The Fulbe are one of the most widespread ethnic groups in West Africa and have played a prominent role in West African history. Known primarily for their expertise as cattle pastoralists, the Fulbe, over the past 1,000 years, have spread across 2,000 miles of savanna, from Senegambia in the west to Cameroon in the east. They are easily the most significant pastoral-ist group in all of West Africa. They were also the single most instrumental black African group in spreading Islam, the dominant religion, throughout much of the savanna region of West Africa. Today they number about ten million in many different countries. They are still the dominant pastoralist group in the Sahel and savanna regions of West Africa.
Because of their widespread geographic distribution across anglophone and francophone countries, the Fulbe have been known by a variety of names in the literature. Arbitrary distinctions between Muslim and non-Muslim, and nomadic and sedentary Fulbe have caused variations in terminology. Even today there is considerable confusion about what term to use, and who is actually Fulbe. All Fulbe speak the language of Fulfulde, which has numerous dialects, depending on location. The Fulbe of Senegambia call themselves Haalpulaar’en (speakers of Pulaar, the local dialect of Fulfulde). In addition, Fulbe in Futa Toro are often called Futankobe or Futanke, while those of Futa Bundu are known as Bundunkobe. During the colonial period, the French divided the Haalpulaar’en of Senegal into “Toucouleur” or “Tukolor,” whom they considered primarily agricultural and centered in Futa Toro, and “Peul” or “Peuhl,” using the Wolof term for primarily pastoral peoples inhabiting the upper river region and the Casamance. The French also mistakenly labeled the so-called Tukolor as radical anti-French Muslims and considered the Peuls as docile non-Muslims.
The government of Senegal, many Senegalese, and some scholars continue to differentiate between Tukolor and Peul to the present, inaccurately treating them as separate ethnic and linguistic groups. Many Senegalese, especially the Wolof, refer to the Fulfulde language as Tukolor. Guinea Fulbe are often called Pula Futa, after their center of concentration in Futa Djallon. In northern Nigeria, the Fulbe are called Fulani, borrowing the Hausa term, and in Sierra Leone and Gambia, the Malinke term, Fula, is most often used to refer to local Fulbe. In Niger, the Fulbe are labeled Woodabe, or “red” Fulbe, because of their apparently lighter complexion than other groups. Some Europeans, especially in anglophone regions, divided the Fulbe into “town” Fulani, who mostly farmed, and “cattle” Fulani, who were more pastoralist and usually non-Muslim.
Hence, a people with an essentially similar language, culture, and identity are found in the literature under a confusing variety of names. Scholarship now confirms that all these groups are essentially Fulbe, and that the term Fulbe (or Fuulbe) is the most accurate designation. The term Haalpulaar’en, which many Fulbe use for themselves, is also acceptable.
The origins of the Fulbe have caused considerable speculation among early European ethnographers and have continued to puzzle later Western anthropologists, linguists, and historians. Fulbe oral traditions suggest an origin in Egypt or the Middle East, a common theme in West African Muslim traditions. According to these origin myths, the Fulbe then migrated westward until they reached the Atlantic Ocean. They then moved south into the highlands of central Guinea. Based on these traditions, some early ethnographers ascribed an Egyptian, Arab, or even Jewish origin to the Fulbe who appeared to be lighterskinned, taller, and more “Caucasoid” than other West African groups. Some commentators claimed that the Fulbe were not African at all but a Semitic people. These ethnographers also concluded that the Fulbe spread from North Africa and then east to west, finally drifting southward in a deliberate and calculated pattern.
Linguistic evidence suggests that the Fulfulde language belongs to the West Atlantic subgroup and is closely related to Wolof and Serer, both spoken originally in western Senegambia. Therefore, the modern Fulbe and their language, Fulfulde, originated in Senegambia, probably in the northern river area of Futa Toro. The original Fulbe may have descended from a pastoral group inhabiting the Western Sahara in the Chadian wet phase 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, before moving into the Mauritanian Adrar as the Sahara dried up. Later they may have gradually filtered down to the lower and middle Senegal River valley, the area known as Futa Toro, and intermarrying with local groups. From Futa Toro, the Fulbe most likely spread into the Sahel zone along the Senegal and Niger Rivers, and then further east. They also migrated south from Futa Toro into the upper Senegal River valley, the upper Casamance region, and eventually into the Futa Djallon highlands of Guinea. Existing landowners throughout West Africa had no reason to treat the pastoralists as competitors for resources and did not hinder their spread. Occasionally clashes did occur between the migratory Fulbe and settled farmers, but more often the interaction was peaceful cooperation. It is also likely that the Fulbe migrated to areas that were suited to cattle herding and that did not require considerable defense from farmers. The migratory process was not a single set mass movement but a series of short and long-distance moves, sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent, occurring at various intervals over hundreds of years.
The Fulbe have always maintained a strong sense of identity separate from other West African groups. They have consistently been aware of their occupational specialty and distinctive appearance. In fact, many Fulbe may feel “racially” superior to their agricultural neighbors and have incorporated some of the early European ideas about a North African or Middle Eastern origin into their traditions. The Fulbe have also emphasized their independence and mobility, in comparison to their settled neighbors.
Andrew F. Clark
See also: Futa Jalon; Futa Toro.
Further Reading
Clark, A. F. “The Fulbe of Bundu: From Theocracy to Secularization.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 29 (1996): 1-23.
Curtin, P. Economic Change in Precolonial Africa: Senegambia in the Era of the Slave Trade. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975.
Horton, R. “Stateless Societies in the History of West Africa.” In History of West Africa: Volume One, edited by J. Ade Ajayi and Michael Crowder. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
Stenning, D. Savannah Nomads. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Fulbe/Fulani/Peul: Cattle Pastoralism, Migration, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
The search for the origin of the Fulani is not only futile, it betrays a position toward ethnic identity that strikes many anthropologists as profoundly wrong. Ethnic groups are political action groups that exist, among other reasons, to benefit their members. Therefore, by definition, the social organization, as well as cultural content, will change over time. Moreover, ethnic groups, such as the Fulani, are always coming into, and going out of, existence. Rather than searching for the legendary eastern origins of the Fulani, a more productive approach might be to focus on the meaning of Fulani identity within concrete historical situations and analyze the factors that shaped Fulani ethnic identity and the manner in which people used it to attain particular goals.
The people whom historians identify as Fulani entered present-day Senegal from the north and east. It is certain that they were a mixture of peoples from northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. These pastoral peoples tended to move in an eastern direction and spread over much of West Africa during the tenth century. Their adoption of Islam increased the Fulani’s feelings of cultural and religious superiority to surrounding peoples. That adoption became a major ethnic boundary marker.
Toroobe, a branch of the Fulani, settled in towns and mixed with the ethnic groups there. They quickly became outstanding Islamic clerics, joining the highest ranks of the exponents of Islam, along with Berbers and Arabs. Fulani Sirre, or town Fulani, never lost touch with their relatives, however, often investing in large herds themselves. Cattle remain a significant symbolic repository of Fulani values.
The Fulani movement in West Africa tended to follow a set pattern. Their first movement into an area tended to be peaceful. Local officials gave them land grants because their products, including fertilizer, were highly prized. The number of converts to Islam increased over time. With that increase Fulani resentment at being ruled by pagans or imperfect Muslims increased.
That resentment was fueled by the larger migration that occurred during the seventeenth century, in which the Fulani migrants were predominantly Muslim. These groups were not so easily integrated into society as earlier migrants had been. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, revolts had broken out against local rulers. Although these revolts began as holy wars (jihads), after their success they followed the basic principle of Fulani ethnic dominance.
The situation in Nigeria was somewhat different from that elsewhere in West Africa in that the Fulani entered areas that are more settled and developed than those in other West African lands did. At the time of their arrival, in the early fifteenth century, many Fulani settled as clerics in Hausa city-states such as Kano, Katsina, and Zaria. Others settled among the local peoples during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the seventeenth century, the Hausa states had begun to gain their independence from various foreign rulers, with Gobir becoming the predominant Hausa state.
The urban culture of the Hausa was attractive to many Fulani. These town or settled Fulani became clerics, teachers, settlers, and judges and in many other ways filled elite positions within the Hausa states. Soon they adopted the Hausa language, many forgetting their own Fulfulde languages. Although Hausa customs exerted an influence on the town Fulani, they did not lose touch with the cattle or bush Fulani.
These ties proved useful when their strict adherence to Islamic learning and practice led them to join the jihads raging across West Africa. They tied their grievances to those of their pastoral relatives. The cattle Fulani resented what they considered an unfair cattle tax, one levied by imperfect Muslims. Under the leadership of the outstanding Fulani Islamic cleric, Shehu Usman dan Fodio, the Fulani launched a jihad in 1804. By 1810 almost all the Hausa states had been defeated.
Although many Hausa joined dan Fodio after victory was achieved, the Fulani in Hausaland turned their religious conquest into an ethnic triumph. Those in Adamawa, for instance, were inspired by dan Fodio’s example to revolt against the kingdom of Mandara. After their victories, the Fulani generally eased their Hausa collaborators from positions of power and forged alliances with fellow Fulani.
For the fully nomadic Fulani, the practice of trans-humance (the seasonal movement in search of water) strongly influences settlement patterns. The basic settlement, consisting of a man and his dependents, is called a wuru. It is social but ephemeral, given that many such settlements have no women and serve simply as shelters for the nomads who tend the herds.
Funj sultanate, sixteenth-seventeenth centuries.
There are, in fact, a number of settlement patterns among Fulani. Since the late twentieth century, there has been an increasing trend toward livestock production and sedentary settlement, but Fulani settlement types still range from traditional nomadism to variations on sedentarism. As the modern nation-state restricts the range of nomadism, the Fulani have adapted ever increasingly complex ways to move herds among them. Over the last few centuries, the majority of Fulani have become sedentary.
Those Fulani who remain nomadic or seminomadic have two major types of settlements: dry-season and wet-season camps. The dry season lasts from about November to March, the wet season from about March to the end of October. Households are patrilocal and range in size from one nuclear family to more than one hundred people. The administrative structure, however, crosscuts patrilines and is territorial. Families tend to remain in wet-season camp while sending younger males—or, increasingly, hiring non-Fulani herders to accompany the cattle to dry-season camps.
Frank A. Salamone
See also: Hausa Polities: Origins, Rise Ibn Khaldun: History of the Berbers; ‘Uthman dan Fodio.
Further Reading
Hogben, S. J., and Anthony Hamilton Millard Kirk-Greene. The Emirates of Northern Nigeria. London: Longman, 1966.
Eguchi, P. K., and Victor Azarya, eds. Unity and Diversity of a People. Senri Ethnological Studies, no. 35. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 1993.
Riesman, P. Freedom in Fulani Social Life. Translated by Martha Fuller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Salamone, F. A. “Colonialism and the Emergence of Fulani Ethnicity.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 20(1985): 170-201.
Stenning, D. J. Savannah Nomads. London: International African Institute; Oxford University Press, 1959.
World History
