Derrick J. Stenning 1957 - Transhumance, Migratory Drift, Migration Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism

Transhumance, Migratory Drift, Migration; Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism
Author(s): Derrick J. Stenning

Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,
Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1957), pp. 57-73
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843971
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Transhumance, Migratory Drift, Migration;
Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism*
DERRICK J. STENNING
Department of Anthropology, University College, London
THE FULANI ARE AN IMPORTANT AFRICAN POPULATION, numbering perhaps seven millions,
widely distributed in the Western Sudan from Senegambia in the West to French Equatorial
Africa in the East, with their main concentration in Senegambia, Upper Niger, Northern
Nigeria, and the British and French Cameroons (Fig. I).
They are known as Fula in Gambia and Sierra Leone; Fellah by the Arabs of the Western
Sudan; Fellaata by the Kanuri and other peoples of the Chad Basin; Peuls by the French;
and Fulbe in the German literature. Their own term for themselves is Fulbe (sing. Pullo)
and their language Fulfulde. The British in Nigeria use the Hausa term Fulani, and this
will be used here, since the information on which this paper was based was obtained in
Northern Nigeria.'
In Nigeria, the Fulani may be divided sociologically into four categories. First, the
ruling dynasties of most of the Northern Nigerian Emirates, established during the Holy
War of I804-30 (Hogben I930). Second, the settled Fulani, who fill a range of occupations
in Northern Nigerian society - court officials, judges, scribes, entrepreneurs, farmers, and
so on. Third, the semi-sedentary Fulani, who are primarily farmers, but who maintain herds
of cattle for which pasture has to- be sought at a distance. Fourthly, the Pastoral Fulani (often
called Bororo in the literature) who depend completely on their herds of zebu cattle for sub-
sistence, and whose lives are tuned to continuous transhumance, migratory drift, and periodic
migration. This last element of the Fulani population, and the various kinds of movement
which it practises, are the subject of this paper. The observations of which it mainly consists
are based upon field data obtained among the Wodaabe and Wewedbe of West Bornu; the
Wewedbe of Pankshin Division, Plateau Province; and the Wewedbe of South Katsina. These
are three areas which exhibit significant geographical and historical variations (Fig. i).
It is pertinent to give first a brief account of the major forms of social grouping in Pastoral
Fulani society. The basic residential and economic unit is the family, moving its few domestic
belongings on pack animals with the herd whenever it is moved to new pastures. The family
consists of a man, his wife or wives, and dependent children. It is sometimes augmented by
other dependents - hirelings and, formerly, slaves; aged parents of the male household head;
and some others. Ownership of the herd is vested in the male household head. He has full
rights of slaughter, sale, and deployment of cattle in the herd, and is responsible for its fer-
tility-by rational as well as magical means. His sons are his herdboys, and they receive cattle
from their father's herd with which to start their own herds on marriage. There is no bride-
wealth in first marriages, and no bride-wealth in the form of cattle in subsequent marriages.
The household head's wife or wives have milking rights in all or a part of the herd. Assisted
*The substance of this paper was read at an Ordinary Meeting of the Institute, March 1956.
11 carried out field work in Northern Nigeria in I951-3 as a Travelling Scholar of the Worshipful Company of Gold-
smiths, with the further assistance of a Colonial Development and Welfare Grant administered by the Government of
Nigeria. I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of these bodies and the kindness of their representatives. Also, I am
indebted to Professor Meyer Fortes for his encouragement and guidance.
58 DERRICK J. STENNING
by unmarried daughters, they prepare dairy products for home consumption, but more par-
ticularly for sale or exchange against cereal or root foods, which they acquire in village or
hamlet markets. Meat is eaten only on ceremonial and ritual occasions, and beasts are sold
only where an overriding need for cash occurs, principally to pay tax. The Pastoral Fulani
family may be regarded as a herd-owning, milk-selling enterprise. It has a great deal of
economic independence, which is fostered by geographical conditions. Ideally, it exhibits a
balance between the fertility of the household head and his wife or wives, which provides
the herd with those who minister to its needs. Households, based on the family, range from
the theoretical minimum to fifteen members. Ten cattle per household member is a mean
found to obtain in samples studied in all three areas.
The agnatic lineage group is formed by the common relationship, through males, of a
number of household heads to a common male ancestor three to five generations past, and is
named after him. A typical agnatic lineage group might consist of five to twenty household
heads and their families, or some twenty-five to one hundred persons. The major function of
this group, in the present context, is to ensure the smooth establishment and continuity of
families. For first, and sometimes subsequent marriages by betrothal, the agnatic lineage
group is endogamous. Household heads make loans or gifts of cattle to a member of their
agnatic lineage group when the latter's herd is inadequate in somne way for the support of
his family. When a member's labour force is inadequate for the care of his herd, he can rely
on temporary help from members of his agnatic lineage group. On the death of a household
head, a member of his agnatic lineage group will inherit his widow, act as guardian for his
dependent children, attend to their betrothals, and administer the herd for their benefit until
they marry. Although dispersed most of the year, when its constituent families pursue their
own interests, the agnatic lineage group makes a common camp in the wet season. Its political
function now emerges; it has a leader, chosen by his fellow household heads on criteria of
age, descent, prosperity, and pastoral skill. The leader (ardo, vb. arta, 'lead') represents the
agnatic lineage group before whatever political authority stands above him, and transmits
the commands of that authority to his followers.
The clan is a cluster of agnatic lineage groups, the link between which is the putative
agnatic relationship of their respective ancestors. The clan is endogamous for first and some
subsequent marriages. It is a unit of pastoral co-operation. Widow inheritance and its con-
sequences occur within it. But it has no formal political functions, and is only in a very loose
sense co-residential in the wet season. Formerly the clan was in some areas a congregation
which joined in the performance of increase rituals for cattle, and fertility rites and rites de
passage for humans. The Pax Britannica and conversion to Islam have done much to reduce
the cohesion of the clan.
The tribe is a vague cultural entity, distinguished as the widest social grouping to which
Pastoral Fulani see themselves as belonging traditionally. A tribe is believed to favour a
particular strain of cattle; to use a certain range of cattle calls; to practise a common basic
decoration of milk calabashes; to circulate a common repertoire of songs; to favour a par-
ticular femninine coiffure; to practise a common cycle of puberty ceremonies; and to speak a
sub-dialect.
None of these forms of social grouping had, or has, any de jure rights to ownership of
pasture, water, or cattle tracks enforceable either by the sanctions of Pastoral Fulani society,
or those of the alien political entities within which the Pastoral Fulani move. The nomadic
movements of Pastoral Fulani are a constant adjustment to the changing demands of the
natural habitat and the fluctuating pressure of the social environment. Field analysis estab-
lishes, by different techniques, three forms of movement, each of which has a specific term
in Fulfulde. Transhumnance, defined as 'regular seasonal movements', is translated kod
gA_A
SENGAL.
?w F R E N C H W EST A F R
4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TIMBUKTU
GAMBI
GAMB8IA R. MCN
1KITAI
. ? FOUTA DJALON
FRENCH
*GUINEIC d
50W
IO0N
SIERRA
LONE
7*N
VLTA RI
NZI RIVER.
~~ f ~~SASSA RVR-
RIVER c, o
Approximate n
Principal concentrations of Fulfulde-speakers I 30-45 in. Sudan savannah.

_ V (After Westermann and Bryan, 1952). U
45-60 in. Guinea savan
Nigeria and Cameroons only (a
FIGURE i. Distribution of Fulani in re
A~~~~~~ o lo 200
A NI MILES
/50 N
30-AMEN( ;.}|!PROVINW ( ZRIAJ 5 *1 ,_ EQUATORIAL

FR EI C H
A F R
BORN S
PROViNCE PLATEAU * r4~PROVINCE
NIME NIG Fl 9v *
A)' *~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ *~~TIBATIBO

to theSavannahZoneofWestAfrica.4560N
'V'GNIGRRR LAIGHAND
OVINCE 'FENH AMRON
7N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
to theSavaNah Zon of Wes Afrca
TRANSHUMANCE, MIGRATORY DRIFT, MIGRATION 59
(vb. hoda 'to come round, like the seasons'). There are a number of terms for more specific
types of movement within its scope, such as:
ruuma to spend the wet season
banga or wurtoya to move towards dry season pastures
woossoya to move about in a limited area
cheedoya to spend the dry season
tWoya to move towards wet season pastures
fabbita to postpone movement.
Migratory drift, defined as 'the gradual displacement of transhumance orbits', is rendered
in Fulfulde eggol (vb. egga, 'to wander'). Migration, defined as 'the assumption of new trans-
humance orbits by a sudden and often lengthy movement', is translated perol (vb.frra, 'to fl
TRANSHUMANCE
To understand transhumance one must have a picture of the habitat in which Pastoral Fulani
are found. West Africa may be divided into a number of lateral zones. From south to north
these are labelled the Mangrove, Guinea Forest, Guinea Savanna, Sudan Savanna, Sahel,
and Desert zones. From south to north, again, these zones show a progressive decrease in the
mean annual rainfall, a progressive increase in the number of dry months per year, a pro-
gressive instability of rainfall incidence, a progressive decrease in average humidity, and a
progressive deterioration of the climax vegetation (Buchanan & Pugh I955).
The zone of West Africa in which the economic strains of zebu cattle may be kept is
generally stated to be the Savanna Zone, a belt of more or less open woodland or orchard
bush, interspersed with grassland. In Nigeria, this is a transitional zone between the Guinea
Forest, which lies south of the 7? North parallel of latitude approximately, and the Sahel,
or thorn scrub fringe of the Sahara Desert, north of the I5' North parallel of latitude a
mately (Fig. i). In neither of these two zones is the keeping of zebu cattle practicable. In
the Sahel, grass cover is intermittent; this is predominantly the zone of the goat, and, where
it shades into the desert, of the camel. In the Guinea Forest, the climax vegetation is too
thick for successful pasturage, although small herds of dwarf cattle may be kept.
The Savanna zone itself is divisible into two. The southernmost of these division, the
Guinea Savanna, has a heavier type of woodland, with many varieties of tree which are not
fire-resistant. It coincides strikingly with the mean annual rainfall belt of 45-60 inches.
The more northerly division, the Sudan Savanna, is a zone of lighter woodland, with a gre
proportion of fire-resistant trees. It coincides with the 30-45 inch rainfall belt (Fig. i).
This description of the Savanna, the cattle keeping zone, is however something of a
simplification. For much of the Savanna is infested with certain varieties of tsetse fly, the
carriers of human sleeping sickness and bovine trypanosomiasis. For convenience in this
paper, these will be called simply bush tsetse and riverain tsetse. The activities of tsetse, in
so far as they affect cattle, are associated with seasonal changes in temperature, humidity,
and vegetation cover (Nash I948). These changes also affect the availability of pasture and
water to cattle.
Seasonal changes are brought about by the alternate action of the dry north-east monsoon
from the Sahara, the Harmattan, which brings the dry season; and the moist south-west
monsoon from the Gulf of Guinea, which brings the wet season. The dry season starts earliest
in the north of the Savanna zone, in September or October, and lasts longest there, till April
or May. The wet season comes to the Southern part of the Savanna zone in March or April,
and lasts longest there, till September or October. With the onse-t of the dry season, the
northern part of the Savanna zone begins to partake of the desert conditions prevalent to the
north. Standing water is evaporated and herbage is dried by the sun. As dry season conditions
6o DERRICK J. STENNING
extend southwards, they begin to affect the zone in which tsetse are prevalent. Riverain
tsetse are greatly affected by this desiccation, and retreat along watercourses, or are isolated
in patches of standing water. Bush tsetse retreat to thickets in underpopulated stretches of
bush, where game is likely to be found. As the wet season in its turn moves progressively
northward, vegetation again recovers, pools of standing water again appear, and water
flows along the river and stream beds. Both bush tsetse and riverain tsetse again attain their
maximum distribution. In Nigeria, this accounts for all but a small northern proportion of
the Savanna zone.
These seasonal changes also have their effects upon the zebu cattle of the pastoral Fulani.
At the height of the wet season, the bulk of the cattle in Nigeria are concentrated in the fly-
free zone, which extends across the northern parts of Sokoto, Katsina, Kano and Bornu
Provinces. There are also concentrations of cattle in this season in areas which belong to the
tsetse belt by virtue of their latitude, but are fly-free because of their altitude. These are
the Jos Plateau, and the Cameroons and Bamenda highlands (Fig. i).
When the dry season begins, it is the northernmost herds, in French West Africa, which
first experience shortages of pasture. Although cattle are watered from wells, only reduced
holdings can be maintained, and there is a southward movement of herds in search of pasture.
These conditions progressively affect areas further south, from which tsetse has itself retreated,
and the cattle population spreads into pasture lands from which a major hazard has been
removed. Under certain conditions this cession is not maintained. When the instability of
rainfall in this region manifests itself in an undue prolongation of the dry season, herds may
impinge, for fodder, upon areas to which bush tsetse has retreated, or may be forced to water
at streams or at water holes in stream beds where riverain tsetse is prevalent. It is likely
that the incidence of trypanosomiasis in zebu herds may be correlated primarily with condi-
tions such as these. It should be noted, further, that Pastoral Fulani are well aware, so far
as their own practical purposes go, of the relation between tsetse fly infestation and trypano-
somiasis.
This regular seasonal movement of cattle, southward in the dry season in response to
shortages of pasture and water, northward in the wet season to avoid tsetse, is a consistent
pattern of transhumance among the Pastoral Fulani of the Savanna zone. The speed and
length of these seasonal movements varies from area to area and from year to year, and may
be correlated with a number of local conditions. Among these the principal factors are:
the duration of wet and dry seasons; the size of herds; the presence of other herds; the density
of sedentary population and the extent of farmland under crops; and last, but not least,
the availability of suitable markets where dairy products may be sold or exchanged against
cereal and root foods. Some examples will illustrate this.
In West Bornu, part of the Sudan Savanna zone, the sedentary population density is
under 20 per square mile. At no time of the year is impingement upon sedentary cultivation
a serious factor in pastoral movement. Camps are moved, in principle, regularly seven times
a month, in accordance with an interpretation of a lunar cycle, at all seasons of the year.
There are elaborate rules for missing a 'loading day' (baire) for ceremonial or other reasons.
This great mobility is offset, to some extent, by the fact that standing water is not available
from December to May, so that herds are bound to a succession of dry season wells, mostly
in the vicinity of villages and hamlets. As stands of grass are used up, daily herding has to
be carried out at greater distances from the water point, often into pockets of bush tsetse.
Camps may be moved nearer to pasture, but now greater distances have to be travelled to
the wells. A minority of Pastoral Fulani herd-owners avoid these difficulties by moving
further south in the dry season into the Biu hills, where there are perennial streams and
abundant upland pasture. But this course has its perils, for the basalt gullies may never be
TRANSHUMANGE, MIGRATORY DRIFT, MIGRATION 6I
free from tsetse, and a delicate control of herds while grazing may have to be practised.
In I95I-2, the mean length of the transhumance orbits of some two hundred households,
practising both techniques of dry season deployment, was sixty miles. The term 'trans-
humance orbit' refers to the straight-line distance between the most northerly wet season camp
and the most southerly dry season camp. The yearly orbital distance travelled in transhumance
is thus approximately twice the transhumance orbit. These measurements are the most
convenient for comparison of different areas. Clearly, the Pastoral Fulani do not move in a
straight line from sojourn to sojourn, so that the 'transhumance track' is invariably consider-
ably greater than the orbital distance covered. These distances, also, do not include the
daily grazing distances covered by cattle to and from pasture and wells.
In a Guinea Savanna area in South Katsina, by contrast, the wet season area of the
Pastoral Fulani population studied supports a sedentary population of I50 per square mile.
This density extends into the northern part of their dry season area in Gwari division of
Zaria Province, but decreases as the southern part of the dry season area in Niger Province is
approached. Farmland is a constant factor in pastoral movement in this area. Wet season
quarters are taken up in June, and only limited areas are open for grazing without fear of
trespass. Movement out of the wet season area is not made until October, when the guinea
corn harvest has been taken in. Thereafter much of the southward movement of the Pastoral
Fulani of this area is on to guinea-corn farms as they are cleared; the pastoralists are paid
by the Gwari farmers for manuring their land. The southward path of the South Katsina
Fulani lies along the innumerable streams (from which they water their herds) leading
into the Kaduna River and thence to the Niger. Their constant preoccupation is with riverain
tsetse in the dry season. Nevertheless, this form of movement brings them into continuous
proximity to suitable markets. The mean length of the transhumance orbits of some forty
households was calculated at a hundred and eighty miles.
The habitat in which the Pastoral Fulani live enjoins upon them a seasonal movement
north and south. But there is a further characteristic of transhumance. Althouglh the dry
season denies the most northerly part of the Savanna zone to them, the fly-free Savanna is
open still to a reduced holding of cattle, while at the same time a much larger area is opened
up - the area from which tsetse has for the most part retreated. This dry season area is exploit-
able only on the condition that maximum mobility is maintained for taking advantage of
diminishing reserves of pasture and water. These general conditions suggest that the wet
season sees a congregation of Pastoral Fulani while the dry season promotes a dispersal.
This is true not only of Pastoral Fulani in general, but is borne out in field observation
of specific Pastoral Fulani communities.
For example, in West Bornu, wet season camps consist of one to five agnatic lineage
groups of the type described above, and may attain a size of fifty to sixty households. As the
wet season ends, lineage groups move apart, but each lineage group moves as one until
standing water is exhausted. During the dry season, the lineage group splits into groups of
two households, and even a single household may camp on its own. Agnatic lineage groups
disperse so that one of their more important functions - mutual aid in cattle - may be carried
out. Distribution in several localities makes- it less likely that all the constituent herds of the
male household heads in an agnatic lineage group will be affected by disease. Households
may combine transitorily for co-operation in the surveillance of herds in the dry season.
But in Bornu, as elsewhere, the dry season was described as one in which it was 'every man
for himself'. The wet season concentrations of Pastoral Fulani are to a large extent specific
by tribe and clan in any given locality. In the dry season this is not so; households repre-
sentative of several tribes may be found together at the same series of dry season wells, and
in the same dry season market.
62 DERRICK J STENNING
(14) AUGUST-SEPTEMBER. Height of wet season.

\ *\ Limited but continuous movement in village
ALLAGUE RN 0 area. Rinderpest inoculation. Standing water.
M AS HO I O SEPTEMBER. Cattle tax collected by

o 1 28 MILES 2 Ngelzerma village head to whom Dageeja
-J MILES owe allegiance. Stand
NGE LZERMA
20 OCTOBER. Single household did not join
(1)0tE t (14-) ,in general dry season movement because of
sickness in family. Used Ngelzerma village
/0 >wells February-May.
11301l N
Standing water.
15 NOVEMBER. Pools in river bed not used.

Tsetse (?).
ANU.IA,1,, % Gujba Plains zone.
MUTWE WAGURj DECEMBER. Standing water.

(*3) 1Temporary attraction of Mutwe market.
IO JANUARY.
(4) GABAI _I_4_ ___ Seven households reached approximate dry

MAIAR
tAINVARtI B ARAmovement.
- \ BUL8ARAEA season location by
Water holes I 5 FEBRUARY.
in Schiar bed for
-0_ 4. \' short period in February; then wells near
BORNUESA A) (1) villages and hamlets.
BERIBERI DOKSHI \
BAR (1)
(1) LJRSARL BANTINE
r GEIDAM2I Biu Hills zone. 5 MARCH. Households in this

(1) (>_ | | zone use standing water. Risk of tsetse.
TETIBA GUNDA
GULAI
(3) 20 MARCH; IO MARCH.

BALBIYA U PA (
GARUBILA
KUSA . KOGUSUNOMA ERA io APRIL; 25 MARCH.
(1) (1)
0 Markets
.* Maximum transhumance orbit (I6I miles).

'N^%_ Transhumance track.
Number of households in common camp
before split.
Final dry season sojourn; number of households.
FIGURE 2. Southward transhumance movement of Dageeja (Woclaabe) agnatic lineage group consisting of I4
households (Fune district, Gujba district, and Biu division, Bornu Province, August I95I to April I952).
Transhumance track of groups entering

( Ngelzerma village area by January
I952; wet season grazing ground;
number of households.
_._.._ ~ Provincial boundaries.

_ i ___ Divisional boundaries.
Ngelzerma village area. 0 14 28 M2I MILES
BEDDE DIVISION N
/ O EBoRNU PROVINCE)MiRA|
9'.
IKATAGUM t+W
V J ~~~~BORNU EMIRATE\ ATW

.GAMAWA MUGRUM DIVISION
KATAGUM DIVISION 1' " ALLAGUERNO
(BAUJCHI PROVINCE) ( M4SO
DAMAGUM
POTISKUM ) ~ NELZERMA
G UJ BA
Fso-uRE 3. Dry season immigration, Ngelzerma village area (Bornu Province), January 1952.
3600 rt ltililtltillUApproximate edge of plateau. BAUCH I

_ Transhumance orbits, Section A.
<*********>- Transhumance orbits, Section B.
-4..-.-*em Joint transhumance orbits.
Current ( 953) dry season grazing grounds.
'(pre - Igoo)
0 4 8
I t " s MILES
o Jos
3636oot/
0~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~111 .................... .4 ...................
~MAMAA 1
FARIRUWA R. st WOLA*
MAITUMB\ ) -6AEMANKAR R.
FIGURE 4. Migratory Drift, Butanko'e
A Migration route (generalized).

. ........Divisional boundaries.
- Provincial boundaries.
Markets (Shemga deserted).
o 14 28
a IMILES
(October) * DAMATURU
NGELZERMAA
.ORNU EMIRATE DIVISION

(BORNU PROVINCE)
SHEMGA * (A 9Ust)
GUJBA
WAGUR
POTISKUM DIVISION
(BORNU PROVINCE) MUTWE*
BORNU EMIRATE DIVISION
| s -> k /,DUMUL (JdB)U(BORNU PROVINCE),
GONGOLA ~. ~.GABAI OBULARAEA

*BUSAARE
/BERIBERI ...-" IN*' |
BAGE. j .. '
(Nvovember) j (June) 12?E

ASHAKA I GEIDAM
WVAKALATA I! . X B0IU DIVISION
I ! t \ (BORN U PROVINCE)
GERENJI
. I ,.' t *GARUBILA
TONGO
(December) ! BUM8ULUM *ERA
DIUXU BIU
DUKUI* ) | _.-. (May) TOWN
MALERI * BURA .
DEBA FULANI / GWANZAMI
(Januory) KIlAN
.0 \ 1 BIRNIN KUMA
* .\DADIM KOWA
N ~~~~WALAMIA,
(Fbruaay
DEBA HA8E A PA SHANI
DA
DAAA ((Apri/)
JAGALIKWA //
GOMBE DIVISION
(BAUCHI PROVINCE) ADAMAWA
FIGURE 5. Wodaabe Migration, i9445.
This is illustrated by an example from West Bornu (Fig. 2). At the height of the wet
season of I95I, a lineage group of fourteen households of the Dageeja clan of the Wodaabe
tribe camped together near Allaguerno in Fune District. As the rains ceased, this group moved
into the village area of Ngelzerma, fifteen miles to the south. In October, this village area
of approximately seven hundred square miles was pastured by ninety-eight households,
their herds totalling some four thousand head of cattle. All these households were of the same
cluster of clans within the same tribe. By the height of the dry season in April, I952, the
fourteen Dageeja households had dispersed by single households or pairs of households into
eleven localities, defined as village or hamlet areas providing water supplies and market
facilities. The mean orbital distance of each of these households or group of households from
the nearest Dageeja household was now fourteen miles. A similar order of dispersal could
be demonstrated for the remaining eighty-four households pasturing near Ngelzerma in the
late wet season.
Consider the tribal affiliation of the cattle owning population entering Ngelzerma mean-
while for all or part of the dry season (Fig. 3). In place of the tribally homogeneous wet
season population there are now present diverse elements of various tribes and ethnic groups.
These are tabulated below:
TRIBE No. OF HOUSEHOLDS WET SEASON PASTURE

Jan. 1952-Ap. 1952
Wodaabe I9 I O Jajere; Masho
Bibbe Waila 4 2 Gashua
Jafun 4 - Katagum Division
Jafun 2 2 Damagum; Masho
Uuda IO - Geidam (sheep owners)
Shuwa Arab 4 I Lantewa
This characteristic rhythm of dispersal and concentration of Pastoral Fulani imposes

striking seasonal contrasts on their social life. In the hot dry season, herding is arduous;
grazing may take the herd up to ten miles from the camp, since tracts of burnt-out -country
may have to be traversed. A conscientious herd owner sees that his cattle graze from dawn
to dusk, and often into the night. He may also have to make lengthy reconnaissances to find
suitable pasture. Watering cattle, too, may be hard work. In many areas, well-digging was
formerly the work of slaves, and Pastoral Fulani take hardly to it. A Bornu herdsman was
calculated to raise and lower his watering calabash fifteen feet more than four hundred
times a day to water his herd of fifty head. Owing to increase in temperature, increases in
distance travelled to and from pasture, poorer quality of pasture, and fewer lactations, the
milk yield of herds is lowered. The household diet may have to be supplemented by berries
and wild plants. Stock may have to be sold to pay for grain. These daily tasks disperse house-
hold members, already isolated from others of their agnatic lineage group. The dry season
is a time of unremitting labour, unrelieved for the most part by those gatherings which give
zest to social life.
In the cool wet season, by contrast, herding is easy, although sometimes uncomfortable
in the rain. Cattle are pastured at very short distances from camp, watered at convenient pools
of standing water, and brought back replete to the vicinity of the corrals in mid-afternoon.
Milk yield rises, until there is a considerable surplus to be devoted to the feasts which the
congregation of clansmen make possible. Puberty ceremonies are carried out. Betrothals are
contracted and solemnized. The various stages of induction into married life are enacted.
Communal cattle fertility rites are performed. Allegiance to chiefs and leaders is demon-
strated. Fealty to Emirs, and the commitments of the Pastoral Fulani community to the
British Administration are embodied in the assessment and remittance of cattle tax. The wet
season is a time of concentrated ritual and ceremonial activity.
Pastoral Fulani transhumance is carried out in response to the special conditions of the
West African Savanna habitat. For the herdowner it involves a detailed knowledge of specific
tracts of country; their characteristic pasture and terrain; their endowment of standing,
running, or well water; the incidence of tsetse, ticks, and biting flies. A herdowner must also
have a clear picture of the movements of other Pastoral Fulani whose herds may compete for
pasture or water, or bring disease. He must also maintain contact with his clansmen, so that
he may discharge his obligations and exercise his rights. In addition he must be aware of the
sedentary populations through which he passes; the extent of their farmland, the suitability
of their markets, the friendship or animosity of their chiefs. All this intelligence is not assembled
merely by deploying the herd on which the subsistence -of one's household depends. The
day to day tasks of herding, its tactics if you will, are left to boys and young men. A herd-
owner concerns himself with a wider scene, with the strategy of herd deployment. Whenever
possible he visits markets where news is exchanged; he visits kinsmen; and before each move
is made he attends a camp council, in which all this evidence is sifted by interminable dis-
cussion, before each herdowner decides which course he will follow. Social obligations play
their part in keeping herdowners and their families together, but it is the demands of the
herd which regulate primarily a herdowner's decision, and it is generally recognized that this
overrides other considerations. Pastoral Fulani transhumance does not consist of random
wanderings. Rather the reverse; it consists of a conservative exploitation of a known habitat,
involving continuous and careful appraisal of environmental and social demands which are
not necessarily in harmony.
MIGRATORY DRIFT
Most of the details of transhumance can be seen and experienced by a field worker in the
course of the yearly cycle of the seasons. But data on migratory drift cannot be gathered by
direct observation and experience, since this second form of mnovement is a gradual displace-
ment of customary transhumance tracks and orbits, resulting eventually in a completely
new orbit, often in different surroundings in which many factors in the total environmental
situation have altered. Evidence of migratory drift becomes available in the life histories of
herdowners, who describe their seasonal movements in the past, and who may yet have
wives drawn from tribes beside which they no longer pasture. Corroborative evidence arises
in genealogical enquiry, when the seasonal movements, at crucial periods in their lives, of
agnatic and affinal kinsmen in ascending generations are recounted. Indeed the timing of
events in the past is done in the first instance with reference to the seasonal location of vital
persons concerned.
From this sort of evidence, and from what is observable in the decisions affecting current
seasonal movements, migratory drift may be analysed more fully. Clearly a number of varia-
tions in existing transhumance tracks are possible. The northern or southern ends of the track
may be extended. The northern or southern ends may be displaced. The middle of the track
may be displaced. As life histories of individual herdowners show, these extensions and dis-
placements occur time and again, and in successive years, owing to the operation of factors
affecting transhumance. Both prolongation of the wet season and heavy rainfall in a wet
season of the expected length may extend a track northward. Conversely a long dry season
may extend it southward. The incidence of bovine disease (not only trypanosomiasis, but
rinderpest and bovine pleuropneumonia) may cause wide detours in the southward or north-
ward movement. The extension of farmland, the cutting of a new road, the opening or develop-
ment of a market, may attract or repel Pastoral Fulani at any point in their northward or
southward track.
Migratory drift may be said to have occurred when a stated range of seasonal grazing
grounds has given way piecemeal to a completely new range. This may occur within the life-
time of a herdowner, or within two or more generations, depending upon the urgency of the
environmental factors involved.
In the minor changes in transhumance which may or may not result in migratory drift,
it must be recalled that there are no formal rights of possession of pasture, water, or cattle
paths to be lost or gained. Vacua created by them are adjusted by the advent of new users,
either pastoral or agricultural. It may be asserted that overgrazing is a short term phenomenon,
obviated almost automatically by alterations in transhumance tracks. This assertion applies
to the Savanna; it cannot be maintained for highland areas such as Jos, Bamenda, and the
Cameroons.
A classic case of migratory drift can be reported from the south-eastern part of the Jos
Plateau in Pankshin Division (Fig. 4). It is given here in some detail, since migratory drift,
usually somewhat vague and tentative, has here been, as it were, telescoped, owing to ab-
normal conditions. The Jos Plateau is high (4000 feet), well watered, and fly-free, rising
out of the surrounding Guinea Savanna. In the 'eighties and 'nineties of the last century a
clan of Pastoral Fulani, the Butanko'en, pastured in the wet season in the vicinity of Bauchi.
In the dry season, they moved up the rivers flowing from the Plateau to Chad, and spent the
height of the dry season round Lere, at the foot of what is now called the Plateau. By I900,
when the British arrived in Bauchi, elements of the Butanko'en had extended their dry season
movements to Gindiri. South-westwards beyond the Lere and Gindiri country, which was
the limit of the jurisdiction of the Emir of Bauchi, and is today crossed by its boundary, the
Fulani could not proceed. The Pastoral Fulani sent out scouts westwards and southwards
up the branches of the Lere river, but the rich pastures which these reconnaissances revealed
were denied them by the intransigeance of the well-armed and mounted Sura pagans. Secure
in their rocky hamlets, neither negotiation nor successful war could be made with them. The
entry of the Butanko'en, and others, to the Plateau had to await the pacification of this and
neighbouring pagan tribes by the British Administration. Their first punitive expedition in
these parts was made from the north in I904 and was followed in the following year by a
column from Bauchi itself. The final pacification of the Sura tribe was achieved in I908
when they were defeated near Panyam. These operations opened up to the Pastoral Fulani
a range of unrivalled highland pasture which they had coveted for some years, and they
proceeded to make their way on to the Plateau.
The migratory drift which followed has been one in which dry season pastures are found,
after a period, to be suitable for wet season grazing. It involves a lengthening of the dry
season end of the transhumance track, followed by a retraction of the wet season extremity.
This process is summnarized in the table below which refers to two sections of the Butanko'en
Butanko'en Section A.
Period Wet Season Dry Season Orbital Distance
1900-04 Lere Gindiri I 3 miles
1904-08 Gindiri Panyam 2I miles
I908-15 Panyam Kumbul io miles
1915-20 Kumbul Ruf-Bokkos 22 miles
1920-27 Ruf-Bokkos Mangar-Mushere 24 miles
Butanko'en Section B.
1900-05 Lere Gindiri I3 miles
1905-07 Gindiri Mongu 27 miles
I9II-I6 Mongu Alokom-Maitumbi 6 miles
I9I6-27 Alokum-Maitumbi Bokkos I9 miles
By 1925-30 the High Plateau watershed in Pankshin Division was both wet and dry
season pasture for the Butanko'en and other groups. This migratory drift was accomplished
by tentative extensions of transhumance tracks into areas in which friendly relations had
to be established with sedentary pagans. So far, migratory drift was promoted primarily
by the attraction of fresh pastures in which the major hazard of tsetse infestation was not
apparent.
But by now the high Plateau was becoming densely populated with immigrant Pastoral
Fulani, not only from Bauchi, but from the north-western or Zaria side. These were attracted
not only by desirable pasture, but by the profitable market for dairy products afforded by
the tin-mining camps. Eventually, a wet season cattle quota was to be fixed by the Adminis-
tration, and buttressed by an increase in the cattle tax rate.
From now on, the migratory drift of the Butanko'en may be construed as a response to
pressure of cattle population on the highland pastures. The forward elements found themselves
on the southern escarpment, inhabited by pagan tribes pacified only by I934. Beyond the
escarpment lay the fly-infested Savanna between the Plateau and the River Benue. After
overtures to the escarpment pagans, the Butanko'en began to come off the Plateau, or at least
to send parts of their herds down to the lowlands, in the dry season. They began to pasture
between the rivers Dep and Shemankar, in the Kopar-Kurgwi-Bwol triangle on the west,
and between Doka and Kwolla on the east. During this period also, wet season pasture was
sought further west and establishments were made at Maitumbi, Bokkos, Mushere, Mangar
and Daffo. The highland-lowland pattern of transhumance was general in this area in the
'forties and early 'fifties. In I953, a new stage in the process could be discerned. One herd-
owner, son of a man who had entered the Plateau with the Pax Britannica, was experimenting
in keeping cattle all the year round in the lowlands near Kurgwi, on an assumption that
increased farm clearance had driven out tsetse. A few barren. cows and young bulls were being
kept in the lowlands all the year round, the rest of the herd spending the wet season in the
highlands and the dry season in the Savanna. This herdowner anticipated eventually keeping
his whole herd in the Savanna, sending some or all of his cattle further afield in the dry
season.
Although perhaps in less extreme forms, such examples of migratory drift are a common-
place wherever Pastoral Fulani are found. Where long association with a local variant of
the habitat is in force, strains of cattle are built up by line-breeding and in-breeding which
are adapted to its characteristics. The big Red Longhorn is well known as a strain adapted
to Sudan Savanna conditions - coarse-boned, a hardy grazer, but of low fertility and milk
yield. The.White Longhorn, on the other hand, has a reputation as a more tract4able beast,
a more fastidious grazer and better milker, more suitable for conditions approximating those
of the Guinea Savanna. There is evidence (de St Croix I945) that in the transition to changed
conditions of habitat, Pastoral Fulani adapt their herds by cross-breeding with strains long
accustomed to that area. This may be done by purchasing selected beasts, but more commonly
by cattle exchanges between herdowners of different provenance.
MIGRATION
We come finally to the third form of movement practised by Pastoral Fulani. Again, a period
of fieldwork would not normally afford direct evidence of this form of movement, which is
a dramatic shift to different transhumance orbits without the piecemeal abandoning of
pastures which characterizes migratory drift. Evidence of migration is obtained inthe recount-
ing of tribal history.
It has been apparent in the discussion of transhumnance and migratory drift that these occur
in fine response to environmental conditions, principal among which are purely ecological
factors. The precipitate quality apparent in accounts of migration must be matched -

if we are to attribute migration to these causes also - by catastrophic changes of an ecological
nature. It may happen that this is indeed the case. The widespread ravages of the rinder-
pest which swept what is now Northern Nigeria in I887-9I must have caused extensive
dislocations in the territorial grouping of Pastoral Fulani. Some evidence of this is apparent
in all three areas studied. To take only one example, before the epidemic the Dayi of West
Bornu pastured along the river Gana between Mugrum and Gumuk on the southern borders
of Bedde. During I887-9I, many herdowners retired whence they had come, to grazing
grounds near Gayawa south of Katagum. Here, it appears, they were unable to escape the
epidemic, lost the major portion of their cattle, and were forced to farm until their herds could
be established once more, when they returned to West Bornu (Fig. 3). The famine of I9I3
in Bornu is a possible cause of much of the exodus of Wodaabe herds southwards to Adamawa,
although other factors operated at this -time, and the exact nature of the movements involved
was not discernible in field enquiry.
But in Fulfulde the term perol ('flight' or 'migration') is not used principally to refer
to movement in response to ecological factors. It is used to refer to flight from intolerable
conditions of a political or ideological nature. It is significant that the archetype of perol
is the Hejira of Muhammad. It is also used to refer to gatherings of the supporters of Shehu
dan Fodio, who initiated the coups by which many of the Hausa states passed into the hands
of Fulani between I804 and I830. Clearly, in discussing migration, attention should be fixed
upon the territorial and political environment in which Pastoral Fulani find themselves.
In the mass of sedentary populations among whom they are disseminated, they are a minority,
and a particularly elusive one, because of their lack of ownership of land. But although they
do not own land, Pastoral Fulani use it, and are aware that at least recognition of their use
must be secured from political authorities in whom title of ownership is vested. It is, as we
shall see, the demands of certain aspects of this relationship which may cause migration.
Both in pre-Protectorate times and at the present day, Pastoral Fulani impinge in their
seasonal movements upon two main types of political system in which territorial rights are
vested. These are: firstly, acephalous societies, called Pagan in Northern Nigeria, and secondly,
Muslim States.
In pre-Protectorate times, and to some extent today, the right to pasture in Pagan tribal
territory was secured in several ways. In many areas, the Pastoral Fulani appointed func-
tionaries whose duty it was, on behalf of the leaders of agnatic descent groups, to herald the
approach of the herds and to give gifts of milk and butter or of bulls for slaughter, to the
Pagans in whose territory pasture was sought. Cattle might be corralled on fallow land
shortly to come into cultivation. These arrangements set in- train a further relationship of
mutual advantage - the women's trade in dairy produce against grain and root foods. The
relationship of Pagan and Fulani was a symbiotic one of simple economic reciprocity between
face-to-face units of comparable scale and organization. This relatively informal relationship
continues in a modified form today.
Where, however, such small-scale sedentary communities were parts of Muslim states,
there were superimposed upon these mutual services other relationships of a more sophistica
kind. In so far as the central authority of the state reacted upon the village populations, it
did so proportionately upon the pastoralists also. Fulani rendered tribute in kind, often know
as 'grass-payment', either direct to an Emir or to his local representative. In some areas
they furnished bowmen, and later, horsemen, when the Emir waged war nearby. In return
they received a degree of protection, but more particularly material benefits such as slaves
and horses. Finally, as Muslims, they were liable to render compulsory alms. The incidence
of these relationships between Pastoral Fulani and the Muslim State varied in proportion
TRANSHUMANCE, MIGRATORY DRIFT, MIGRATION 7I
to the degree of control exercised by the State over the area in which the Pastoral Fulani
sought pasture.
Pastoral Fulani never speak of 'flight' from a Pagan area. They do not think of their
relationship with Pagan communities in terms of their own subordination. It seems that in
pre-Protectorate times, active relations of this sort were not governed by the use of force.
Only where the Fulani were acting on behalf of an Emirate to which they owed allegiance,
or were viewed by Pagans in this light, was there room for misinterpretation. The whole
relationship was initiated by the pastoralists, often by the leaders of agnatic descent groups
through their special agents. Once extricated from situations of friction which undoubtedly
arose, there were no claims which the Pagans could, or might be disposed to, pursue. These
arrangements arose in a situation in which mutual benefit was immediately apparent. They
were transitory, often involving quite short sojourns at particular junctures in the seasonal
cycle, and were brought to an end for the time being by the onward move of the Pastoral
Fulani in search of new pasture.
In the Muslim states, conditions were different. The greater area covered by a single
authority or delegates of it might include the complete transhumance orbits of whole clans
of Pastoral Fulani. Islamized Pastoral Fulani held themselves to be members of the Muslim
community of the Emirate, and, during the nineteenth century, considered themselves to
be of the same ethnic group as the ruling houses of the Fulani-Hausa states taken over or
newly formed in the Holy War of I804T30. Their legitimate pastoral interests were more
profitably pursued in the less densely populated periphery of an Emirate. This was often a
no-man's-land, control of which varied with the military fortunes of the State. When the
State was weak, it was prudent for the Pastoral Fulani to transfer a semblance of allegiance
to a neighbour State. When the State was strong, it extended military operations, often in
the form of slave raids, to its nominal and often ill-defined boundaries (Urvoy I949). These
disturbances both affected the availability of pasture and markets, and brought the machinery
of tribute collection closer to the Pastoral Fulani. On the other hand, some material benefits
became available to them, particularly when intransigent Pagan areas were brought under
control, and as we have suggested, the Pastoral Fulani sometimes became involved in these
military excursions. But for the most part, they ran counter to essential pastoral interests.
When State inactivity of this sort bore too heavily upon them, the Pastoral Fulani sought
safety in flight.
The establishment of the Britishi Protectorate had its effects upon these political relations.
Symbiosis of pastoralist and Pagan agriculturalist still goes on. But since District Administra-
tion has been instituted in Pagan areas, bringing with it the assessment and collection of
cattle tax, entry of Pastoral Fulani into these areas, particularly in the wet season, is not
nowadays accompanied by such extensive gifts by way of peaceful overture. In the Muslim
States, where Indirect Rule was almost immediately practicable, compulsory alms were
turned into a statutory tax payable at a standard cash rate on each head of cattle. Collection
was regularized, and penal sanctions for non-payment were instituted and effectively imple-
mented. This does not mean that under certain circumstances, evasion is not widespread.
In other respects, too, the effects of Indirect Rule on State administration have increased
the liability of Pastoral Fulani before Muslim and statutory law. Death duties, and the regula-
tions of the Forestry and Veterinary Departments are the principal matters, besides cattle
tax, in which State organization runs counter to Pastoral Fulani interests as they see them.
Moreover, improvement in communications, and the proliferation of executive and judicial
authorities in the Divisional and District organization, make the sanctions more readily
applicable. Conversely, the Pastoral Fulani believe that the duties which they have towards
the State are not matched by their rights in it, in terms of the betterment of their pastoral
interests. Although rarely constituting more than five per cent of the Provincial population,
Pastoral Fulani contribute from six to twenty-five per cent of Provincial revenue (Shaw &
Colville I950). It has been calculated that for every three shillings contributed in cattle tax,
the Pastoral Fulani receive no more than fivepence in services, including charges for basic
administration. Understandably, they have until recently been regarded mainly as a fiscal
asset. Just as understandably, when Pastoral Fulani feel that their interests have suffered at
the hands of the State - as in over-zealous collection of cattle tax, quarantine regulations
and the like - they take the one retaliatory measure which the present form of their social
organization affords them. This is movement beyond the borders of the administrative unit,
be it Province, Division, or District, in which they have allegedly been hardly used.
In fleeing from a political unit which is uncongenial to them, Pastoral Fulani violate the
principles of transhumance at their peril. Thus it appears that migration is never undertaken
into country of which they have no knowledge, at least by reliable report. Fresh pastures are
broached by the piecemeal operation of migratory drift. Where the political situation is
inimical, Pastoral Fulani do not add to their hazards by deploying their herds in untried
areas. Thus migration of a given Pastoral Fulani population for political reasons is either a
recoil upon areas in which the tribe has previously pastured, or an advance into an area
into which elements have already moved. This is not to deny the fact that migratory move-
ments necessitate a degree of hardship for the groups making them which is not encountered
in the normal process of transhumance. Forced marches are made, often out of season, so that
wet season pastures are abandoned early, or dry season pastures utilized for longer than is
customary. It is to be expected that herds suffer from this treatment, and the families depen-
dent upon them no less. It is in situations such as this that methods of obtaining intelligence
are exercised to the utmost, and the duplicity for which Pastoral Fulani are noted has full
scope.
A summary example suffices to illustrate the present-day political context of migratory
movements, and their execution (Fig. 5). The most recent of such migrations among the
Wodaabe of West Bornu was in I944. Its general cause appears to have been a local defla-
tion in which the livestock sold to raise cattle tax fetched abnormally poor prices, coupled
with a particularly zealous assessment and collection of cattle tax. The immediate cause
was the strong action taken by the Native Administration upon Wodaabe youths who had
been fighting in the market. Over a hundred households of different clans participated.
They decided to demonstrate before the tax season closed, in defiance of the regulation pro-
hibiting movement out of the area in which tax was collected until the tax registers had been
made up. They left the vicinity of Damaturu in October, many having refused to pay cattle
tax. By forced marching they passed through Shamga and Dumbulwa to reach, at the end
of the month, Bage in Gombe, out of the jurisdiction of Bornu Emirate. Through the dry
season they progressed southward along the Gombe bank of the Gongola river, turning back
into Bornu in Biu Division at Shani, on the spring of the fresh grass. It is said that the Native
Administration sent representatives to persuade them to turn back into Bornu Emirate for
the coming wet season, but there is no official confirmation of this, and it is most unlikely.
The migrants eventually returned to Damaturu District for the wet season by way of Shani,
Biu Town, Garubila, Bursaari, Mutwe and Gujba, which lie along the normal transhumance
tracks of most of the households concerned. The orbital distance of this migration was some
four hundred and eighty miles, in contrast with the mean yearly orbital distance of one hundred
and twenty miles. The stages which took them out of Bornu and into country not usually
traversed by them covered about a hundred miles in less than a month. A normal trans-
humance movement at this time of year would be of the order of fifty miles (Fig. 5
be compared with Fig. 2, which shows a normal transhumance track of above-average length).
TRANSHTTMANCE, MIGRATORY DRIFT, MIGRATION 73
CONCLUSION
These three types of movement account for the current wide distribution of Pastoral Fulani
(and in part for other categories of Fulani) in the Western Sudan. They have been going
on for perhaps eight centuries. The origin of the Fulani, and at what point they arose as a
coherent population of the Western Sudan, is a matter of considerable ethnological debate
(Tauxier I937) which cannot be discussed here. It must be mentioned that, physically the
Fulani are of non-Negroid stock. Although again, the classification of their language presents
problems, current work (Westermnan & Bryan I952) allies it most closely with the Atlantic
group of languages, such as Serer and Wolof; vocabulary content varies greatly in all areas
in which Fulani are found.
There is no doubt, on both ethnological and sociological evidence, -that the gross move-
ment of Fulani has been from west to east within the zebu cattle-keeping zone of the Savanna
belt of the Western Sudan. The natural conditions of this zone, in which there are few topo-
graphical barriers, has facilitated -the cumulative process of migratory drift and migration.
These movements continue in the Protectorate era, and have not been prevented by Adminis-
trations, whose interest in the Pastoral Fulani has until recently been fiscal. This interest
has in the main coincided with that of the Fulani in so far as it relies on the continued main-
tenance or expansion of herds which transhuinance and migratory drift make possible. It is
likely that the era of European administration in West Africa has seen an increase in the
gross movement of Pastoral Fulani, and therefore of their distribution. The expansion of
sedentary populations in this period has probably promoted settlement of Fulani on a semi-
sedentary basis, but has driven purely pastoral elements further afield. Pacification has also
opened new areas for pastoral exploitation. In the last fifty years, Pastoral Fulani have moved
into areas hitherto denied them. This is especially noticeable at the eastern end of the zone
in which Pastoral Fulani are found: in French and British Cameroons, French Equatorial
Africa, and what was until recently the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
The broad outlines of this ethnic rnovement, which is still in progress, have been appre-
ciated by European scholars for over a century. More recently, detailed knowledge of the
ecological characteristics of the zone in which they have taken place has become available.
This paper is intended as a contribution to the study of Pastoral Fulani nomadism from a
more intimate point of view, by referring to certain of the small, mobile, relatively autonomous
groups whose pursuit of pastoral interests account for it in a large measure. Three types of
movement have been put forward and defined, on the basis of observation, enquiry, and
linguistic usage. It is to be hoped that further detailed analysis and comparison will produce
further refinements of our knowledge of Pastoral Fulani nomadism.
REFERENCES
BUCHANAN K. M., & PUGH, J. C. 1955. Land and People in Nigeria; the Human Geography of Nigeria and
its Environmental Background. Chap. 17. London.
ST CROIX, F. W. DE 1945. The Fulani of Northern Nigeria, p. 25. Lagos.
HOGBEN, S. J. 1930. The Muhammaden Emirates of Nigeria, pp. 68-I90. Oxford.
NASH, T. A. M. 1948. Tsetse Flies in British West Africa, pp. 8.I9. London
SHAW, T., & COLVILE, G. 1950. Report of the Nigerian Livestock Mission, p. 44. London.
TAUXIER, L. 1937. Moeurs et Histoire des Peuls, PP. 14-I 15. Paris.
URVOY, Y. 1949. Histoire de 1'Empire du Bornou. Memoires de l'Institut Franfais de 1'Afrique NJoire.
No. 7, PP. 17-130. Paris.
WESTERMANN, D., & BRYAN, M. A. 1952. Languages of West Africa. (Handbk. Qf Afr. Languages,
Pt 2) PP. I 1-30. London,

Derrick J. Stenning 1957 - Transhumance, Migratory Drift, Migration Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism

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Transhumance, Migratory Drift, Migration; Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism

Author(s): Derrick J. Stenning

Principal concentrations of Fulfulde-speakers I 30-45 in. Sudan savannah.

FIGURE i. Distribution of Fulani in re

30-AMEN( ;.}|!PROVINW ( ZRIAJ 5 *1 ,_ EQUATORIAL

PROViNCE PLATEAU * r4~PROVINCE

A)' *~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ *~~TIBATIBO

to theSavaNah Zon of Wes Afrca

(14) AUGUST-SEPTEMBER. Height of wet season.

M AS HO I O SEPTEMBER. Cattle tax collected by

15 NOVEMBER. Pools in river bed not used.

ANU.IA,1,, % Gujba Plains zone.

MUTWE WAGURj DECEMBER. Standing water.

(4) GABAI _I_4_ ___ Seven households reached approximate dry

r GEIDAM2I Biu Hills zone. 5 MARCH. Households in this

(3) 20 MARCH; IO MARCH.

.* Maximum transhumance orbit (I6I miles).

Final dry season sojourn; number of households.

Transhumance track of groups entering

_._.._ ~ Provincial boundaries.

V J ~~~~BORNU EMIRATE\ ATW

KATAGUM DIVISION 1' " ALLAGUERNO

(BAUJCHI PROVINCE) ( M4SO

3600 rt ltililtltillUApproximate edge of plateau. BAUCH I

0~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~111 .................... .4 ...................

FIGURE 4. Migratory Drift, Butanko'e

A Migration route (generalized).

.ORNU EMIRATE DIVISION

(BORNU PROVINCE) MUTWE*

BORNU EMIRATE DIVISION

| s -> k /,DUMUL (JdB)U(BORNU PROVINCE),

GONGOLA ~. ~.GABAI OBULARAEA

(Nvovember) j (June) 12?E

DEBA FULANI / GWANZAMI

DEBA HA8E A PA SHANI

(BAUCHI PROVINCE) ADAMAWA

FIGURE 5. Wodaabe Migration, i9445.

TRIBE No. OF HOUSEHOLDS WET SEASON PASTURE

This characteristic rhythm of dispersal and concentration of Pastoral Fulani imposes

factors. The precipitate quality apparent in accounts of migration must be matched -

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A)' ~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~~TIBATIBO