Moving Through and Passing On

Fulani Mobility, Survival and Identity in Ghana

Yaa P.A. Oppong

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351504331
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

"The Fulani are one of West Africa's most populous and geographically dispersed ethnic groups. Commonly thought of as a pastoral people, primarily engaged in cattle herding, Fulani peoples are in reality highly differentiated in livelihood and patterns of mobility. Despite having a long history of residence in Ghana, Fulani are considered ""aliens"" in the eyes of the state and ""strangers"" by the various ethnic groups among whom they reside. Among Fulani themselves, differences of place, circumstance, and experience have generated parallel ambigoities on matters of identity and survival. In Moving Through and Passing On, Yaa P.A. Oppong focuses on the Fulani of the Greater Accra region to offer the first detailed account of the lives of this transnational community in Ghana.Based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, Oppong develops detailed case studies and draws upon over two hundred in-depth life histories to explore issues of mobility, survival, and identity among this spacially dispersed and diverse group. Using perspectives and insights gained from oral life histories, private and public ceremonies, and ethnic associations, she examines the sites and circumstances in which people profess to be the ""same"" or ""different"" from one another. The markers of Fulani identity-as recognized by Fulani and non-Fulani alike-are examined. Oppong also explores the factors that allow them, as a distinct ethnic category, to maintain and perpetuate this identity and viability in Greater Accra. The metaphoric analogy of ""construction sites"" is employed to define the explicit and implicit events and recurring processes through which people conceive of themselves as Fulani. These locations and contexts of action include ethnic associations, public gatherings, and common rites of passage. The recurring processes include genealogical reckoning of kinship and endogamous marriage transactions, and the ways in which ties of descent and filiation are used to enha"

1
Introduction

Movement, Identity, and Survival

This study is concerned with Fulani identities and mobility in Greater Accra, Ghana. It is ultimately concerned with Fulani survival across space and through time. It involves an understanding of where people are coming from, where they have travelled to and the environments in which they have grown up, been educated, married, borne children and worked. The units of analysis are the lives, stories and experiences of individuals, as well as the communities and ultimately ethnic group of which they form a part.¹ The account thus addresses the “personal troubles” of individual women and men, both young and old, as well as wider “public issues” taken up by the Ghanaian state and press (Wright Mills 1959: 8). These issues are also observed to be the subject of debate and concern in the Fulani community in Greater Accra.

Many of the questions raised in this book are addressed and graphically illustrated in the following vignettes. The first sketch, of a street parade, is an illustration of the ways in which the politics of Fulani identity is explicitly mobilized at the community level in Greater Accra. The second, the story of Shuhaibu Abdul-Hairu and his journey to Ghana, represents an individual’s mobility over time.

A Fulani² Street Procession in Accra

In February 1997, the end of the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan was celebrated by the Muslim people of Nima, Accra, with a procession through the main street.³ There were over a dozen different associations taking part in the parade, many of which had formed on the basis of ethnic group affiliation. The Fulani procession was organized by the Great Fulani Association, a suudu-baaba that was known throughout the Fulani community in Greater Accra.⁴ This particular organization was established by Ghanaian-born Fulani.

The women in the Fulani procession had their hair intricately plaited and were carrying large calabashes of fresh milk on their heads. The men were dressed as herdsmen. The costumes they were wearing, traditional Nigerian Fulani dress, had been chosen by elder members of the association.

“You see, the Mali[an] dress is different. The Burkina ones are also different, Niger also has different traditional dress. This year it was the Nigerian Fulani dress that we chose. Last year we used the Burkina Fulani dress. God willing next year we will choose a different dress, maybe we will choose Cameroon or Mali, or Gambia or other countries.” (Mohammed Toure, Chairman of the Great Fulani Association)

The banner carried at the front of the procession read: “SOUDOU BABA GREAT FULANI ASSOCIATION.”⁵ On the left side of the banner was painted a picture of a woman in a rural setting, behind her a house made of earth and several trees. She carried a calabash on her head. On the right side was painted a herdsman with a straw hat on his head and a long stick over his shoulder. He was following his cow.

Inherent in the decision to choose a Fulani costume from one of various West African countries was the acknowledgement that there is no Ghanaian Fulani dress and that the way Fulani dress and present themselves varies enormously from country to country. In other words, Fulani may be in Ghana but they are not of Ghana in the sense that they have no traditions and way of dressing unique to them.

The diversity of Fulani experience was also being displayed and celebrated. The symbolism was stark and simple, that of a woman with her calabash of milk and a man following his cow. Despite the fact that this was a Nigerian Fulani look, the message on the banner was a universal one, speaking to and of Fulani from all over West Africa. In fact, the banner of the previous year also showed a herdsman and his cow. No doubt that of next year will be similar.

Many people on the streets of Nima that afternoon would not have been able to read the message on the banner. However, most would surely have recognized the symbolism, that of a cow and a herder, as being representative of the Fulani.

“The ladies and young men, we made them one dress so that when you saw them you would know that it was the Fulani who were coming. Did you see us drinking milk in the streets?…now we know that we have gone home, we are in Ghana but we remember our home.” (Mohammed Toure, Chairman of the Great Fulani Association)

A car formed part of the procession. Those who could get close enough to it, in the crush and heat of the day, would have seen that it contained four old men. These men were, in fact, chiefs, Fulani chiefs of Accra. These four chiefs the bonnet of the car was another banner, which read “Unity.”

Abdulrahman, vice president of the suudu-baaba that organized the Fulani parade, said of his organization, “ours is a united body…we box together, our aim is to unite.” He was alluding to the fact that many Fulani Associations in Accra are organized on the basis of nationality, each country having its own suudu-baaba and its own meetings and agenda: “Burkina and Mali can’t come together and have a meeting, Burkina does its separate, Mali separate” (Abdulrahman).

This public celebration of Fulani identity on the streets of Accra illustrates the many identities of the Fulani. Here, in this very public arena, were members of the Fulani community (many of whom were, as the vice president put it in a common phrase, “made-in-Ghana”) celebrating the diversity of Fulani experience in West Africa on the one hand and on the other proclaiming that they were “unified” and “one” in Ghana.

Here were the Fulani processing alongside the Wangara, Kado, Zabarama, the Niger Youth Association, groups that were Muslim but were not of Ghana-ian origin, as well as Northern Ghanaian ethnic groups such as the Dagomba. Their relationship with other Muslim, “northern,” peoples was being expressed and celebrated. The street parade made visual many of the pertinent issues and problems involved in a discussion of Fulani identity, not least their geographical spread and attempts to foster unity among people of diverse origins.

“Following cows…”

The statement, “We follow our cow…and forget our home,” was made by Mohammed Toure, then chairman of a suudu-baaba in Accra. Here is a typical story of a man who literally followed his cows…

Following cows…Shuhaibu Abdul-Hairu was born in Mali where he spent his childhood and his youth herding cattle. In 1997 he was sixty-seven years old. At the age of twenty-six, he decided to leave home. Shuhaibu got a contract to herd seventy cows, along with two other herders from Mali, to Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The herders made the journey on foot and took twenty-five days to reach Kumasi.

The various owners of the cattle made the same journey by vehicle and joined the herders in Kumasi. There they sold the cows. Shuhaibu was paid nine pounds by the cattle owners, for the entire journey. From Kumasi, Shuhaibu got transport to Accra. Since coming to Ghana, he has relocated over seventeen times within Greater Accra and the Volta Region, working as a hired herder and selling cow’s milk. He has spent from less than one month to several years in each of the various locations.

Although the cows that Shuhaibu followed were not his own, they have led him to establish a new home in Ghana. This story is rather typical of many others as is the route taken.⁶

Fulani in West Africa and Ghana

Many previous studies (anthropological, historical, geographical) have concerned themselves with different Fulani communities in diverse locations in West Africa and beyond.⁷ These studies have been carried out at various periods of time. None however has so far been conducted in Greater Accra.⁸ This work is therefore distinctive in time and location in the field of Fulani studies.

The Fulani are one of West Africa’s most populous ethnic groups. From the Atlantic Coast to the Red Sea, Fulani peoples live in a more or less continuous zone, corresponding mainly to the climatic and vegetational zone of the Sahel. Although indigenous to many of the states of this region, they invariably form a minority of the population in the states in which they are found. At a more local level they may form a majority, as in Northern Nigeria where the term Hausa-Fulani is often used to designate the majority group. The main Fulani populations are to be found in the Futa Toro and Futa Djallon regions of Senegal and Guinea, respectively, in the Macina region of Mali and in a more or less continuous band stretching eastwards through Niger, northern Nigeria and Cameroon.

Although it remains useful to differentiate major categories of Fulani on the basis of their livelihoods, this can also be misleading. For despite being considered one of the major cattle keeping peoples of the world (Riesman 1984: 171), and certainly West Africa’s most thoroughly pastoral ethnic group, not all Fulani engage in cattle herding. Of those who are pastoralists, some are nomadic and others semi-sedentary. The remaining Fulani are involved in a multitude of other economic activities and are usually settled.

None of these categories, however, is unchanging. In the course of their lives, individuals can and do find themselves shifting from one to another. As Riesman (1984: 172) has noted, nomadic and semi-sedentary pastoralists frequently shift back and forth from one to the other variant of the cattle-herding life. But, he asserted, once Fulani have given up cattle raising for some other occupation they rarely go back to it again. Burnham, however, cautioned against such a statement. In his view shifts between pastoralism and cultivation do not operate in one direction only. He cited Dupire (1972: 52-6), who recorded several cases of Fulani groups that had successfully re-adopted pastoralism in Niger and Nigeria. He had himself observed the same phenomenon in Cameroon (Burnham 1980: 163).

The Savanna-Sahel region, from where the majority of Fulani people hail, is one of the most unstable and harsh environments in the world. The climate is uncertain, the vegetation is sparse (and is being continuously degraded) and the land use is under stress. The inhabitants of the Sahel have to be adaptive, and malleable, prepared to face and counter the environmental and man-made disasters that periodically befall them, if they are to survive.⁹ The region exhibits a variety of climatic zones and ecological niches. As Burnham (1980: 147) cautioned, in relation to the drought and famines in the Sahel in the 1970s to 1980s, not all of this region is subject to such great climatic and social stress. Indeed, as he noted, the West African Savanna region displays substantial environmental diversity. More than a third of it is well watered.

Despite having a long history of residence in Ghana (Hilton 1962),¹⁰ and despite being relatively settled and spread out throughout the country (Hill 1970a: 44), the Fulani in general are considered as “aliens”¹¹ legally (in the eyes of the state) and “strangers” locally (by the various indigenous ethnic groups among whom they reside).¹² This is irrespective of their length of stay in the country (Tonah 1993: 127), and irrespective of the fact that some consider themselves indigenous to Ghana, while others have legally naturalized as Ghanaians. Their status in Ghana is that of an ethnic minority. Their name is essentially tied, in popular stereotype, to cattle rearing.

In Ghana, to a greater degree than in most other West African States (where they are often, though not always, indigenous and considered local), there are many differences between all the peoples who call themselves (and are called by others) Fulani. The Fulani community in Ghana can be seen as a patchwork of representatives from most other parts of the “Fulani world,” an amalgam of peoples who form part of the larger Fulani diaspora. Fulani in Ghana hail from many different countries of origin and speak different dialects of Fulfulde (as well as many other West African languages). Subtle differences in dress and language (often linked to a particular place or region) can also be distinguished by certain Fulani in the Greater Accra context.

One factor that differentiates these Fulani in Ghana from others in the region is their “power,” or rather, their relative lack of such (as compared with the Fulani in Northern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon, for example). This can partly be explained in relation to their standing as “aliens” and is partly due to their diverse origins. Although highly internally differentiated as an ethnic group, they still maintain their distinctiveness vis-à-vis other “local” Ghanaian and immigrant ethnic groups and are a distinctive category of people.¹³

Greater Accra has long been the receiving and sending area for a variety of different peoples. It has for many centuries received traders and strangers from the northern savanna areas, as well as seafarers from the Atlantic Ocean.¹⁴ The area is therefore very multi-ethnic in composition. Issues of ethnicity and identity are particularly salient, indeed increasingly so at the present time. Particular to Ghana are a distinct group of Fulani, those born locally. But Ghanaian Fulani are not part of the literature that claims to represent the Fulani world.

In Ghana, there are differences and tensions between all the various peoples who call themselves Fulani. Different individuals express these in different ways in a variety of circumstances. However, similarities must also exist, in order for the label Fulani to be relevant for the various peoples it encompasses. There also exists on some levels a strong sense of unity and sameness vis-à-vis the “locals.” This is borne out by the continued existence of the Fulani as a distinct group in Greater Accra and their high degree of “non-incorporation” and continued exclusiveness in Greater Accra.¹⁵

Given the mobile nature of the lives of some of these individuals, identifying their exact town, village or rural hamlet of origin would be a difficult task.¹⁶ Individuals move within countries and regions, but their country of origin remains constant, as does their clan affiliation. I, therefore, decided that country of origin (although masking many internal regional differences between Fulani groups) was sufficiently useful a marker of difference between Fulani groups in Greater Accra. However, clan name was also used as a way of distinguishing between different Fulani populations. While clan name is not synonymous with country of origin, there is a marked correlation between clan and country of origin.

Given: the stereotyped image of the Fulani as “aliens” and “strangers”; the vast internal differences encompassed by the label, “Fulani”; their lack of local power and the factors of intra-and inter-national mobility as well as the anti-nomadic tendencies of the Ghanaian State in the past and at the present time, it is critical to understand and unravel the factors that have allowed for their ethnic and cultural survival in Accra (a relatively recent d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Maps
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Who are “We?”: Crossing Boundaries through Space and Time
• 3 Fulani in Greater Accra: Following Cows and Forgetting Home
• 4 Globalizing Kinship: Marriage and Mobility among Far-Flung Fulani Families
• 6 Suudu-baabas: Fulani Ethnic Associations
• 7 Performance and Identity: Conflict and Contradiction in Social Drama
• 8 “We Have No Home Like Ghana…”
• Appendix 1: A Note on Field Methods
• Appendix 2: Myths of Origin
• Appendix 3: Case Studies
• Bibliography
• Index