“The Fulani also colonized Nigeria The reasons Fulani herdsmen are powerful Surprised? Yes, Nigeria was colonized twice. It is common knowledge that Nigeria was first colonized by the British and Portuguese but what is often down played is that the Fulani also colonized a part of the country –the Hausa states in northern Nigeria.”

We begin this part of history  with the Statement

Tiv, Junkun, Kanuri people were never conquered by Fulani –Uwazurike

Ominous Statement indeed but if you look at The North of Nigeria ,Exactly These Same Geo Locations are In Heavy Conflict . One Group of People Are in common with them . They are No Fools . They are The Fulani They Are The Sons of Jihad – The “Children” of Usman Dan Fodio  .This piece is in 3 PArts All Opinions of Their Respetive Authors

Make your Opinions That is What They Are There For Thank You

SWP Online Source from ojoojoo.com search engine Chief Editor  2nd Jun2021

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Previously – The Fulani War

Uthman Dan Fodio’s appeal to justice and morality rallied the outcasts of Hausa society. He found his followers among the Fulbe and Fulani. The Fulbe and Fulani were primarily cattle pastoralists. These pastoralist communities were led by the clerics living in rural communities who were Fulfude speakers and closely connected to the pastoralists. The Fulani would later hold the most important offices of the new states. Hausa peasants, runaway slaves, itinerant preachers, and others also responded to Uthman’s preaching. His jihad served to integrate a number of peoples into a single religio-political movement

PART 1

17 February 2018

Chief Goddy Uwazurike is a lawyer and the President-Emeritus of Igbo think tank, Aka Ikenga. In this interview with GBENRO ADEOYE, Uwazurike, who was a delegate to the 2014 National Conference, says Prof. Umar Labdo of the Maitama Sule University, who recently described Fulani as destined to lead Nigeria, should seek more education

What do you think about all the things Prof. Umar Labdo of the Maitama Sule University said in a recent interview he had with the Saturday PUNCH?

I think he has freedom of speech but his right to speak stops right when it becomes an insult and a libel. You can libel a whole group and you can also libel an individual. The law of defamation is very clear, you don’t talk nonsense. If you want to speak rubbish in your bedroom whether you are a professor or not, it is your right. If you are teaching students in your class nonsense, it is your right. But if you want the rest of the country to take you seriously, then you must be serious. That man is a professor but I don’t know what he is professing. I read the whole interview and I knew I would be ashamed if that man should say he was my teacher. As Fela Kuti said, ‘Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense’. If you are surrounded by intelligent and people who have common sense, then you will benefit from them a lot. But remember that common sense is different from education. Whenever I see that someone is saying rubbish, I tune out because I know they will contaminate me. I have a lot of professors who are my friends and are very intelligent and speak in measured tones. They don’t speak like rabid people; people who have no control.

What do you think about his assertion that Fulani people have a burden of leadership and are destined to lead Nigeria?

Nobody has a burden of leadership and everybody has the burden of leadership. This country is a contraption of unwilling people brought together in 1914 by Lord Luggard, which is known as the amalgamation of the North and South. Before then, we had no Fulani person ruling anywhere in the South. In the North, we had them ruling in some places but not in all the places, so I don’t know the history the professor was talking about. If he was talking about the history of a man (Usman dan Fodio) whose origin is Futa Jallon and who settled here and abused the privilege of being hosted by a certain Hausa king, and eventually killing him and conquering some areas, then he must say it as it is. I have many Fulani who are my friends and I have many of them who are well-educated. I know there are two broad classifications of Fulani people – the township Fulani and the cattle Fulani. The township Fulani people in Nigeria are always seeking political power but they don’t always get it and whenever they get it, they don’t forget their cattle Fulani brethren. The cattle Fulani are more like those who do all the menial work for them but also own their cattle. But then, those cattle Fulani are regarded by the township or settled Fulani as people whose only knowledge is about animals, religion and where they come from. So, I don’t know where he got the idea that he had a burden of leadership from. If he wants to test his knowledge as a professor, let him go to other universities within Nigeria to interact with them and he will begin to learn those things he has not learnt. Every man learns something, retains some and discards some. The mind has a way of filtering information so if he has a narrow-minded person as a friend, he will see things from a myopic point of view. I’m sorry for the students of that professor; they should please broaden their knowledge elsewhere.

You said Usman dan Fodio abused the privilege granted to him by a Hausa king. But Prof. Labdo said that Fulani were actually kind and benevolent when they settled here and didn’t kill their hosts like the Europeans did to the aborigines in America.

No, it was in the name of religion that they killed those they killed and captured the areas, and installed themselves as Emirs. Each one of those emirs got a flag and the first thing they did, which was wise, was to adopt the commercial language of the empire they conquered – Hausa language. Hausa language was also the language of the palace but the Fulani retained their language, which is called Fulfulde. Even on radio, they listen to Fulfulde. If you ever get close to any herdsman, it is Fulfulde he listens to on radio. So, even as he is in the bush, if you think he is not aware of what is going on, then you are wrong. There has been a lot of mixture of Fulani and Hausa and Fulani-Kanuri through intermarriage but there will always be distinction. If you asked a Fulani man to make Hausa man his leader, it will be difficult. In those days, the Sardauna of Sokoto (Sir Ahmadu Bello) appointed Abubakar Tafawa Balewa from a tiny tribe in Bauchi and made him Prime Minister of Nigeria. He (Sardauna of Sokoto) preferred to stay as the Premier of Northern Nigeria. In simple language, the man who was calling the shots was in Kaduna and the man who was ruling was down South and nobody ever looked at Balewa as the real ruler of the North. He was never that, he was the man sent by the ruler of the North to rule Nigeria. But in today’s world, there are a number of emirs who are neither Hausa nor Fulani.

They have their titles and the Fulani did not conquer the Kanuri Empire. They couldn’t continue their attack against the Kanuri people. The Kanuri, who had an empire called Kanem-Borno Empire, were fierce fighters. The Fulani fighters could not get into Tiv land; Tiv people resisted them. The whole of the Junkun Kingdom from parts of Nasarawa, Kogi and down to today’s Benue and Taraba, the fighters there were very fierce and they resisted Fulani. And the skirmishes still going on can be traced in history to what happened. And when you begin to insult the Tiv man, saying he is your servant, you’re a Fulani man, you own his place or insult a Benue man, saying it is your place and so on, he will look and wonder what you are talking about.

He will just tell you what his own father told him. That is why it is difficult to find Muslims among the Tiv today, except only few who practise it for political purposes. They are very fierce and proud people. The same goes for the Idoma people. The Igala have many Muslims and you may live comfortably with them, but they also maintain their identity.

So are you saying Prof. Labdo was lying?

He was not lying but he had limited education, which is the only way I can describe him. If he wants to do history; first, he should go and study history and after that, he can now talk about history. When you read history from different sources, then you begin to have an idea. I’ve never seen a well-educated Fulani man claim that they conquered Junkun Empire, never.

Prof. Labdo said that Fulani owned present day Abuja before they gave it to Nigeria and moved the emir there to Niger State.

I don’t think he is right. Look at the current fight going on in Abuja. It is a big fight between the indigenes and the people they call settlers and most of the people they call settlers are Hausa people, they are not even Fulani. They are Hausa itinerant traders and today if you ask the indigenes of Abuja who are their rulers, they know the names to call. And they still retain their culture.

They still have their cultural displays where they dance half-naked. Those people were never subdued because the Fulani invaders could not climb the hills in the area, so they stopped at Suleja. And if you look at the nature of the hills, you will realise that if you are fighting them and they climb those hills, there is nothing you can do.

Even the Plateau people were never conquered by anybody, they have always been independent. When you get to Jos North Local Government Area, they have a heavy concentration of Hausa people with a few Fulani people; those were labourers who came to work at the tin mines about 100 years ago.

 

And because they had to settle somewhere, the place became a town from just a slum. When one powerful man became the Governor of Plateau State, he created a local government for them. Now, there is a campaign to have an emir in that place but that may never see the light of day because Plateau people are very fierce. Nasarawa, Benue and Taraba were never conquered. The Igala and Egon people who accepted Islam accepted the religion on their own and not through conquest. When the Fulani went to Ilorin after the Alimi vs Afonja fight, they moved in a certain direction towards Oyo Empire and the empire stopped them. They retreated. Does it mean we have no Muslims in Yorubaland but it was not conquered by Fulani, so we have Muslims in the Middle Belt but they were not converted through conquest but through trade?

Do you agree with the professor’s assertion that the Fulani people were more educated than other tribes in Nigeria and that they have manuscripts dating back 300 to 500 years?

He should go to Ekiti State and tell them that. If he goes to Ekiti State and says look, I come from the most educated tribe in Nigeria, they will laugh at him.

He meant before the Europeans came and brought education to the rest of the country.

It depends on what he meant by education. If he was talking about western education, there are many states where if you don’t have a professor in your family, then you have not started. I’m talking about real professors and not emergency professors. If you go to Mbaise and say you are professor, they will say we have 10 in their family. You go to Ekiti State and say you are a professor, you will see an old man sitting by the door, who will say: my son, when did you become a professor? I was there 70 years ago. And if it is about native education or religious education, you can go back as far back as you want but knowledge is what is transferred when you teach other people. The ability to write in Islam is distinct. Nubian education is distinct, Roman education is distinct, Igbo education is distinct and Yoruba education is distinct. So if you asked a Tiv man, he would tell you about his own history, so when you begin to brag that Fulani people were the most educated, people will wonder about what you are talking about. We are living in a global village. Just google: I need a doctor or professor or Senior Advocate of Nigeria who specialises in this or that, names will come up.

 

That will begin to give you an idea. Among lawyers and judges, we know what happens. That thing called federal character is what is used in the judiciary. Go and check the exam scores. If you want to get into Junior Secondary School 1, in Imo State, the cut-off score will be 113 and for some states, it will be 10. If you score 100 in Imo, you will not go in. But a boy that scores 10 in some states will gain admission into JSS1. And for him to gain university admission, he will still benefit from ‘catchment area’ policy. All he needs to do is to score 200 while the man who scored 250 elsewhere will not get in. And after all that, you come out and start bragging to that man, who was always required to score far higher marks than you did, saying don’t you know we are more educated than you. The man will begin to wonder what you are talking about. Yes, competing educational interests will always be there but please, it is childish to make such a statement.

 

Some Nigerians are saying that Fulani people tend to have a sense of entitlement, which they think the coming into office of President Muhammadu Buhari has worsened. Where do you think that comes from?

Not all Fulani people. But when you have a small group spoiling the name of an entire people, it is difficult to distinguish. But those that will suffer are the honest ones. The Fulani people are a great and very intelligent race. But if you move from intelligence to domination, it becomes another thing.

 

I can win you over as a friend and I can also overpower you and when I do that, what happens. What is happening in southern Kaduna is as a result of the failure of the jihadists to subdue the southern Kaduna tribes and there are many of them.

 

So when the British came, instead of allowing them to be on their own, they put them under the Zaria province. And from Zaria province, it got to the Emir of Zaria having an emirate and they became part of the Zaria emirate. And when they rebelled, the military descended on them. That was how the Zangon Kataf king came up and the most prominent man was sentenced to death and that led to an uproar. Till now, if you go to Kafanchan, the damage is still there. And some people are proposing to have an emir on Zangon Kataf, this is one of the things causing problems.

What can you say about claims that Fulani were never defeated and can never be defeated?

It is wrong; the Yoruba defeated them now. They sacked some Yoruba towns and the Yoruba were organised, that was how Ibadan came up as a military camp. Before you knew it, the Yoruba fought back and expelled them, so they never went beyond Kwara anymore. Even till now, the Afonja Descendants Union is still thinking of how to push them out even though we are now in a modern world. So it is not true. If it were true, they would have overrun Kanuri Empire. The head of Kanuri in Nigeria, the Shehu of Borno does not bow to anybody, just like the Emir of Kano does not bow to anybody because when the Fulani attacked them, they were stopped. The Borno Empire was very powerful.

The professor said people should allow the Fulani herdsmen to do their business and that after all Igbo people do their business peacefully in his own village and that it was wrong to come up with the anti-open grazing law and expect people who had been nomads for 1,000 years to abide by it just like that. What do you think about that?

I think there is a lot of deceit going on here. There is a breed of cattle called Sokoto White, it is commonest breed that you see in Sokoto State, and it is pure white in colour. Those cattle do not destroy people’s farms; they live with the Fulani people in their homes. Now the cattle that cause the destruction come from across the Cameroon Mountains; most of them come from outside Nigeria. Some are owned by Nigerian Bourgeois Fulani and others are owned by outsiders and they know.

 

Those cattle men are entrusted with them to move them around, which is why they send for reinforcements anytime they have a problem, so it is difficult to see a herdsman without a mobile telephone, so they know what is going on. They also listen to radio. Let us see an Igbo man that will go to Kano or Sokoto to tell them that he wants to raise a piggery farm and needs land to start. Let us see whether they will answer him. The Igbo man in Kano buys land and gets the approval of the government there because that is what the law demands. If you come to Imo State, we have laws there made by the state House of Assembly and you are expected to abide by them. At the confab, I remember a comment made by a delegate from Kano, he said anywhere we go to, you must give us land.

That was when I got to know about the seriousness of these movements. Don’t joke with Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association; it was serious when it said the law must be repealed because they knew that they had been stealing and grabbing land for so long. You cannot be in Sokoto and determine what a man in Kano should do, it is not possible.

Benue State Governor and the state House of Assembly are on their own; therefore, you must respect the autonomy of the state. If the people of Anambra State make a law that if you want to plant rice, this is what you should do, then for God’s sake, if you must plant rice, go and do it. Dealing with each other has never been a problem; it is when you bring in politics that there is problem. As it is today, the government of Nigeria is shielding those herdsmen. It is not even talking about arresting them and charging them with killings, they are not doing that. All they are saying is live with them. How can a Benue man live with those who killed his kith and kin?

What do you think about the argument that it is the Igbo and Yoruba people that eat cow and not the Fulani people?

Since I heard that statement, I have started taking census of those who make Suya and those who hang around Suya spots. Most of them are from the far North. You can find someone from the South and Middle Belt strolling in and buying but most of the people who truly enjoy it are from the far North. I think the professor was not correct, just like he was not correct to talk about grazing routes. There is a law in Nigeria called the Land Use Act. It is the supreme law when it comes to land. I heard about grazing routes at the confab and I went back and read the law I had already read before. I read it 10 times on purpose. There is no reference to grazing routes. I know of Obudu Cattle Ranch and I know of ranches in different parts of the North so if they have them in those places, what is their problem? The people in Zamfara, Niger and parts of Kaduna have that problem but they have a ranch, but they allowed thieves and outlaws to inhabit all those areas and that is why in Zamfafa, Niger and Katsina states, their problem is more of cattle rustling and herdsmen attacking people. So if the professor is talking about cattle rustlers and fighting on behalf of herdsmen, he will be on a better ground. But when you talk about those who take lives with impunity in defence of their cattle, then he is in a different planet and not ours.

How would you rate the Federal Government’s handling of killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen across the country and more recently in Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa states?

At the confab, we treated the issue. I remember that a delegate from Benue State came with pictures of the killings in the state, and expended canisters and many of us were afraid. She pointedly accused the Fulani and I remember that a highly placed Fulani delegate said no, we’re not the ones killing your people, go and find those who are killing you. And I remember her saying that the Fulani people know those who are killing and they accept them. Some people survive the attacks and they know them. When Agatu killings took place, fingers were pointed at Fulani. When Enugu killings took place, they accused Fulani people of committing the crime, same in Ogun, Ondo and so on. So, how come everywhere, people are accusing Fulani? They see it as their entitlement to do what they are doing. As soon as Buhari came to office, we started seeing cattle in Abuja city. There was a picture that trended online of a man rearing cattle in front of the Ministry of Finance, Abuja – a massive complex. Why was that? Now, 73 people were killed in Benue. The President has not visited the state and the Inspector General of Police talks like somebody who is not a policeman.

He spent one day there, moved to Nasarawa and went around saying I’ve gone to the local government, I didn’t see anybody, terrorists are not here. Did he expect to see them waiting for him as he was coming? One of the things I learnt at the confab is this: As the cattle Fulani people move around, if they have their families around, they will never look for trouble. When they fight and escape, they send for their assassins, who can come from Chad, Niger or Futa Jallon. When they arrive, they are shown the homes of the indigenes by the resident Fulani people. They will tell them, go to that place, kill, maim, burn down the place and leave the same night. These people speak French and Fulfulde. So as they move around, they kill, maim and escape. As they drive you away from your home, you the owner of the farm cannot come back there because the Fulani people are there. And this is when the police and the military will come and say everybody should stay where they are. And the Fulani will stay on the farms belonging to others. Meanwhile, the owners of the farms are taking refuge somewhere else. A delegate from southern Kaduna said at the conference, I come from a place suffering from this and it is nothing but land grabbing. And another person described it as ethnic cleansing.

What do you think will be the implications for our nation if this problem is not effectively dealt with?

The crisis will always be an albatross of President Buhari; he cannot run away from it. It’s either he tackles it now or it will fester. As it is, those Fulani are claiming that they are right to do what they are doing, that is why they are doing it with impunity. If I were a policeman, I would not fight them.

If the government of the day had not condemned them and if my IGP had said it was a communal clash, why should I risk my life? Those who were killed in Benue, did they die for doing something government didn’t approve of? When the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra were shaking their fists and asking for a referendum, which was all the young men and women asked for, what did the government do? It sent armoured vehicles, heavily armed soldiers and helicopters over there, intimidated everybody and since then, people have not set eyes on the leader of the group and his parents. The Attorney General of the Federation strolled into the office of the Acting Chief Judge of Federal Capital Territory and got him to sign a document ex parte.

As a lawyer, I know that when you have an ex parte application, you always have a motion of notice following it; it does not end as ex parte. So it was granted as ex parte and ended there. But in the case of herdsmen who go about with AK-47s, what did the government do? The President said ‘try to accommodate your brothers’. That was all; there was nothing about those who died. They died for what they knew nothing about. Men, women and children sleeping in their homes were slaughtered. So what would you say to them when you meet them, that they died for a noble cause, no. they died for a Nigerian cause, no. So why did they die?

What are the implications?

It has ominous implications. If you do not treat a small wound on your leg, it becomes a sore and then gangrene can set in and when gangrene sets in, it’s either you cut the leg off or it leads to death. That is the only analogy I will give. If government wants to pretend like the ostrich- see no evil, hear no evil, it should know that evil is still there.

 

PART 2

 

Fulani people and Jihadism in Sahel and West African countries

The Fulani people

Geographical distribution

The Fulani are approximately 16,800,000 in Nigeria (190 million inhabitants), 4,900,000 in Guinea-Conakry (13 million inhabitants), 3,500,000 in Senegal (16 million inhabitants), 3 million in Mali (18.5 million inhabitants), 2,900,000 in Cameroon (24 million inhabitants), 1,600,000 in Niger (21 million inhabitants), 1,260,000 in Mauritania (4.2 million inhabitants), 1,200,000 in Burkina Faso (19 million inhabitants), 580,000 in Chad (15 million inhabitants), 320,000 in Gambia (2 million inhabitants), 320,000 in Guinea-Bissau (1.9 million inhabitants), 310,000 in Sierra Leone (6.2 million inhabitants), 250,000 in the Central African Republic

(5.4 million inhabitants), 4,600 in Ghana (28 million inhabitants) and 1,800 in Côte d’Ivoire (23.5 million inhabitants). A Fulani community has also been formed in Sudan on the pilgrimage route to Mecca.

As a percentage of the population, the Fulani therefore represent about 38% of the population in Guinea-Conakry, 30% in Mauritania, just under 17% in Guinea-Bissau, 16% in Mali and Gambia, 12% in Cameroon, 22% in Senegal, just under 9% in Nigeria, 7.6% in Niger, 6.3% in Burkina Faso, 5% in Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic, just under 4% in Chad and very small percentages in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

Fulani Empires

Several times in history, the Fulani have established empires. Thus:

• since the 18th century, the theocratic state of Fouta-Djalon in Middle Guinea;
• in the 19th century, the Fulani Empire of the Macina in Mali (1818-1862) of Sékou Amadou Barryi, then Amadou Sekou Amaadou, who conquered Timbuktu;
• also in the 19th century, the Sokoto Empire in Nigeria.

These Empires were, however, ephemeral and today the Fulani do not control any states.

Fulani way of life

Traditionally, the Fulani are transhumant herders, and they remain so, for the most part, even if gradually a certain number of them have become sedentary, both because of the constraints imposed on them by the progress of desertification in certain regions, because of their dispersion and mobility that encourage exchanges and miscegenation and because some governments have set up programmes aimed at settling the nomads.

The vast majority of them are Muslim, almost all of them in many countries. Historically, they have played an important role in the breakthrough of Islam in West Africa.

Jews of Africa?

The Malian writer and thinker Amadou Hampate B (1900-1991), himself a Fulani, evoking the way they are perceived by other communities, made a comparison with Jews, insofar as, like Jews before the creation of Israel, they are dispersed in many countries, where they give rise to recurrent reproaches from other communities that do not differ much from one country to another: they are often perceived as prone to communitarianism, nepotism, and prompt to betray.

The traditional conflicts, in their transhumant areas, between these nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers, as well as the fact that they are, more than most other ethnic groups, present in a large number of countries (and therefore in contact with diverse populations), undoubtedly contribute to explaining this reputation too often maintained by the populations to which they are opposed by disputes.

The idea that they are privileged vectors of jihadism is much more recent and can be explained by their role in the recent rise of terrorism in central Mali (Macina region, Niger loop).

Fulani and Jihadism

Throughout history, conflicts have existed all over Africa between sedentary farmers and generally nomadic pastoralists who practice transhumance. The former accuses the latter of ransacking their crops with their herds, while the latter complain of cattle theft, difficulties in accessing water points, and obstacles to their movement.

But since 2010, however, the conflicts, which have become more numerous and deadly

, have taken on a completely different dimension, particularly in the Sahel region. The continuous expansion of agricultural land, necessitated by very rapid population growth, is gradually limiting grazing and transhumance areas, while the major droughts of the 1970s and 1980s prompted livestock farmers to migrate southwards to areas where sedentary people were not used to competition from nomads. In addition, the priority given by development policies to intensive livestock farming tends to marginalize nomads.

Left out of development policies, frequently feeling discriminated against by the authorities

, transhumant herders often feel they are living in a hostile environment and mobilize to defend their interests. In addition, terrorist groups and militias fighting in West and Central Africa are trying to use their frustrations to recruit them.

However, the vast majority of nomadic herders are Fulani, who are also the only nomads present in all the countries of the region.

And the nature of some of the above-mentioned empires, as well as a certain bellicose tradition of the Fulani

, leads many observers to consider that the participation of the Fulani in the recent emergence (2015) of terrorist jihadism in central Mali is in a way the combined product of history and Fulani identity that is presented as a “bête noire”. The involvement of the Fulani in the spread of this terrorist threat in Burkina Faso, or even Niger, seems to confirm this view

.

However, the situation of the Fulani can differ greatly from one country to another, whether it is their lifestyle (degree of sedentarization, degree of education, etc.), the way they perceive themselves, or even the way they are perceived.

Fulani and Jihadism in central Mali: between change, social revolts and radicalization

While Operation Serval succeeded in 2013 in rebuffing the jihadists who occupied northern Mali, and Operation Barkhane prevented them from coming back to the forefront, forcing them into hiding, the attacks not only did not stop, but they spread to central Mali (in the Niger loop, a region also known as Macina) and have increased since 2015. The jihadists certainly do not control the region as they controlled the North in 2012 and they are forced to hide. They do not have a monopoly on violence, since militias have been set up to fight them, sometimes with the support of the authorities. Nevertheless, there are increasing targeted attacks and killings, and insecurity has reached such a level that the region is no longer under real government control, many civil servants have abandoned their posts, a significant number of schools have closed and the last presidential election could not be held in a number of municipalities.

To some extent, this situation is the result of a “contagion” from the North. Dislodged from the northern cities they had occupied for a few months, having failed to establish an independent state, forced to exercise discretion, jihadist armed groups, in search of new strategies and new modes of action, were able to use instability factors in the Central region to gain influence.

Some of these factors are common to both Central and Northern regions. It would, however, be wrong to consider that the serious incidents that now regularly occur in the Centre are only the extension of the northern conflict. Other weaknesses, in fact, are more specific to the Centre. The objectives of locally based communities, which jihadists exploit, are very different. While the Tuaregs claimed Azawad’s

independence

, the communities represented in the Centre do not advance comparable political demands (insofar as they advance claims!).

The importance of the role played by the Fulani in northern events, highlighted by all observers, is an indication of this difference. Indeed, the founder of the MLF (Macina Liberation Front), the most important of the armed groups involved, Hamadoun Koufa

, is a Fulani, like the vast majority of his fighters.

Few in the North, the Fulani are numerous in the Centre, and, concerned like most other communities by the intensification of competition between herders and sedentary farmers that can be observed in the region, they suffer more from it, because of historical and cultural specifities.

The underlying trends in the region and Sahel as a whole, which make it more difficult for nomads and sedentary people to live together, are essentially of two kinds:

• climate change, already underway in the Sahel region (rainfall has dropped by 20% over the past 40 years), is forcing nomads to seek new grazing areas;
• population growth (Sahel is one of the very few regions in the world that have not yet begun their demographic transition), which is leading farmers to seek new land, is having a particular impact in this already densely populated region.

If the Fulani, transhumant herders, are particularly concerned by the competition between communities brought about by these developments, it is, on the one hand, because this competition pits them against almost all other communities

, and on the other hand because they are particularly affected by other developments more related to State policies:

• even if the Malian authorities, unlike what may have happened in other countries, have never theorized the interest or necessity of sedentarization, the fact is that development projects are more directed towards sedentary people (under pressure from donors, generally in favor of abandoning nomadism, considered less compatible with the emergence of a modern state, and limiting access to education);
• the implementation in 1999 of decentralization, and municipal elections, which, while they provided the Fulani people with the opportunity to bring community demands into the political arena, mainly contributed to the emergence of new elites

• , and consequently to the questioning of traditional structures based on custom, history and religion. The Fulani people felt these transformations with particular intensity, insofar as the social relations within their community are old. These transformations also took place under the impetus of a State that they have always considered as “imported”, the product of a Western culture far distant from their own.

Finally, historical reminiscences should not be ignored, although they should not be overestimated. In the Fulani imagination, the Macina Empire (of which Moptii was the capital) represents the golden age of the Centre. The heritage of this empire includes, in addition to the social structures, specific to the community, a certain relationship to religion: the Fulani live and are perceived as supporters of a pure Islam, in the wake of the Sufi brotherhood quaddiriya, sensitive to a rigorous application of the precepts of the Koran. The jihad advocated by leading figures in the Macina Empire, was different from that proclaimed by terrorists currently operating in Mali (which targeted other Muslims whose practices were not considered conforming with the founding text); Koufa’s attitude towards the leading figures in the Macina Empire was ambiguous.

Nevertheless, it appears that the Islam practiced by the Fulani is potentially compatible with certain aspects of the Salafism that jihadist groups regularly claim to be their own.

A trend seems to have emerged in recent months in the Centre: gradually, the initial motivations for joining purely local jihadist groups seem to be more ideological, a trend that is reflected in a questioning of the Malian State and modernity in general. Jihadist propaganda, which advocates the rejection of state control (imposed by the West and complicit in it) and the emancipation from the social hierarchies produced by colonization and this modern state finds a more “natural” echo among the Fulani than in other ethnic groups.

PART 3

WHO ARE THE FULANI THEN ? THE CONCLUSION

The regionalization of the Fulani issue in Sahel

Extension of the conflict to Burkina Faso

The Fulani are in the majority in the Sahelian part of Burkina Faso, which

borders Mali, and also Niger

through the Tera and Tilabéry regions. A strong Fulani community also lives in Ouagadougou, where it occupies a large part of the Dapoya and Hamdallaye districts.

Since late 2016, a new armed group claiming to be from the Islamic State has emerged, Ansarul Al Islamya or Ansarul Islam, whose main leader was Malam Ibrahim Dicko, a Fulani preacher who, like Hamadoun Koufa in Central Mali, had made himself known through his multiple attacks against the Burkina Faso Defence and Security Forces and schools in Soum, Seeno and Oudalan

provinces. Ansaroul Al Islamiya’s leaders are former MOJWA fighters

in central Mali. Dicko is now considered dead

, and his brother, Jafar Dicko, succeeded him at the head of Ansaroul Islam.

However, the action of this group remains geographically limited for the time being.

But, as in central Mali, the Fulani are amalgamated and the whole community is perceived as an accomplice of jihadists that target sedentary communities. In response to the terrorist attacks, the sedentary communities formed their own militias to defend themselves.

Situation in Niger

Unlike Burkina Faso, Niger does not have any terrorist groups operating from its territory, despite Boko Haram’s attempts to establish itself in the border regions, particularly on the Diffa side, by winning over young Nigerians whom the country’s economic situation seems to deprive of a future. Even if the country is struggling to do so, Niger has so far succeeded in countering these attempts.

This situation is explained, in particular, by the importance given to security issues by the Nigerien authorities, which devote a very large part of the national budget to them. They have allocated substantial resources (taking into account their capabilities)

to strengthening their army and police. They are very active in regional cooperation (in particular with Nigeria and Cameroon against Boko Haram) and welcome very openly on their territory foreign forces made available by Western countries (France, United States, Germany, Italy).

Moreover, the Nigerian authorities – just as they have managed, more than their Malian counterparts, to take measures that have largely defused the Tuareg issue – have also shown greater attention to the Fulani issue than Mali.

Niger, however, cannot entirely avoid contagion from neighbouring countries. The country is regularly subjected to terrorist attacks, both in the southeast, in the border regions of Nigeria, and in the west, in the regions near Mali. These are attacks from outside: operations led by Boko Haram in the southeast and operations from the Ménaka region in the west (the Ménaka region is a privileged area for “maturing” the Tuareg rebellions in Mali).

The attackers from Mali are frequently Fulani. They do not have the same power as Boko Haram, but it is all the more difficult to prevent their attacks, as the porosity of the border is high. Many of the Fulani concerned are Nigerians or of Nigerian origin: many Fulani herders were forced to leave Niger and settle in neighboring Mali when, in the 1990s, the development of irrigated areas in the Tilabéry region reduced their grazing areas. Since then, they have been involved in the conflicts between Malian Fulani and Tuaregs (Imaghads and Daoussaks). Since the last Tuareg rebellion in Mali, the balance of power between the two groups has changed: until then, the Tuaregs, who had already risen several times since 1963, already had many weapons. The Fulani from Niger became “militarized” when the Ganda Izo

militia was formed in 2009. Since the latter was intended to fight the Tuaregs, Fulani people joined it (Malian Fulani as well as Fulani from Niger), many were then integrated into the MOJWA, then into the ISGS.

The balance of power between Tuaregs and Daoussaks on the one hand, and Fulani on the other, has changed and is now more balanced. As a result, clashes have occurred,

often killing dozens of people on both sides.

Fulani of Nigeria

The most populous country in West Africa with 190 million inhabitants, Nigeria, like many countries in the region, is characterized by a dichotomy between the South, inhabited mainly by Yoruba Christians, and the North, whose population is essentially Muslim, with many Fulani who, like everywhere, are herders.

Nigeria’s “central belt”, crossing the country from east to west,

is a meeting point between these two worlds, the scene of frequent incidents in an endless cycle of vengeance between farmers, generally Christians (who accuse Fulani herders of letting their herds damage their crops), and Fulani herders (who complain of cattle theft and the growing establishment of farms in areas traditionally available for the transhumance of their animals).

These conflicts have been exacerbated in recent times, as the Fulani have also sought to extend their transhumance routes southward, with northern pastures suffering from increasingly severe drought, while farmers in the South, with their particularly dynamic populations, are seeking to establish farms further north.

In recent months, this antagonism has taken a dangerous turn of identity and religion between two communities that have become irreconcilable and have been governed by different legal systems since Islamic law was reintroduced in 2000 in twelve northern states.

To Christians, the Fulani want to “Islamize” them, if need be, by force.

This vision is fuelled by the fact that Boko Haram, which mainly targets Christians, seeks to exploit militias against the Fulani opponents and that, indeed, a number of this fighters have joined the ranks of the Islamist group. Christians consider that the Fulani (with the Hausa, who are related to them) provide the bulk of Boko Haram’s troops. This is an excessive perception, given the fact that a certain number of Fulani militias remain autonomous. But the fact is that the antagonism has worsened in recent years.

The election of Mohamadou Buhari, Fulani and former leader of the largest Fulani cultural association (Tabital Pulaakou Internayional), as President of the Republic, did not help to ease tensions. The President is frequently accused of underhandedly supporting his Fulani parents, instead of instructing the security forces to repress their criminal acts.

Fulani of Guinea

Guinea Conakry is the only country in which the Fulani constitute the largest ethnic group, but not the majority (about 38% of the population). While they come from Middle Guinea, the central part of the country that includes cities such as Mamou, Pita, Labé and Gaoual, they are present in every other region, where they have migrated in search of better living conditions.

The region is not affected by jihadism, and the Fulani are not and have not been particularly involved in violent conflicts, except for traditional conflicts between herders and sedentary people.

They control most of the economic power and, to a large extent, intellectual and religious powers. They are the most educated. They became literate very early on, first in Arabic and then in French, through French schools. Imams, Koranic masters, senior officials from within and from the diaspora are, in their majority, Fulani.

However, we can wonder about the future, insofar as they have always been victims of discrimination since independence in order to keep them out of political power. The other ethnic groups feel encroached upon by these traditional nomads who come to tear up their best lands to build the most flourishing businesses and the most resplendent residences. In their perception, if the Fulani came to political power, they would have all the power and, given the mentality they attribute them, they would manage to keep it forever. This perception was reinforced by the violent hostile speech of the first Guinean president, Sékou Touré, against the Fulani community.

In the first democratic elections in 2010, Fulani candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo came out on top in the first round, but all ethnic groups joined forces in the second round to prevent him from becoming President, giving power to Alpha Condé (Malinke).

This situation is increasingly unfavorable to the Fulani people, and generates frustrations that recent democratization (2010) has allowed to express.

The next presidential election, in 2020, in which Alpha Condé will not be able to stand for re-election (the Constitution prohibiting more than two terms), will be an important deadline for the evolution of relations between the Fulani and other communities.

CONCLUSION

There is no Fulani predestination to jihadism, which would be induced by the history of the former theocratic empires.

Moreover, the Fulani complex society is often overlooked (see the annex below for Mali) and the interests of its components may differ and cause contradictory behavior, or even intra-community divisions.

But undoubtedly they have a predisposition to ally themselves with the opponents of established orders, which is inherent to the condition of itinerants. Besides, the consequence of the geographical dispersion condemns them to remain always in the minority and, subsequently, to be unable to decisively influence the fate of States.

The subjective perceptions that flow from this condition feed the opportunism they have learned to cultivate in adversity – facing detractors who consider them as threatening foreign bodies, while they themselves live as victims discriminated against and destined to marginalization.

Annexe 1 : Organizations and stratification of the Fulani society in central Mali

Like other agro-pastoral societies in the Sahel, the Fulani society in central Mali

has undergone profound changes in recent decades.

The Fulani community as an ethnic group is far from being a homogeneous group. The terminology “Fulani” itself refers to a semantic complexity from an anthropological point of view that deserves to be analyzed.

The two main social groups of the Fulani ethnic group, the nobles (Rimbé) and the descendants of captives (Rimaybé),

formerly called slaves or captives (Maccube), are each divided into several social categories. These two groups constitute the higher castes.

Each group has its own social function to play for the proper functioning of society. The descendants of slaves (Rimaybe), whose ancestors were reduced to slaves (Maccube) to serve the masters (Rimbe) during raids and fratricidal wars between tribes before French colonization, freed themselves from this domination over time and through the abolition of slavery under colonization.

Nevertheless, the “nobles” or “free” in the literal sense (singular dimo; plur. rimɓe)

are the politically dominant lineages.

In addition to these two main groups, which could be described as social classes

, there is a third component, the griot group (Nyeenube), which is considered to be the lower castes. The category of Diawambé (cattle traders, courtiers and sometimes advisors to Fulani dignitaries), which is transversal, and nowadays found in other areas in southern Mali, is frequently ignored.

In the history of Fulani society, the issue of slavery is essential. Landowners were generally sedentary and highly Islamized Fulani, hence their status as religious leaders (marabouts), while their captives were mostly from non-Islamic populations such as the Bozos, Dogons and Bamans. The tensions prevailing in central Mali, between Fulani and various sedentary communities, are partly due to this historical fact. Collective memory in a sedentary environment retains this ephemeral memory of the Fulani hegemony that enslaved several sedentary communities during the glory of the Fulani Empires in the 18th century. The recent Fulani jihadism in central Mali is perceived by other communities, mainly sedentary ones, as a sign of a willingness of the Fulani to restore their hegemony with all its corollaries, including raids and the “slavery” of the Black communities. In the collective consciousness of the people, as among the Tuaregs, the black communities, “baleebe” (not in terms of skin colour, but because of their Sudanese descent), are perceived in the same way as slaves, since most of their slaves are from these communities.

The conjunction of the question of Islam, slavery and the “enhancement” of the colony is closely established. Thus, with the abolition of slavery – which was one of the watchwords of the colonial conquest and the so-called civilizing mission of colonization – the Marabouts (Modibaabe) and local elites (Ardo and Weheebe), who drew their wealth and prestige from the exploitation of their lands by the Rimaybes, believed that they had to reorganize themselves and find strategies to perpetuate their status and privileges without recourse to slavery.

 

ADDENDUM

 

 

Fulani-Kanuri power game
March 24, 2018

By Emeka Obasi

Give it to the Fulani, they understand themselves and know how to find a way round other groups. While some ethnic nationalities beat their chest as the best in Medicine, Astronomy, Nuclear Physics and the rest. History means a lot to the Fulani.

They are at home with the game of power, it is unfortunate that only the Kanuri know this side of the Fulani. What we see playing out today is another dimension of the evergreen Fulani rivalry with the Kanuri, from Boko Haram to killer Herdsmen.
Armed herdsmen

Whoever killed the study of History in our schools has succeeded in distancing the younger generation from events surrounding their existence. Many in the Southern part of our country play politics of the stomach, a greedy bunch ready to sell their ancestral home to the highest bidder.

You will never find a Fulani without a sense of the past. The Fulani know where they are coming from, they know what today holds for them and try as much as possible to plot their future while others grope in the dark until it is too late.

The Kanuri have been able to dance around the Fulani and continue to try new things. Although their civilization precedes the Fulani, the Kanuri still play second fiddle. This sounds strange if we realize that in the First Republic, the Kanuri had so much going for them.

Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region was the most prominent Northerner before the January 1966 coup. However, most of the powerful men around him were of Kanuri background.

The first indigenous governor of the Northen Region, Sir Kashim Ibrahim, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jalo Ibrahim, the first Nigerian governor of the Central Bank, Alhaji Mai Bornu and the first Nigerian Sandhurst trained Army officer, Brigadier Zakari Maimalari were Kanuri sons.

During the early years of military rule, the Kanuri were also favoured. The Alhaji Kam Selem,became Inspector General of Police. Lt.Col Mohammed Shuwa, was Commander of the Fifth Battalion, Kano even as a Fulani prince, Lt.Col Hassan Katsina, was appointed military governor.

Unfortunately, while the Kanuri produced a civilian governor before the Fulani and a One–Star general before their rivals, the Fulani have to their credit four Heads of State: Murtala Mohammed, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari and Umaru Ya’radua.

Kanuri traditional marks were boldly printed on Gen. Sani Abacha’s face. And I guess, his wife Maryam, is Shuwa Arab. It was strange that Abacha claimed Kano and some say he could hardly speak Kanuri.

Talking about insecurity in our land today, we all know of Boko Haram. It is no doubt a Kanuri thing. Their late leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and present hero, Abubakar Shekau, chose Maiduguri as their initial religious operational base. There could have been skirmishes around Fulani areas but Boko Haram faced the other non-Kanuri groups around the North-East.

Yes, there were bombings in Kano and Kaduna. There were occurrences around Kebbi and Sokoto. The Fulani were not asleep. The message sank and that part of Nigeria has been left out of attacks.

At the moment, we have killer Herdsmen. Most of them are Fulani even if they are non-Nigerians. This is where History becomes important. These deadly herders may be the Fulani response to Boko Haram. Both groups have a common goal: conquest of other nationalities.

The Herdsmen issue is interesting. Many have forgotten that in the past, Fulani herdsmen fought Fulani in the North. I will give an example. In November 1998, there were clashes between them and farmers in Katsina. Four Local Government Areas were affected.

They included Jibia, Rimi, Charanchi and Batsari Local Government Areas. In Bala village, Karaye district of Charanchi, a farmer, Alhaji Umaru Jarini,45, was beaten to death by herdsmen. Six farmers were injured. And we should note that the killers were not armed with the now popular ‘Guitar Boy,’ AK-47. They had locally made guns.

Perhaps in the attempt to have living space, herdsmen are all over the country, maiming and killing but overlooking Boko Haram controlled areas and ignoring Fulani villages and towns. It is sounds like an unwritten accord.

In the past, we saw Fulani and Kanuri doing power business. Under Mai Dunama Dabbalemi[1221-59], Kanem–Bornu conquered Kano. The Kanuri had embraced Islam in 1090 with the conversion of Mai Ume. Under Idris Alooma, there was tremendous reformation.

So when Shehu Usman Dan Fodio tried to preach a better Islam in Bornu, he was resisted. It was Sheik Muhammad al Amin al Kanemi that stemmed Fulani aggression. It is on record that Ngazargamu, the capital of Kanem Bornu was overrun by a Fulani man, Goni Mukhtar.

Eventually, the Kanuri settled for Yerwa as capital when Shehu Abubakar Gubai moved from Kukawa. That was the birth of Maiduguri in 1907. The Kanuri do not trust the Fulani. They always remember how Yakubu Bauchi, an Hausa man who supported the Fulani during the Jihad, was used and dumped. They do not forget what Janta Alimi did to the Yoruba,Afonja, in Ilorin in 1824.

The Fulani try to think ahead of others. In the old Songhai Empire, Tenguela Diara, Fulani leader, fought Askia Mohammed, the great. In 1512, Askia’s brother,Amar, killed the attacker. Diara’s son, Koli, later moved to conquer Futa Toro just like his ancestors did Futa Jallon.

The Fulani are spread all over Africa. You find them in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Egypt, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Cameroon and Guinea- Bissau. In Guinea they are majority with 40 per cent of the population but have been schemed out of power almost eternally.

You find the Kanuri in Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Libya.

President Muhammadu Buhari is Fulani but has Kanuri blood through his mother. He was the last governor of North Eastern State and first governor of Borno. We are watching this power play. His Amy Chief is Kanuri just like the National Security Adviser.

The reasons Fulani herdsmen are powerful 5 years ago by Olajide Adelana Recent news of the havoc allegedly wrecked by Fulani herdsmen in different parts of Nigeria particularly the north central and southern parts of the country has continue to generate uproar with Nigerians wondering why the herdsmen seems to be above the law. Truly, the Fulani herdsmen that you see with their herds of cattle might look frail, slim, poor and innocent but they are powerful more than you can ever imagine. Legit.ng lists 4 reasons why the Fulani herdsmen are “powerful”.

The Fulani are not indigenous to Nigeria The reasons Fulani herdsmen are powerful Funny as that may sound but it is true. Historically, it is true that of all the ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Fulani are perhaps the only one not indigenous to Nigeria. The Fulani came as settlers in the early fifteen century as clerics in the Hausa city-states of Kano, Kastina and Zaria. ADVERTISING According to history, the people who are now referred to as Fulani entered present-day Senegal from the north and east and they moved eastward over much of West Africa after the tenth century. The herdsmen probably still believe that they have the freedom to go about their grazing activities just like it was done in the olden days.

The Fulani also colonized Nigeria The reasons Fulani herdsmen are powerful Surprised? Yes, Nigeria was colonized twice. It is common knowledge that Nigeria was first colonized by the British and Portuguese but what is often down played is that the Fulani also colonized a part of the country –the Hausa states in northern Nigeria.

Most Hausa city-states of the north was under the control of the Fulani by 1810, 6 years after the launch of Jihad under the leadership of the popular Fulani Islamic cleric, Shehu Usman dan Fodio. The Jihad started after the Fulani immigrants (also called the Town Fulani) who had settled in the Hausa states of the north due to the attractive urban culture of the Hausa resented amongst other things what they considered to be an unfair cattle tax levied by imperfect Muslims. So the Fulani in the town (Town Fulani), despite the influence exerted on them by Hausa customs joined the Cattle or Bush Fulani to begin a holy war which led to the conquering of most Hausa states. Since then the Fulani refused to leave and gained more prominence and power due to the formation of the Sokoto Caliphate.

 

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Could it be that this domineering attitude is responsible for the “above-the-law” posture that the Fulani herdsmen seems to be displaying?

They rely on backups from their kinsmen from other countries The reasons Fulani herdsmen are powerful The Fulani are so connected to themselves that they still see themselves as one regardless of the limitations imposed by geo-graphical boundaries. Historically, the Fulani are said to be in 20 nations of Africa from Mauritania and Senegal to Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya with an estimated population of 7 to 8 million nomadic Fulani and 16 million settled Fulani. It is not out of place for a Fulani from Chad to see a Fulani from Nigeria or Cameroun as one.

The bond that exist amongst the Fulani in these countries is strong and should not be under-estimated. The massacre that recently happened in Agatu land, Benue state was said to have been carried out by the Fulani “backups” originating from another African country (allegedly from Republic of Congo) after the herdsmen in Nigeria called for help from the “central command” in Congo. Fulani have rich and powerful people on their side The reasons Fulani herdsmen are powerful Most people think that the herds of cattle that the Fulani herdsmen roam around with are their own. No, not in all cases. The herds of cattle are often times owned by rich Fulani men and women. The Fulani herdsmen in most cases enter into an agreement on how the calves or milk will be shared. This reason also makes them powerful since the herdsmen know that they are the major source of meat in Nigeria and they have prominent people to shield them.

https://www.frstrategie.org/en/programs/observatoire-du-monde-arabo-musulman-et-du-sahel/fulani-people-and-jihadism-sahel-and-west-african-countries-2019