Drought and Coping Strategies in Fulbe Society in the Haayre (Central Mali) : A Historical Perspective

Bruijn, Mirjam de; Dijk, J.W.M. van

doi:10.3406/cea.1994.2041

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…153-154). Young men from decapitalized FulBe families in the north have increasingly moved south to work as hired herders (Blench, 1985;Bassett, 1994;de Bruijn and van Dijk, 1994;Tonah, 2000;van Santen, 2000). Therefore, movements of FulBe and cattle to the south have occurred for different reasons but are inextricably tied to the livestock wealth status of FulBe families.…”

Section: Regional Shifts In Livestock Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 98%

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

2006

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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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Section: Regional Shifts In Livestock Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 98%

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

2006

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“…This effort was primarily motivated by the desire to discourage nonIslamic religious practices, and was not generally very successful. The French colonial regime's attempt to sedentarize transhumant Fulani, to make them more governable and taxable, likewise met with little success (Bruijn and Dijk 1994). However, the ecological catastrophe of the prolonged droughts of the 1970s and 80s transformed Fulani society in ways that are still being felt.…”

Section: Fulani Agropastoralismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Of Models and Meanings: Cultural Resilience in Social–Ecological Systems

Crane¹

2010

E&S

173

143

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ABSTRACT. Modeling has emerged as a key technology in analysis of social-ecological systems. However, the tendency for modeling to focus on the mechanistic materiality of biophysical systems obscures the diversity of performative social behaviors and normative cultural positions of actors within the modeled system. The fact that changes in the biophysical system can be culturally constructed in different ways means that the perception and pursuit of adaptive pathways can be highly variable. Furthermore, the adoption of biophysically resilient livelihoods can occur under conditions that are subjectively experienced as the radical transformation of cultural systems. The objectives of this work are to: (1) highlight the importance of understanding the place of culture within social-ecological systems, (2) explore the tensions between empirical and normative positions in the analysis of social-ecological resilience, and (3) suggest how empirical modeling of social-ecological systems can synergistically interact with normative aspects of livelihoods and lifeways.

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“…It was difficult to abolish slavery because from thirty to fifty percent of the economy was based on it, let alone the cultural aspects of this system. In the Hayre, the chiefs successfully resisted the French anti-slavery politics (de Bruijn and van Dijk 1995;Angenent, Breedveld, de Bruijn et van Dijk 2002). The trade in slaves and the raids were stopped, but the system as such was not touched in the first decades of colonial times.…”

Section: Being a Slavementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As we discovered during our research (de Bruijn and van Dijk 1994;Pelckmans 2003), one of the important problems former slaves face is that they are "people without history" (Wolf 1981), or people whose history has been silenced (Trouillot 1995). Martin Klein formulâtes it as follows:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is divided into two ecological zones: the plains and the foothills, where water is relatively scarce ; and the mountains, which have access to water for most of the year. This ecological situation makes agriculture in the area a risky affair, which might explain the kingdom's économies that were based on raiding and a slave economy (de Bruijn and van Dijk 1995). The version of history as told by the bards of the Fulbe kings indicates the following séquence of events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Facing Dilemmas: Former Fulbe Slaves in Modern Mali

Bruijn¹,

Pelckmans²

2005

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des étud

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Drought and Coping Strategies in Fulbe Society in the Haayre (Central Mali) : A Historical Perspective

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

Of Models and Meanings: Cultural Resilience in Social–Ecological Systems

Facing Dilemmas: Former Fulbe Slaves in Modern Mali

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Drought and Coping Strategies in Fulbe Society in the Haayre (Central Mali) : A Historical Perspective

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

Of Models and Meanings: Cultural Resilience in Social&#8211;Ecological Systems

Facing Dilemmas: Former Fulbe Slaves in Modern Mali

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Product

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Of Models and Meanings: Cultural Resilience in Social–Ecological Systems