The Fulbe have an estimated total population of between 6 and 19 million; the higher figure may be higher if all the settled groups were included. The Fulbe people is so large and scattered across West Africa, that their attitudes and sense of identity varies considerably from place to place. There are various suggestions of the origin of the Fulbe, such as being descendants of a prehistoric pastoral people of the Sahara before 1800 BC, who are thought to have initially migrated first to northern and eastern Senegal, and then spread out eastwards along the Niger around 1000 AD looking for pasture for their large herds.

The Fulbe could be of mixed Caucasian and Negroid or Tukulor and Berber origin, and so lighter skinned than their neighbours. Intermarriage with various peoples of some groups and the refusal to do so in other cases, has resulted in the variety of modern Fulbe groups. These physical differences, with their pastoralism, their cultural concept of pulaaku and Islam have helped them maintain their distinctiveness. Some like the Wodaabe and Fulbe Jeeri have maintained this culture more than others, such as the Fula in Senegal.

They have four main branches, each descending from a common ancestor, the Wollarbe or Dayebe, the Ouroube, the Yirlabe or Yillaga and the Férobe. But normally the Fulbe identify themselves by their local territorial lineages. Within these there are the migratory groups they belong to, which are led by an ardo or 'guide'. The Fula or Fulani society also has three castes: The Rimbe consist of the Fulbe proper who raise cattle and who have the political power. Three other main groups are the Neeybe who are craftsmen including the Maabube and the Lawbe, who are also praise singers and genealogists and mentioned below among the non-pastoral nomads. Jeyaabe or Muccube who are the former slaves, some of whom are weavers among the Tukulor, also described below. Other descriptive terms used of various groups are:

Fulbe Mbalu or Sheep Fulani are small groups in various countries herding sheep rather than cattle. Fulbe Ladde or Na'i or Bush or Cattle Fulani are found in different areas. There are a few clans that are completely nomadic, with grass or mat huts. Many migrate between rainy season and dry season villages. Some are semi-sedentary, and rely on the crops of the surrounding farmers. Some are prosperous with small herds; the men migrate with the cattle for part of the year leaving their families at home.

Fulbe Ouro or Settled Fulani, who have settled for various reasons such as farming and education, etc. In Nigeria they are called Joodiibe or Fulbe Gariri. Those that have lost their cattle, are the poorest and despised by other Fulbe.

Some Fulbe were converted to Islam early in the 14th century and are proud to have spread it by the Jihad movement in the 19th century in northern Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. While the majority continued in nomadic pastoralism, some called Toroobe, who may have been slaves and adopted Islam to emphasise their difference from surrounding animists. Breaking free from their masters, they lived by begging and specialised reading Arabic, and settled as Islamic scholars and teachers in the courts of pagan or nominal Muslim leaders.However, they may have just been Fulbe who lost their cattle, or became different by intermarriage. Whatever their origin, their influence became so great the Fulani had a loosely united empire for a short time in the early 19th century from Futa Jalon in the west through Mali, northern Burkina Faso, southern Niger, in the Nigeria and Cameroon that gave them greater self-respect and autonomy. Usumanu dan Fodio, who led the Jihad in Nigeria came from the Toroobe. Many of the pastoral Fulbe did not convert to Islam until much later.

The influence of the Toroobe paved the way for the pastoral Fulbe to move south into these areas for pasture. The Fulbe do not take to agriculture although many do it, but they prefer cattle and trade in hides, meat and dairy products in return for agricultural produce. They are both despised and feared by others, especially by the farmers who complain of damage to crops by the Fulani cattle.

The Fulbe consider their culture superior to that of others. Central to their life is their code of behaviour called pulaaku, which enables them to maintain their identity across boundaries and changes of life style. Pulaaku has been described as 'Fulaniness' or pastoral chivalry. Pulaaku involves important virtues such as, munyal, which is patience, self control, mental discipline, prudence; semteende which is modesty and respect for others, even for enemies, and also hakkillo, wisdom, forethought, prudence in managing his personal affairs and giving hospitality. The Pullo is trained to be stoic, never to show his feelings, to even appear introverted to outsiders and to have a deep emotional attachment to cattle. He maintains his respect by keeping a distance from others. It means that one is a better person if one is self-sufficient and relies on few personal possessions and comforts.

Pulaaku implies one can manage one's herd well. The Pullo or Fulbe male sees his people as having a priestly role to maintain the triangular relationships of interdependence between himself, his wife and his cattle. His cattle give a man milk and prestige, who are treated like an extended family rather than just an economic asset. In return he gives them pasture, water and protection. The wife contributes food preparation, dairy production and fertility. Therefore the man has both skill as a herder but also wisdom and character to fulfil his responsibility.

Pulaaku must be passed on by each generation otherwise it will disappear, which it seems to be when herds are lost and clans break up to seek for work in the settled society. It is taught by any Rimbe relative, or perhaps by his parents and also by mawdo laawol pulaaku, a leader of his clan. To be a true Fulbe, and described by terms such as O waadi, or banti, or teendru Pulaaku, means he not only speaks the language but knows how to live as a Fulbe.

Wodaabe (see below) have their own form of Pulaaku called Mbodangaaku that unites them or 'holds their hands together'. A sense of responsibility to their fellow Wodaabe involving hospitality and generosity binds them together. They have a kind of fear or respect for others, especially old people, that includes a fear of uttering names, and this shows who the individual respects most. Even an unwelcome guest is treated as if he were god, as their proverb says, 'Your guest is your god.' Pulaaku means that adults should show children a 'black' or stern face so that they are respected.

The Fulani are proud of their oral culture with its poetry, myths proverbs and riddles. They are also proud of Islam and are resistant to change. Their language is called Fulfulde in most of the region and Pulaar in Western Mali and Senegal. There are many dialects of the different Fulbe groups across West Africa. It is written in Arabic characters, but there is also a version using European letters. SIL has a Computer Assisted Dialect Adaptation programme to facilitate translation into several Fulfulde dialects. New Testament are translations in progress in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. A provisional translation is in circulation in the Jelgoore dialect since 1997 and Fulakunda should also be in print.

The International Fellowship of Fulani Christians was projected, to be based in Jos and to bring Fulani Christians together from all over West Africa, but it has never met. Joint Christian Ministries in West Africa brings together some 50 organisations for consultation about Fulbe work. The Watkins of the CMA began work among the Fulbe in Guinea in 1923 until 1967, with little visible results, but in fact had an influence on many who were converted later. WEC stared among the Fula agropastoralists in southern Senegal in 1963. In Burkina Faso there is a small response through five SIM teams and by the AoG. The Christian Reformed World Missions and the United World Mission are reaching them in Mali.

There are less than 1,000 Christians among the ten million Fulani in northern Nigeria. They are usually rejected by their families, lose their cattle and their wives and children. A scheme has been set up with a booklet entitled 'Let's Help the Fulani' and provides cassette players with Fulani tapes and suggests developing their trade contacts with Christians of peoples. Nigerian missionaries of the Church of Christ in Nigeria and the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ have outreach to the Fulani in north-east Nigeria. COCIN also has veterinary programmes for the Fulani. The Jesus Film is available in the Cameroon dialect, but is not understood elsewhere including Nigeria.

In 1974 there were estimated to be 1,500 converts in Benin, but there is a claim that 2,000 have responded in Benin to SIM outreach. At that time a 30 minute gospel broadcast was the only one in Fulfulde. The Baptists, Evangelical Free Mission and Orebro Mission are working in the Central African Republic.

Divisions of Fulbe:
1. Nomadic groups form about 20 %
Fulbe in Mauritania, variously estimated at between 12,000 and 100,000. Thousands have moved to Mali.

Fulbe Waalo and Fuuta Tooro, Senegal, 80,000 in early 1980s. They are the pastoral Fulani of the Senegal Delta and Valley. The waalo is the floodplain on the south bank of the Senegal River where crops can be grown as the floods recede each year during October - November. This is distinguished from the Jeeri or Ferlo, which is the slightly higher ground south of the Senegal River that stretches south to include the course of the Ferlo river. In its centre is the town of Lingeer (Linguère). On the Jeeri crops can grown only in the rainy season.

Two dams were built in the 1980s on the Senegal River, one at Manantali in Mali and the other at Diama in Senegal. These now provide irrigation along the river and the government has promoted rice as a major crop. These changes have been detrimental to the pastoralists, because they have turned their best pastures into cultivated fields for wealthy farmers and have stopped the floods that created pasture in the delta area, as well as lowering the water level to turn salty the ponds where the cattle used to drink.

The Fulbe Waalo and the Fuuta Tooro are difficult to distinguish, because they have not stopped moving between these two areas from east to west and vice a versa. The Fulbe Waalo inhabit the region of the Delta and Richard Toll is their centre. In the Delta the Fulbe groups are situated near the Lac de Guier, and along the road between St. Louis and Richard Toll, and are mixed with Moors and Wolofs.

The Fulbe of the Futa Tooro live mostly in La Région du Flueve of the Department of Podor, that is a region 250 km. long, south of the Senegal River between just south-west of Podor and Matam to the east. Many have moved to Richard Toll to find work at the sugar factory. The two groups have each five descent and political groups that can be distinguished, and some of these groups are also represented among the Fulbe Jeeri to the south. The Fuuta Tooro region south of the Senegal River, now known as La Region du Fleuve, migrate to the Jeeri with their herds of Zebu cattle during the rainy season in June to October, where they plant a crop fed by the rains. After the harvest they return to the Waalo to plant again as the floods recede. The distances of the migrations vary between 30 and 70 km. according to the group. The Fuuta Tooro group of the Ururbe travel the furthest from near Njum to between Mbidi and Yaare Law.

The Fulbe have attempted to maintain both their pastoralism and also engage in cultivation, for keeping one's herd is security against poor harvests. They have tended to divide the family with the father cultivating the field and the children looking after the cattle. But neither can be done successfully, and many Fulbe farmers and sedentary herders are being forced to move into the Ferlo, the area of the Fulbe Jeeri, so that there is a degree of conflict between these two groups of Fulbe.

Fulbe Jeeri: 350,000 in the centre of northern Senegal and a large number of diverse lineages still follow a semi-nomadic life, but this total possibly includes the Fulbe of the Waalo. Cheikh BA gives a total of 236,000, or 40 % of all the Fulbe in Senegal. They are named for the Jeeri or central region of dry higher ground south of the Senegal Valley, where most have lived since the 15th century. The Fulbe Jeeri can be divided between those groups who live in the areas of the old pre-colonial kingdoms nearer the coast, and those on the Jeeri further into the centre of Senegal. There are 40,000 Fulbe Jeeri in Mali and probably others in the west of Gambia.

The Jeeri is a wind-swept, semi-arid area receiving sparse rainfall, crossed by the Valley of the Ferlo River and numerous dry valleys and river-beds which have pasture only during the rainy season. The town of Lingeer (Linguère) forms the centre around which the various groups of the Fulbe to be found. The Fulbe on the Jeeri are divided into two major groups called Laccenaabe, or Fulbe of the Lacce area and the Jeenglebe or Jengeloobe. The former has twelve clans. Some of these are related to those among the Waalwaalbe and with whom they have contact when they migrate northwards in the dry season. The Jeenglebe consists of three groups located south of the railway between Louga and Lingeer and southwards to the Saalum Valley.

The Fulbe Jeeri living on the Jeeri are family groups linked together by descent, who are still nomadic, or semi-nomadic as cattle raisers and with flocks of sheep and goats.During April the Fulbe Jeeri plant crops of millet, peanuts and beans on the Jeeri. In the following months during the rains they care for their animals and maintain their camps. After the harvest in October, when the rains are over, they move out of the Jeeri because in the dry season the watering holes dry up. They move either to the north towards the Waalo or south to the peanut basin, to return to the Jeeri in the following April.

This movement was modified in the 1950s when artisan wells were drilled at 30 km. intervals on the Jeeri. The constant supply of water is making it possible to cultivate fields where the ground was previously too dry. Sedentary Fulbe and Wolof farmers have been encouraged to settle on the Jeeri and graze their herds close to the wells, so that the wells near the Ferlo valley are becoming surrounded. The pastoralists are finding it increasingly difficult to move their herds close to the water. The water from the wells does not guarantee pasture close to the villages, as the pastoralists once found out to their cost. In the drought of 1972-73 many Jeerinkoobe decided to stay by the wells to have water, however they soon ran out of pasture and lost many animals.

Having learned this hard lesson, the Fulbe Jeeri have continued to be highly mobile, owning large herds of cattle and, more importantly, sheep and goats of which they have flocks of 500 to a 1,000 animals. Since the drought, the rainfall has been better, so that in most years, the majority of the Fulbe Jeeri are able to stay some 15 to 20 km. distant from the wells in the dry season and get better pasture than the farmers close to the wells. This has enabled them to adopt a semi-nomadic life style with semi-permanent camps for the families in reach of the boreholes, while the men travel with the herds looking for pasture. In this way the herds get the best of the pasture before the herds of the sedentary peoples, and they only need to go to the wells every second day. This means they move camp several times in the year to 'rotate' the herds over the pastures. But other Fulbe Jeeri continue to be truly nomadic with the whole families travelling outside the Jeeri in the dry season for pasture using straw huts, which that take apart to carry with them.

In the past the Fulbe Jeeri have found dry season pasture in forest reserves established by the French to the south, where agriculture was banned. There is no pastoral alternative to these reserves because the surrounding country is heavily populated and cultivated by Serer and Wolof peoples. Unfortunately, one of these reserves, the Mbegué Forest, has been taken over for peanut plantations by the Mouride Islamic Brotherhood, driving out the Fulbe. The Brotherhood is one of three Sufi movements seeking to dominate Senegal. They teach their members that physical work is a means to gaining paradise, and the work of establishing peanut plantations in virgin grasslands fits into this belief. Young men are sent out, deliberately ignoring legal and customary land rights, to plant the peanuts in lands that hitherto were used for Fulbe pasture. In the spring of 1991 6,000 Fulbe pastoralists and their 100,000 cattle were driven out and 5 million trees were cut down to be replaced by a vast plantation of peanuts.

The government fails to see nomadic pastoralism as an efficient response to varied pasture in a semi-arid region, which has limited use for cultivation. While peanuts are a cash crop to contribute to the economy in the short-term, they take out the fertility of the soil and give nothing back, for the whole plant is pulled up and money can be made even from the dried plant. One response of the Fulbe herders is to file legal claims as the owners on parcels of land as some local authorities are favourable to people other than the Brotherhood. The pastoralists' aim is not to restrict the use to individual herders, but to use the plots all together as common pasture by excluding cultivation.

West and south of the Jeeri region there is the area once occupied by the ancient kingdoms of Njambur, Kajoor, Bawol, Siin and Saalum. Here are other groups of Fulbe Jeeri. The region of Njambur has 16,500 Fulbe in 6 groups. The Kajoor to the south and 100 km. east of Dakar has 50,000; Bawol immediately to the east has 20,000. Nearer the Gambia border, Saalum has 78,000 and Siin 8,200. These have had greater contact with the farming communities and so have more incentives to settle.

There may be a number of Christians among the Fulbe Jeeri. The Finnish Lutheran Mission has three medical and literacy workers in some villages. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America are working in Linguère, east of Louga. This includes a veterinary work. WEC is forming a team for the Jeeri.

Fulbe: 90,000 in western Mali, including 40,000 Fulbe Jeeri around Nioro and Kayes and 100,000 Tukulor. There was no work in the Pulaar language to these people in 1990. Ten thousand Mauritanian Fulbe have moved into Mali and have received refugee status and are being contacted by New Opportunities. The few believers have since been contacted by CRWM.

Futa Tooro Fulbe, Ségala and Nioro, Mali: Many of these originated from around Podor, in the Fouta Toro area of Senegal, but there are other villages of Fulbe that have a different origin. They spend the rainy season in some thirty villages in a 30 km. radius, mostly south-west of Nioro around Govmané. In the dry season they migrate some 200 km. south-westwards to the area north of Bafoulabé. Others are based around Ségala and migrate southwards to the Senegal River Valley north-west of Bafoulabé. Others are found 50 km. north-east of Kayes close to Kontela. They speak Pulaar. No known Christian work.

Maasina (Macina) and Nampala Fulbe, Mali: These Fulbe are the central part of a number of interrelated areas of Fulbe, from Dilly and Nara through to northern Burkina Faso. They use, or have used in the past, the flooding of the Niger in its delta in central Mali as part of their migratory pastoralism. of the Fulbe in the Maasina region, their numbers are estimated to vary between 600,000 and 1,000,000. The Fulbe live among many other peoples, including thousands of Bella, Moors, Tuareq, Bozo, Songhai and Dogon, and the estimate of their population may be affected by the fact that their social organisation, called the wuro, or a residential community, often includes more than the Fulbe.

Each wuro (Fr. Ouro) is under the leadership of a jooro or dioro who negotiates the use of the pastures with his opposite numbers. The wuro may have 30,000 head of cattle, so reciprocal renting of pasture between the wuros is often necessary in the dry season, during May to July. At this time the Fulbe get permission at 'gates' such as near J'Afarabe and Yuwaru to move into the flood plain of the Niger River to use the fresh pasture until July.

When the river floods in the months from August to December the Fulbe migrate north-westwards into the Sahel, to avoid the mud and flies during August to October, going as far as to the south of Néma in Mauritania, a distance of over 300 km. In the 1990s many have turned to the south into farming areas, because of the threat of attack by the Kel Tamasheq. They return to the Niger flood plain in November, and so start the cycle again. Nomadic groups include the Cookinkoobe, Naasaadinkoobe and Sonnaabe migrate from the north. Others have abandoned going into the Delta, pasturing their cattle in localised areas.

The Fulbe live in semi-permanent villages, which also have one or two families of a craftsman caste, probably Lawbe or Inadan, working in work, leather, and gold and silver and also ex-slaves called maccube, who nowadays have to be paid to do menial work, such as cultivation, sweeping and carrying. Although the Fulbe claim that milk is their mainstay diet, in practice they eat a porridge of millet and trade milk and butter to their farming neighbours.

Jallube herders (sing. Jallo) in the Douentza or Hayre region of Mali live in camps a few miles from villages of the Riimayde, the former slaves of the Fulbe, who are sedentary cultivators of millet. The Riimayde were either slaves of individual Jallube or of clans; but these arrangements were abolished in 1945. The Jallube themselves grow millet during the rainy season and trade milk with the Riimayde for millet, spices and other goods. The Jallube also cultivate as the Riimayde do it for them, and also herd the animals of some of the latter.

The Jullube migrate for the dry season, north towards the Delta or southwards. Some move the short distance to the fields of the Riimayde, the rest travel some 30 to 100 km. to the fields of Dogon farmers. They return before the rainy season in July to September to plant again. The men are responsible for both the herding and the cultivation of the millet. The women are responsible for the milking. According to pulaaku Jallube fathers neither eat with, or speak to their sons, even though the sons do all the cultivation and herding for them, Instructions have to be passed by intermediaries.

The Fulbe see the practice of folk Islam, combined with their animistic world-view, with its superstition and magic, meeting all their needs material and spiritual. Many of the men can read the Fulfulde in the Arabic script, but only the better educated can understand Arabic. The Christian and Missionary Alliance started work among the Fulbe in 1923, but left them for more responsive work until 1982; when they encouraged Dogon Christians to reach out to their 'Samaria' - the Fulbe. CMA are now working in the BaKo region of Mali, and have given short-term veterinary help. RSMT and United World Mission have started an outreach. Christian Reformed World Missions have a team working in the Maasina area. There about 60 believers.

Burkina Faso has over 700,000 Fulani in the north-east.
Jelgoobe, Djibo, northern Burkina Faso. The Jelgoobe claim to be descended from two chiefdoms who migrated from Hairé region of Mali by 1750. According to their oral traditions, they arrived from Maasina in Mali, driving the cattle of the Jullube in the 17th century, because of famine and the political struggles of that region. But they did not escape these entirely, for they became in 1824 the eastern edge of the Islamic Diina kingdom of Aamadu Seeku, based in the Maasina, but rebelled and had their leaders killed. They appealed to the Mossi king of Yatenga, who attempted to impose Mossi rule. The Jelgoobe threw off both until the French arrived in 1864.

They continue a very independent group. Many Fulbe have migrated eastwards to Oudalan, Liptako, Yagha and into Niger who continue to call themselves Jelgoobe. These and other Fulbe of different origins and varied dates of arrival are called Fulbe Jelgooji, like the Fulbe Kelli, who became subject to the Jelgoobe. But some of the Riimaybe, ex-captives, who possibly gaining their freedom in the conflict with the Mossi around 1834, live in the town of Djibo and speak the language of the Mossi. The town is about 25% Mossi, a further 18% are also Riimaybe speaking Fulfulde.

In this region 72% of the population are of Fulfulde speaking and culture, but only 44% are Fulbe, the rest being Riimaybe former slaves, who now have independent farming communities. The Fulbe living in the surrounding hamlets speak Fulfulde and insist on keeping cattle to have status as cattle owners in the Fulbe tradition. Many migrated south during the droughts of the 1980s. But since then those that remained have prospered better than the farming population. This has been helped by new water holes and a cattle market in Djibo. They have a Inadan craft community, maabube - griots, living with them.

SIM has a team in seven centres in Burkina Faso. SIM also works in Nigeria and Niger, reaching the Fulani with the hope of three more soon. The Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) works with Action Partners in veterinary work and friendship evangelism. Many Fulani have transistor radios to receive programmes from Radio ELWA when it was transmitting. World Horizons has two workers in Burkina Faso. Evangelical Missionary Society of Nigeria have recruited other pastoralists to work among the Fulani. The Assemblies of God are working among them.

Queguedo Fulbe, to the west of Tenkodogo in south-east Burkina Faso, are an example of small groups of Fulani who are settling among other ethnic groups to have a specialised pastoral role. They number 300. They came from Maasina in Mali and work as herders for the Mossi, as well as having cattle of their own. While both sides profit from the arrangement, they tend to mistrust each other, the Mossi claiming that the Fulani tend to 'lose' only Mossi cattle. The advantages to the Mossi include keeping their cattle separate from their crops. Another reason used to be, keeping the cattle hidden from the tax inspector! But this tax had been abolished. These Fulbe migrate with the cattle herds, going north out of the area during the growing season. The Fulbe also do some cultivation, but have portable houses that can be moved.

Niger has 825,000 Fulbe, including the Bororo, right across the southern part of the country and west and north of Agadez. There has been a response of a few dozen. The SIM team in Niger do community development, animal husbandry and other ministry.