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

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.

Ideal Free Distributions of Mobile Pastoralists in Multiple Seasonal Grazing Areas

“…One can examine pastoral mobility and distributions at multiple spatiotemporal scales ranging from daily herd movements (Butt 2009;Moritz et al 2010;Moritz et al 2012) to annual transhumance movements (Schareika 2003;Behnke et al 2008) to decadal migratory drift (Stenning 1957;Boutrais 1996;Bassett and Turner 2007). We expect to find support for the predictions of the ideal free model at multiple spatiotemporal scales, when mobile pastoralists with complete information, freedom and ability to move, and independent and individual decision-making capabilities have open access to depletable common-pool grazing resources that are highly variable in space and time.…”

Pastoralism and Socio-technological Transformations in Northern Benin

“…Ramisch (1998) also reported that Malian pastoralists had heavily taken advantage of market opportunities to reduce the fragility of their livelihoods in the face of land uncertainties in the south of their country. In the same way and with the same goals, many herds of pastoralists of Niger are cyclically found in the southern areas close to the capital city of Niamey (Bassett and Turner, 2007). Samburu pastoralists of Kenya in the context of privatization of common rangelands have relied upon livestock sales as an important way of improving their income.…”

“…;Sutter, Once robust and vigorous: Does African pastoralism have a future? 29 1987; Bassett, 1988;Behnke and Scoones, 1992;Blench, 1994;Waters-Bayer, 1994;Diallo, 2001;Tonah, 2003;Marty et al 2006;Wane et al 2006;Bassett and Turner, 2007;Moritz et al 2009;De Jode, 2010;Zampaligré, 2012;Zampaligré et al 2013). Pastoralists undertake seasonal as well as permanent migrations to enjoy areas less pressured by agriculture, to enter zones where they can easily trade animal products and also acquire drugs and remedies for maintaining their animals in risky environments (Blench, 1994: 207f.…”

“…Facing a population explosion, agricultural expansion and land insecurity, herders in southwestern Niger also undertook transhumance over large distances with the relocation of part of the family herd into southern sub-humid areas (Bassett and Turner, 2007). Fulani pastoralists of northern Nigeria facing aridity were moving farther south in the dry season.…”

“…Bassett and Turner (2007) argued that these southward livestock movements should not be seen as a "sudden shift". It is rather a process having much to do with both factors of contingent (drought, livestock disease and political fragility), structural and adaptive (social network building, herding contract and cross-breeding) order.…”