Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press
London. Ibadan. Accra. 1959. 257 pages.
The Council of the International African Institute in 1950 approved a contribution of funds and facilities for the encouragement of more intensive research and publication on the-social life of the pastoral Fulfulde-speaking peoples of the Western Sudan. These peoples, known in Nigeria by the Hausa term Fulani, call themselves Fulbhe (sing. Pullo). They probably number some six million and are dispersed in many widely scattered groups extending over more than 2,000 miles from Senegal on the west to beyond Lake Chad in the east. Despite their far-flung and dispersed distribution they speak closely related dialects of a common speech and show in their physique that they are, in the main, descended from a single and distinctive stock which has, over a comparatively short period, proliferated eastwards through the savannah zone between the Sahara and the forest belt of West Africa. They have many Similar social usages and their values and traditions arc in great measure focused on the maintenance of their herds and the continuance of their pastoral life. The Wodhaabhe of north-eastern Nigeria, with whom Dr. Stenning is concerned in this study, exemplify these features to the full.
The political and economic situation of these pastoral peoples has been undergoing considerable changes over the last half century, during which French and British Administrations pacified the Western Sudan and laid the foundations for new lines of development. The fruitful adaptation of their pastoral economy and of their social relations with other peoples has often presented perplexing problems to the Fulbhe, to their neighbours, and to governments in many parts of West Africa. Until recently, however, little was known of the details of their economy or of the pattern of social relations within and between the seasonally migrating camp groups. Both for the intrinsic interest of a better understanding of a way of life that appeared likely to undergo far-reaching change in the near future, and as contributions of knowledge that could assist the harmonious development of the peoples of the Western Sudan, intensive field studies of Fulbhe communities in different areas were clearly needed.
The Institute undertook to provide for discussions on needs and opportunities for such research, and to assist its eventual publication. It was also able, thanks to the generosity of the Rockefeller Foundation, to sponsor one such study. Some of the results of that work, which was undertaken by Mr. C. E. Hopen among the pastoral Fulani of Gwandu on the western border of Northern Nigeria, have recently been published in his book The Pastoral Fulbhe Family in Gwandu. At the same time, Dr. Stenning, of the University of Cambridge, was awarded a Goldsmiths Studentship which, with further assistance from the British Colonial Social Science Council, enabled him to carry out a field investigation in Western Bornu. A substantial part of the results of that inquiry is presented in this volume. It was also arranged that Mlle Dupire, of the Institut Frangais d'Afrique Noire, should during the same period pursue similar field studies in the Niger Province of A.O.F. and in the French Cameroons. It is hoped that the results of her researches will be fully published in the near future.
To assist in the exchange of ideas and information in the course of these studies, a meeting of these field research workers was arranged at Joe in 1952, to which Mr. F. W. de St. Croix, of the Nigerian Veterinary Service, contributed valuable suggestions and advice based on his long experience of work among the pastoral Fulani of Northern Nigeria. As a result of these recent intensive and systematic observations in the field, a number of'penetrating studies of the pastoral Fulbhe are coming forward which will make it possible for scholars and administrators to gain a fuller and deeper understanding of their social life and its ecological conditions.
To this task, Dr. Stenning has in this monograph on the Wodhaabhe of Western Bornu made a notable and most welcome contribution. Its detailed and vivid portrayal of a way of life that is severe and onerous, but also deeply rewarding to those who have been reared to accept its values and to face its difficulties, is of compelling interest. It will be welcomed by social anthropologists for its analysis of the structure and ecological foundations of the household and kinship system of a pastoral people. The systematic accounts of the various aspects of Wodhaabhe life, of the physical and technical conditions to which they are related, and of the wider political and economic contexts on which they depend, will also prove most instructive for all who are in any way concerned with problems of policy and administration in the further development of Northern Nigeria and, indeed, of the whole of that vast sub-Saharan territory in Africa known as the Western Sudan.
In his introductory chapter Dr. Stenning gives a succinct but comprehensive account of present knowledge of the character and distribution of the Fulbhe-speaking peoples over the whole area of their extension. The skilfully contrived use of ethnographic and documentary sources has also enabled him to reconstruct the changing material and political conditions through which the Wodhaabhe have passed during more than a century and a half. Their paramount need to maintain the symbiosis of household and herd has, as he shows, made them throughout essentially opportunist, not only with regard to choice of their grazing areas, their seasonal and long-term migrations, and the pattern of social relations among themselves, but also in their contacts with other peoples and political authorities. And it is in this light that Dr. Stenning finally considers the possibilities for, and the needs attending, a future and more productive integration of Fulani pastoralism in a more developed economy in Northern Nigeria.
Daryll Forde
Intrenational African Institute
March 1958