I usually take them as an example when illustrating the spread of the Kurdish people. The Fulani stretch from Chad through West Africa to Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, but do not have their own state. By their nomadic nature it's difficult to give any accurate statistics about those who are migrant pastoralists. Cheikh Anta Diop has suggested somewhere or other that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel but there is no compelling evidence as is the case with judaised Berbers or as in the case of the DNA evidence for the Lemba being one of the lost tribes of Israel. Thinking of the mixed multitude that followed Moses out of Egypt and the eventual sin - long forgiven - of the golden calf. Hopefully, the Fulani plead not guilty. They may be cowboys but that doesn't mean that they worship cows.
I hope that no one frowns on my talking about a "lost tribe" instead of a lost "ethnic group"…
Originally, I was going to take on some of the spurious claims made in this post, "that only (in) gullible Nigeria does Fulani have some political power. In the rest of the 15 or more countries they are scattered and live in Africa, they have zero power and are the most destitute and poorest African tribes in Africa" – followed by some other vicious low jabs aimed at the Fula/Fulani people, who surprisingly only number about 7 million in Nigeria and 4.5 million in Guinea ( Conakry)
The Fullah brought Islam to Sierra Leone, from the Futa Djallon area in Guinea. There is some prestige in that , but Sierra Leone does not have a religion problem, although there appears to be one brewing in Makeni about a Catholic Bishop of another tribe their rivals the Mendes being appointed Bishop of Brother William Bangura's great Temne warriors' headquarters, the town known as Makeni , the capital of the Temne man's land in Sierra Leone.
If you are a drunkard or you like al-cohol, you quickly discover all the pubs in town. Likewise, I have never seen a mosque in Sierra Leone – I must have seen one without realising that it was a mosque – I didn't know anything about anything called Islam except that there were some people called Muslims (a tribe?) and that they usually had many wives. What I remember most about Fullah traders on the sides of Freetown's busy streets was that they were always to be found washing their hands and feet. I'd go past at noon and he'd be pouring water from a little tea kettle, washing his hands and feet. I'd go past a little later and he would be found repeating the action I saw him performing a few hours earlier. And a little later in the evening he'd be washing his hands and feet all over again. And so I came to the conclusion that the Fullahs are the cleanest people in Sierra Leone, proof: they are forever washing their hands and feet, faces, ears, noses, several times a day. I kept this conclusion to myself. Only in Nigeria did I get to understand that what they were doing was the ritual purification wudu – before performing their salaat. I also noticed that Fullah women are very beautiful and resolved to marry one….
Ostensibly, in just one generation, in Sierra Leone the Fullah who are the third largest ethnic group in that country, have risen from petty traders to being the big entrepreneurs who I'm told have taken over from the Lebanese retailers as "The new Jews" of business acumen in the country. Fullahs are government ministers e.g. the late Mr Lamin Siddique (a powerful orator, former minister of the interior) who I showed around Stockholm when he was here on a fairly long visit; through the years, ambassadors, doctors, art collectors (in Paris), engineers, taxi drivers, diamond miners, Professors (such as Cheikh Abdul ) - although "academics" is not where the money is. I'm given to understand that the Fullah are currently still busy buying up all the property that they can buy in Freetown and with money as the new social currency of status (money talks, bullshit walks) they are systematically marrying up all the Creole belles, to the chagrin of their stiff upper lip mothers and fathers who used to look down most disdainfully on the rank and file Fullah of previous generations. Fullah was my first language – as a result of which I was whisked off to London in 1952, ostensibly, to prevent me from becoming a fully-fledged "Fullahman" since it had got to the point where my parents were experiencing some difficulties communicating with me and were getting very worried. I picked up the language playing with Fullah kids at our residence at 112 Pademba Road - a straight Road, later on, plying double decker buses from the Cotton Tree to New England. In all of Freetown – including my guitar teacher Balogun Johnston- Williams' band Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats, Tornadoes, Soundcasters, Echoes, Akpta Jazz, Sammy & Freddy's Rycco Jazz Band, Tom Brown, S.E. Rogers etc. etc., in my opinion – as a connoisseur of all the good things that Freetown had to offer the absolute best music available was to be found at a joint known as Yellow Diamond at Krootown Road, featuring some indigenous Fullah music (with the flute etc.) and some of the usual acrobatic dancing. I say this, knowing that some of Handel's choirboys of St. George's Cathedral will never agree with me about that one. In saying this I have not included Amie Kallon or Salia Koroma – two very special people who were not doing club entertainment in the Freetown of my time.
You get a glimpse at the Creole/ Krio upper class/ aristocracy through Abner Cohen's chapter 4 on the Creoles in his The Politics of Elite Culture: Explorations in the Dramaturgy of Power in a Modern African Society . I well remember flagging a taxi at 3 O' Clock in the morning after a dance at Goderich, a few miles out of Freetown Central and guess what? She refused to enter the cab. Why? She said that the interior of the cab smelt bad. So, son of man had to be patient…
(It's worthwhile to note that in my generation the Creoles seldom married Oyibos - and I think that this was mainly in order to keep their property (houses, orchards & gardens ) on their lands in Freetown and the Western Area intact, to continue the inheritances passing from one generation to the next – within the family. Rumour has it (bushfire) that a Creole guy by the name of Thompson married a Swedish woman, the poor chap died and soon enough his wife sold his house and other belongings and returned to her native land.
In John Pepper Clark's Fulani Cattle the qualities/ character/ characteristics of the cattle also reflect the hardiness, of the Fulani herdsmen. "Fulani Cattle" prompted me to make first hand enquiries in Nigeria and I was told that all the beef consumed in Nigeria is halal and even though this contravenes the universal Hindu principle of "No Beef" - the Fulani people are doing a great service to Nigeria by providing citizens with clean meat.
Which brings me to the point that I would like to make in that discussion thread: Since the Fulani cattle herders fill/ fulfil the stomach cravings of the entire Nigerian population, grazing concessions should be made / reservations, ranches given as much government support as possible.
If the Fulani went on strike from where would you get meat to eat?
Only asking,
Cornelius
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