Pastoralism Under Pressure

This book brings together the work of a number of leading specialists of the Fulbe (Fulani, Peul), the largest and most widespread group of pastoralists in West Africa. The collection deals with a wide variety of subjects, ranging from ethnicity and identity, ecology and politics, and social transformation and takes us to such diverse settings across the African continent as urban Nigeria, dryland West and Central Mali, the Aadamaawa plateau in Cameroon, the Guinean highlands, the Ivorian savannah, the Central Sudan, Northern Benin and the Senegal valley. This volume shows that the Fulbe are a fascinating example for the comparative study of social change, and ecological and cultural adaptation by discussing contemporary changes in Fulbe society and the amazing variety of settings in which they are able to survive.

This book gives an historical account of the development of pastoralism in Africa, and its adaptation to the open grasslands which cover large parts of the continents. How African pastoralists cope with their environment varies in social terms, but ultimately these social constraints still have to deal with the vagaries of localised and seasonal rainfall which lead to inconsistencies in the availability of pasture. Pastoralism has been a successful adaptation for thousands of years, so we must ask why many of Africa's herdsmen are under pressure at the end of the twentieth century. A number of serious droughts blighted Africa in the 1970s and '80s, affecting the rural peoples, be they farmers or herders. Other questions lead from this: have these been unusually severe events, resulting in difficult adjustments for African pastoral peoples? And, if these drought conditions are part of the regular long-term climatic cycle, what has been so significant about the '70s and '80s? Pastoralism in Africa attempts to answer these questions by using ecological evidence from prehistory to enlarge understanding of the vicissitudes of herding societies in Africa today. The origins and spread of herding systems throughout the continent are examined with the underlying idea that understanding the growth of pastoral production in the past allows for a more sympathetic treatment of indigenous social formations based on tradition and experience, thus enabling governments and development agencies to formulate adaptive strategies suited to specific environments and the peoples that inhabit them. The book will interest archaeologists, development workers, anthropologists and students of African history.

Research papers, development policy, economic and social development, failures, Tanzania - population growth, economic recession, manufacturing, agriculture, farming, economic policy; erosion control, fuelwood, macroeconomics, agricultural mechanization, green revolution, rural women, small scale industry, handicrafts, water supply, health service, ILO mentioned. Graphs, maps, references, statistical tables.

The papers are organised in three parts: Access to Land and Agrarian Class Differentiation; Land Transaction; Natural Resource Management, Policy, and Economic Return. Eight papers are presented, including the welcome and opening statements and the confer

This collection of papers on the Fulbe is an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of social change in one of the most fascinating group of pastoralists in Africa. Opens new perspectives on this group.

Examines how pastoral peoples imagine, or even design, their futures under the pressure of changing environments and large-scale government projects.

Pastoralists throughout Africa face increasing pressures. In Benin, governmental development policies and programmes in crop farming are changing power relations between herders and farmers to favour the latter. How are the Fulani pastoralists responding to these threats to their existence? Georges Djohy explores the dynamics in local use of natural resources and in inter-ethnic relations resulting from development interventions. He combines the approaches of science and technology studies – looking at the co-construction of society and technology – and political ecology – looking at the power relations shaping the dynamics of economic, environmental and social change – so as to throw light on the forces of marginalisation, adaptation and innovation at work in northern Benin. Having worked there for many years, Djohy has been able to uncover gradual processes of socio-technological change that are happening “behind the scenes” of agricultural development involving mechanisation, herbicide use, tree planting, land registration and natural resource conservation. He reveals how farmers are using these interventions as “weapons” in order to gain more rights over larger areas of land, in other words, to support indigenous land grabbing from herders who had been using the land since decades for grazing. He documents how the Fulani are innovating to ensure their survival, e.g. by using new technologies for transport and communication, developing new strategies of livestock feeding and herd movement, and developing complementary sources of household income. The Fulani are organising themselves from local to national level to provide technological and socio-cultural services, manage conflicts and gain a stronger political voice, e.g. to be able to achieve demarcation of corridors for moving livestock through cultivated areas. They even use non-functioning mini-dairies – another example of development intervention – to demonstrate their modernity and to open up other opportunities to transform their pastoral systems. This book provides insights into normally hidden technical and social dynamics that are unexpected outcomes of development interventions.