Ibadan. Ibadan University Press. 1986. 48 p.
I am indebted to the Institute of African Studies, University of lbadan which funded the research and its publication; I am also indebted to certain Nigerian institutions, notably, the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages, Bayero University, Kano and the National Museums in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Jos and Benin for their cooperation. My special thanks go to my friends, Dr Dandatti of Bayero University for his encouragement, and to Alhaji Azeez Badamosi of Azeez Electrical Stores, Jos for his hospitality, love and moral support. Lastly, I appreciate the contributions of various school teachers who, during the field investigation, helped as guides and links, particularly in cases of a communication gap.
C.O. Adepegba
Institute of African Studies
University of lbadan
They call themselves Fulɓe or Pullo (singular) as Germans rightly call them. The French, after the Wolof, call them Peuls. But here, they are referred to as Fulani, not only because Fulani is the name by which most Nigerians, except the Kanuri who call them Felaata, call them, it is also the name by which they are mostly referred to in English.
Their origin as a race is obscure and may never be known and because of their seemingly non-negroid features various suppositions of non-West African origin have been made about them. Such suppositions include: an eastern origin which relates them to the Jews and the Syrians from whose areas they migrated westwards along the North African littoral southwards into Western Sudan from where in historical times they moved eastwards; an Ethiopian origin followed by westward movement in prehistoric times to Western Sudan; a North African Berber origin; and finally a compromise between the Ethiopian and North African Berber theories 1. Their popular mythological origin, far from specifying any place or time, explains only their occupation. Their ancestor, according to their legend, was a baby boy lost in a bush by its mother during a quarrel with her husband. The child did not die but while growing up was told by a spirit that he would lead all his life in the bush with animals but would be rich if he obeyed its (the spirit's) instruction. He was asked to go to a riverside from where a cow would emerge and follow him; he should then leave and not look back. When eventually he looked back he saw that he had been followed by many cows, the majority of which were white which explains the common white colour in Fulani herds 2. The general belief by the Fulani that they descended from the Arabs 3 also seems to have resulted from their conversion to Islam rather than from any dependable evidence.
But the concensus now is that they were f irst noticed as a race in historical times around Senegal valley from where they have, over centuries of migration, spread eastwards to their present locations scattered along the savannah of West Africa from Senegal to the Central African Republic. Since pastoralism is their traditional occupation there is hardly a big concentration of them in a single close area. But dispersed as the are, their identity is maintained with little or no change in their age-long occupation, their nomadic mode of life and a common language, Fulfude, spoken with minor variations in their different locations.
Lately in some areas, they have been associated with political prowess. In the nineteenth century, they were great empire builders in Hausaland and Adamawa in Nigeria and in Masina. Since the successful jihad of Usman dan Fodio, early in the nineteenth century, the Fulani have established themselves as the ruling class among the Hausa, the Nupe, the northern Yoruba of Ilorin and diverse ethnic groups in Adamawa in Nigeria.
The aristocratic and the nomadic pastoral Fulani, however, do not consider themselves as being one of the same. As pointed out by de St. Croix, the town Fulani see the nomads as pagans, who live in continuous hardship only to ensure the well-being of animals, while the nomads look at the settled or town Fulani as degenerates who have given up the much loved traditional occupation and modes of life of their race to indulge in the comfort, luxuries and licentiousness of cities 4. Apart from these differing outlooks towards each other, the two types of Fulani are basically different from each other. Their ways of life, their values, as well as their physical appearances, to some extent, are clearly different.
The sedentary Fulani, particularly the ruling class, associate and identify themselves with specific places which they take as permanent homes. They acquire as much property as they can afford, and adopt the local languages of their subjects or the people among whom they live. With the exception of Yola area in Adamawa where Fulfulde is the common language, it is even uncertain that the settled Fulani elsewhere in Nigeria understand Fulfulde.
The settled Fulani are mainly Muslims and they seem to relate more closely with their non-Fulani fellow town dwellers than their nomadic sister groups. Their relationship with these non-Fulani urban people is very close and intermarriage is common.
The close relationship with their subjects might have helped them in their effective rule, but it does not seem to be consequent upon political expediency, for long before the nineteenth century and, in fact, by the thirteenth century, various African peoples had been converted to Islam. They also started to learn how to read and write Arabic. Following this long existing trend, some Fulani were converted and they learnt to read and write Arabic. Thus Usman dan Fodio, before the jihad, was an Arabic scholar, a teacher and a muslim preacher of the Qadiriya sect. At a time he lived in Gobir where he was appointed a teacher by the ruler of the town and it was one of his pupils, Seku Ahmadu, a Fulani like himself, who built the Fulani empire of Maasina. Similarly, Adama, the founder of Fulani rule in Adamawa, was a muslim scholar who had studied in Bornu and Sokoto and had been given the title, Moddibo meaning scholar, before he established his rule. Thus the founders of the Fulani ascendancy were themselves not nomads as such. More or less, they belonged to the urban elites whose services were at times required by the courts which they eventually overthrew.
Although their lieutenants with whom they shared their conquered territories were Fulani, the religious conquests through which they established themselves as rulers were aided, at least in Nigeria, by some non-Fulani elements who had been oppressed by their former rulers or who, for some rersonal ambition or interest in slave raiding, supported the jihad.
The nomads, on the other hand, do not generally read and write, and are usually dependent on the muslim scholars in urban centres for their literary needs. They do not lay any claim to any particular place, hence their sense of belonging, if any, is usually low. They stay in any place only for as long as it is convenient for them. The news of govemment agents planning to collect cattle tax jangali, which they hate to pay, is enough to send them packing 5.
Nevertheless, their movement is not at random; it is based on a “circumscribed circuit of seasonal grazing unless and until something occurs to cause them to make up their minds to vary it.” 6
Stenning, who has done an in-depth study of the movement of the Woɗaaɓe group, west of Bornu, concludes that the Fulani have three types of movement:
Since there are two seasons in the year, it means they have to change or build houses twice in a year. The need to change home from season to season is enough to discourage the large acquisition of material properties or any elaborate structures such as houses. Their material equipment is slight, limited to the amount that can be carried on packed oxen and donkeys; and their dwellings are rudimentary shelters.
Their houses are small, and thatched in conical form without mud walls traditional to Nigeria or any ornamentation. Wherever Fulani huts have mud walls, the owners are somehow becoming sedentary.
The nomadic Fulani do not relate closely with other peoples, except sometimes in peculiar ways. Their conduct is strictly regulated by their pulaaku, a word which has a ramified meaning, but put simply, is the traditional etiquette which defines how a Fulani nomad should behave in ways worthy of his Fulani character to other Fulanis and any other peoples.
With the exception of Yola area where Fulfude is the common language, as I have mentioned earlier, the Fulani have the knowledge of a local language which enables them to interact well with the non-Fulani peoples upon whom they depend for marketing their dairy products and the supply of their essential needs which include grains, their staples. The need for such a second language, to some extent, makes their seasonal movement permanent within the language area.
The sedentary Fulani, especially the aristocratic ones are bigger and darker, with their features tending towards those of other West African peoples, their bigger sizes and other non-Fulani features having possibly resulted from their intermarriage with the non-Fulani peoples with whom they live, and the pleasure, comfort and luxuries of city life. The nomads are comparatively small, slim and of medium height. Their skin is usually lighter. They have long necks, narrow oval faces, sharp noses, thin lips and wiry arms and legs.
Although the nomadic Fulani are regarded as pagans by the town Fulani, most of them now profess Islam. But their religion before Islam is obscure and how strong or fervent they are in their new faith is only speculative. They are very superstitious and a list of their superstitions has been drawn up by de St. Croix 8. Similarly, Cyprian Ekwensi remarked, “One of the first things that struck me was the atmosphere of magic and superstitions which dominated their every thought and action” 9.
However, their superstitions and taboos change according to their various groups, time and space. For example, in the Lafiagi area in the 1920s, the nomadic Fulani would not wear blue dresses because the colour was believed to cause death to their animals 10, but in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Fulani of Ilorin areas so much loved dresses of royal blue that women cloth sellers associated the colour with them.
Because of their superstitious disposition, they are very much watchful of events and things around them. Whatever events or phenomena coincide with their life experiences are noted and these determine their outlook to such events or phenomena for some time. Nonetheless, they do not worship ancestors or spirits, nor have they any collective rites of any religious character 11.
From these differences between the settled and the nomadic Fulani, it is very clear that the settled Fulani have given up most of their original Fulani character and only the nomads still maintain what is characteristic of their race. However, all what the nomads have cannot be totally Fulani. They too are pervious to change, and they borrow, but whatever changes they have accommodated are absorbed into their identity and character. For these reasons, only their materials are made use of in this work.
The nomadic Fulani in Nigeria belong to groups by which they refer to themselves. Their groups are not, however, exclusive. Reed, classifying the nomadic Fulani of Borno into six groups says that his classification is by no means a satisfactory one, for it does not take into account the origins of tribes. He also notes that the Fulɓe Waila in Bornu area are not a tribe; they are simply “Fulani of the North” because they are of Damagaram from where they entered Borno and the Mare have nothing in common except their long residence in Bornu 12. Then, in Kontagora and Zuru areas, a group of Fulani whose women wear big neck beads of white stones, Kanduji (Plate 1) are referred to by other novzdic Fulani as Hausajin, which simply means “of the Hausa” because they are thought to have a deep knowledge of the Hausa language. Similarly, the Fulani of the Yoruba-speaking areas are referred to as Yorubajin.
The Fulani idea of a tribe is given by Stenning as:
a vague cultural entity to which pastoral Fulani see themselves as belonging, and it 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 particular feminine coiffure; to pr-actise a common circle of puberty ceremonies and to speak a subdialect 13.
But all these criteria seem to result more from geographical affinities than anything else and they do not apply to cases in which the groups who bear the same name are found in different areas, for example, the Woɗaaɓe are in Adamawa, Bornu area, and in the Sahel region in Niger.
In error, the nomadic Fulani are referred to as Bororo. But Bororo'en is only a term by which a group of them is known. The British Resident of Adamawa province pointed this out in 1926 and said that the group was in Adamawa 14. But Stenning observes that the nomads, as well as the settled Fulani, think of them as possessing larger cattle than theirs, being less tied to particular areas than they are, knowing much about cattle medicine and favouring large tracts of bush such as are found today only in remote areas, mostly outside Nigeria. They speak only Fulfude and they are unbelievers 15. Thus, it seems that the Bororo as a Fulani group is more imaginary than real to the Fulani nomads of Nigeria.
The town Fulani refer to their nomadic cousins as “Fulɓe na'i” or “Fulɓe Ladde” which respectively mean cattle and bush Fulani. Among the Jelgobe in Burkina Fasso, they are also said to be called “Fulɓe kelli”, the word “kelli” being the name of the small tree from which their staffs are fashioned. The town Fulani are “Fulɓe sire”.
The various aspects of the nomadic Fulani's character and their way of life having been discussed, we can now turn to the art as used or made by the Fulani. I would prefer not to say Fulani art as the Fulani are not necessarily the makers of the artistic objects they use.
A small number of researchers have done some work on the art of the Fulani, who, in f act, do not produce or make much use of plastic arts, as their nomadic mode of life does not encourage large material properties, and they do not have the type of social religious and political practices for which plastic arts are used in many African societies. They are generally known to be dependent on other people's technology and craftsmanship.
Their dependence on other people's technology and craf tsmanship may not be satisfactorily explained here as the materials are drawn basically from Nigeria. Their propensity to buy artifacts from their sedentary neighbours does not stem from their disinterest and inability to create but more from the more or less symbiotic relationship which has existed between them and their sedentary neighbours.
For example, the areas of concentration for the collection of the materials for this work, that is after a general examination of the Fulani in their homes all over northern and some southern parts of Nigeria, are Kontagora area in the northwest and Biu area in the northeast. By Kontagora area, I mean areas within 100 kilometres radius from Kontagora town and Biu area is supposed to be within the same radius from Biu town. The two places are similar and dissimilar in some respects. Both are marked by the absence of any important commercial and political centres of considerable age and they are populated by medleys of many small ethnic groups with whom the nomadic Fulani are interdependent. The difference between the areas lies mainly in the differing interests of the peoples living in them; their varying propensity towards trade and the production of needed artifacts.
In Kontagora area, the commercial activities and all craf ts are in the hands of the Hausa traders and craftsmen respectively, and it is the same throughout areas of Hausa influence. In the markets at Rijau, Beri, Masuga, all on the way to Zuru, Hausa traders sell everything, even up to the staffs used by the Fulani — which are ordinary sticks unadjorned in any form. On the market days, Hausa craftsmen, like wood carvers , leather workers, and calabash decorators practise their crafts in the market, in addition to selling their finished products. If the finished products are not liked by their customers, new ones could be commissioned to suit their different tastes. The way the situation is used to the craftsmen's advantage is also remarkable. Imagine minor things like head pads f or head loads being wrapped and sewn up in colourful leather for sale to the Fulani as well as other non-Hausa peoples.
The Biu area in the northeast which is at the fringe of traditional Kanuri influence does not, however, exhibit the affinity for crafts and trading as in the areas of Hausa concentration.
Rather every ethnic group, whether Terra or Pabir or any other peoples in the area, is fairly self-sufficient, hence calabash decorating is commonly practised by most ethnic groups in the area and even down south in Adamawa. Even body marking which was exclusively done by the Hausa barber, wazami or yan jarfa in Kontagora area, as well as most parts of northern Nigeria, is done by the Fulani women themselves in the Biu market. In this area Fulani head pads are just reeds or grass fibres tied round without any ornamental coverings. In Adamawa where the head pads are ornamented, they are made simply with cowrie shells tied with nylon thread to the indigo-dyed cloth with which they are covered.
The differing interrelationship between the nomadic Fulani and their neighbours in these two areas reveals that the Fulani do provide themselves with most of their needs if they cannot get supplies from their neighbours and their fashioning of their needed objects in such areas is not necessarily crude. Their calabash decorations clearly indicate this.
The areas where the nomadic Fulani are faced with such situations are limited, hence it is valid to conclude that they depend on other people's technology and craftsmanship. Certain crafts or technological processes like smithing are just too elaborate and demanding that they are not practised by the pastoral Fulani irrespective of where they are.
The zone of Fulani settlements from Senegal to Hausaland has for many centuries been notable for high commercial activities in West Africa. It is the zone of great commercial cities of the Past and present comprising centres like Timbuktu, Djenne, Katsina and Kano. The old empires of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and the recent empires of Nigeria and Maasina flourished there. It is the area of operation of the great trader groups of Africa like the Moors, the Djula and the Hausa. Therefore the Fulani seem to have been living from Senegal to Hausaland with their needs supplied to them through trade. The area in which they developed and the peoples among whom they live have conditioned their attitudes towards execution of their needed artifacts.
Anyway, the fact that the Fulani do not produce their own artifacts does not imply that their aesthetic needs are strictly those of the producers of their artistic objects. More often than not, it is the producers who strive to know their taste, thereby complying with the aesthetic demands of their customers. The Fulani do not accept just what they find in their localities. Their milk hawkers in the Yoruba town of Omuaran, as well as those at Okene in Kwara State use calabashes decorated by the Hausa in the north. In Oyo, the southernmost part of their settlements in Yorubaland, which is also noted for its traditional calabash decorations, Fulani women prefer unadorned calabashes to the locally decorated ones.
Generally, the artistic fulfilment of the Fulani is manifest mainly in personal ornamentation. Their decorated objects which are not worn or applied to the body are meant to be seen when they are being used for practical purposes. Such objects are like the personal effects of the Swazi which Sieber says define the Swazi personal space and are, in effect, the extension of the ownerst persons.
Being mainly personal ornaments, most artistic materials of the Fulani are according to the style in vogue. They change but not as of ten as those of other Nigerians living in urban centres, as they are in some cases redolent of the traditional but obsolete materials of the other peoples with whom they interact. For example, it 'is not uncommon to see the Fulani women in areas south of Kontagora around the Nupe area still wearing the traditional scarlet materials of the Nupe. It is in the same manner that the Fulani women in Hausaland still use the local fabric of predominantly white colour which their maidens use for their short, sleeveless blouse and the ix traditional waist wrapping piece.
Fulani artistic ornaments are here classified into two: their body ornaments comprising of their hairdo, body markings, and jewels and then their decorated utensils like calabashes. The utensils are examined in detail not only for their significance and artistic qualities but also for their possibility of throwing more light on the Fulani cultural and historical relation to other peoples and places in Africa, comparing their artifacts with other artistic traditions of Africa to which they appear to have some bearing.
Notes
1. Derrick J. Stenning. Savannah Nomads, A Study of the Woɗaaɓe Pastoral Fulani of Western Bornu Province, Northern Nigeria. Published for the International African Institute. London, Ibadan and Accra: Oxford University Press, 1959, pp. 18-19.
2. A.M.H. Kirk-Greene, The Cattle People of Nigeria, (Peoples of the World Series) n.p. Oxford University Press, n.d., p. 6.
3. Ibid.
4. de St. Croix, The Fulani of Northern Nigeria, Westmeal, Farmborough and Hawrits: Gregg International Publishers, 1972, p. 14.
5. de St. Croix, 1972, p. 35.
6. de St. Croix, 1972, p. 10.
7. D.J. Stenning, “Transhumance, Migratory Drift and Migrations: Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 87, 1957, pp. 58-60.
8. D.J. Stenning, 1959, p. 5.
9. de St. Croix, 1972, pp. 54-57.
10. Cyprian Ekwensi, “Three Weeks among the Fulani”, Nigeria, Independence Edition, 1960, p. 178.
11. A letter from the District Officer of Lafiagi Division to the Resident, Ilorin Province, dated August 17, 1926, Kaduna Archive Agency, No. 2041, 1926.
12. Paul Reisman, Freedom in Fulani Social Life: An Introspective Ethnography, translated by Martha Fuller, originally published as Société et Liberté chez les Peuls Djelgobe de Haute-Volta, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1977, p. 96.
13. L.N. Reed, “Notes on Some Fulani Tribes and Customs”, Africa, Vol. V., No. 4, 1932.
14. Stenning, 1957, p. 58.
15. A letter from the Resident of Adamawa Province in reply to Memo. No. K2055/5 of July 7th, 1926, National Archive, Kaduna, Nigeria. Agent No. J. 3, Yola Province.
16. S.J. Hogben and A.M.H. Kirk-greene, The Emirates of Northern Nigeria, London: Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 110.
17. This is the observation of many authors who have worked on their material cultures and art. See:
18. Delange, 1974, and Robert Brain, Art and Society in Africa, London and New York: Longman, 1980, pp. 53-65 are probably the only comprehensive literature on Fulani art. 19. The following are probably the only journal articles on the various crafts practised by the Fulani:
20. Roy Sieber, African Furniture and Household Objects. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1980, p. 17; and this is the view expressed by Chappel regarding the decorated calabashes of the nomadic Fulani in Adamawa. See Chappel (1977), p. 28 where the calabashes are referred to as aids to feminine beauty.
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