a series of jihads, joining with Ousemane dan Fodio in the 18th Century. They formed Islamic Fulani empires in many places, notably in Maasina in Mali, Sokoto in Nigeria, Adamawa in northern Cameroon, Fouta Tooro in Senegal, and Fouta Jaalon in Guinea.

As they conquered different towns and peoples, they would take captives from those tribes. Those captives became their slaves, adopting the language and lifestyle of the Fulani, and working their fields for them. Today, although no longer officially slaves, the ex-slave caste (rimaaybe or maccube) has no sense of their original ethnicity. Although distinct ethnically from the true Fulbe, their identity is now so intertwined with them that they are themselves called Fulani.

Now, over 99% of Fulani are Muslims. It is said that to be a Fulani is to be a Muslim. There are a small group of Fulani called the Mbororo, or Wodaabe, found in Niger and Cameroon, who resisted Islam, and have kept much of their pre-Islamic way of life and beliefs. And in different places, small groups of Fulani are choosing to follow the way of Christ. However, the vast majority are Muslims, most practicing a version of folk Islam, integrating animistic practices into their Muslim religious duties.

Pulaaku

Pulaaku is the code of behaviour that most strikingly sets the Fulani apart from other peoples. It is the ethic or soul of "Fulani-ness", and involves complex rules of interaction within Fulani society. It puts high value on self-control, modesty, and reserve within a particular understanding of shame and respect. Pulaaku prevents a Fulani from expressing need or discomfort or from showing emotion. The Fulani language, Fulfulde, and their songs, stories and proverbs, all express and reinforce the centrality of pulaaku within Fulani culture and identity.

These three elements of cattle, religion, and pulaaku mark out the Fulani as separate from other tribal groups. For the Fulani themselves, they are markers of their own uniqueness. They have all to some extent also contributed to conflicts with other peoples, and to isolating the Fulani from the benefits of national infrastructures. In almost every country the Fulani are a minority. Decreasing availability and fertility of land increases pressure on their traditional lifestyle. Loss of slaves has left them ill equipped for the hardships of farming. Mistrust of authorities and other tribal groups has prevented them from getting involved in schools and other institutions.

Today, traditional Fulani culture is disappearing and leaving the Fulani in many places marginalised.

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