Abstract
A significant change in the geography of livestock raising over the past 30 years is the southerly movement of FulBe herds into the humid Sudanian and Guinean savannas of West Africa. The literature suggests that the severe droughts of the early 1970s and mid-1980s were the driving force behind this southern expansion of mobile livestock raising. The conventional view is that drought forced herders to seek greener pastures to the south, an area that zebu cattle have previously avoided because of the presence of tsetse flies, the vector of animal sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). This “sudden push” hypothesis places Sahelian herds in savanna pastures in a matter of a 1–3 years. This stimulus-response model runs counter to our observations and understanding of the social and ecological processes influencing FulBe herd movements. We challenge the “sudden shift” thesis at the regional scale by arguing that the southerly expansion of FulBe herds has proceeded according to a more complex temporal frame that includes generational, biological, and social historical timeframes and periodicities. We distinguish between short-term shifts (“test movements”) and more permanent shifts (“migration movements”). These mobility patterns are linked to contingent factors such as cattle diseases, drought, and political instability, as well as to more structural and adaptive features such as the establishment of social networks, herding contracts, and cattle cross-breeding. Shifts in livestock ownership and the social differentiation among herders are important variables for understanding changes in herd movements. We conclude that the permanent shift of herds to the humid savannas of West Africa has been preceded by a series of social and agroecological adjustments that operate on decadal and generational time scales.
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Notes
These changes may explain in part the observation that emigration rates of pastoralists were significantly higher during 1984–1985 drought than the 1972–1973 drought (Frelastre, 1986).
Animal census data in Nigeria also find an increased year-round presence of cattle in the Guinean zone following a period of 10–30 years of reports of seasonal grazing from the north (Bourn and Wint, 1994, pp. 12–13).
The FulBe were wary at first of the government’s intentions. But the provision of free vaccinations (against peri-pneumonia, trypanosomiasis, charbon pasteurellose and brucellose), the construction of dipping tanks and small dams, and the employment of some FulBe extension agents convinced them that SODEPRA’s interventions served at least some of their interests.
It was common knowledge that FulBe herders gave gifts to administrative authorities to win their influence during crop damage hearings and other land use conflicts with local farmers. Some Sub-prefects in the north were known for having constituted a personal herd of cattle based on these “gifts”.
This is a rough periodization of what were often gradual and differentiated (across households) transitions in pastoral mobility. For example, the transition between phase 4 and 5 was often associated with short movements south during the second half of the dry season after floodplain pastures were depleted. Dupire describes the grazing situation in the area during the 1950s as one in which some clans continued to utilize floodplain pastures during the dry season while others relied more heavily on short southerly movements to the south (Dupire, 1972).
Interestingly, Blench (1994:203) identifies the sheep-herding Udaa’en as being early migrants into southwest Nigeria.
The combination of porous pastoral tenure conventions and social/biological requirements for livestock security in new areas together explain in large part the prevalence of cascading migratory drift forms of regional adjustment among the FulBe.
The annual reports of SODEPRA are frank about the strengths and weaknesses of their data on FulBe cattle numbers. Extension agents typically recorded the number of animals they treated during annual vaccination campaigns. Each time they injected an animal, they recorded it on a simple mechanical counter that fit in the palm of the hand. However, there were many FulBe herds that were located outside of SODEPRA’s extension zones that were not vaccinated and thus not counted. SODEPRA’s annual reports also note that FulBe cattle owners were reluctant to divulge information about their herds, and that transhumant cattle may have been counted twice: once in the dry season pasture and once again in their rainy season area.
According to Bernardet (1988, p. 24), 80% of all FulBe herds in Côte d’Ivoire contained worsooji breeds.
The Baoulé breed is also called mereeji by Côte d’Ivoire FulBe originating from Burkina. Indeed there is some confusion with the use of the term mereeji as noted by Rege et al. (1994, p. 8) who write “it is currently used for both purebred Lobi and crosses of zebu with Lobi (Burkina Faso), with Baoulé (Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso) and with N’Dama (Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Guinea) and is thus quite confusing. In Mali, the term Méré (or Bambara) is used for stabilized zebu × N’Dama crosses.” The authors propose that the term Méré (mereeji) be exclusively used to designate zebu-taurin crosses.
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This research benefited from a research grant (#BCS00-99252) made by the Geography and Regional Science Program of the National Science Foundation.
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Bassett, T.J., Turner, M.D. Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa. Hum Ecol 35, 33–49 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9067-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9067-4