THE SAHEL
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's most influential civilizations. This place was a great attraction to arabs searching for gold and Europeans looking for slaves in West Africa. The natives in this area mostly speak French and Islamic; Sahel comes from Arabic. Unfortunately this place is one of the poorest and most damamged environment in earth. In the 1970's The Sahel Caught the world's attention when drought and famine killed nearly 200,000 people. Conditions have improved through time, yet having viscious soil erosions, lack of irrigation, deforestation, drought, desertification, and overpopulation.
Since the environment has suffered so much; many herders, farmers, and rural workers have headed toward the big cities. Dakar(Senegal), Ougadougou(Barkina Faso), Niamey(Niger), and Bamako(Mali)holds 25 percent of the Sahel's population and it grows 5 percent anually.
The desert and grazing land was an attraction to several people. Some are semi nomadic, cattle herders, and farmers. The fulani is the largest nomadic herders group and play an important role in the Sahel for their cattle and dedication to Islam. Their neighbors, the Dogon, practice different beliefs that illustrate the relationship between Africans and their environment.
The Fulani have their roots in Senegal, and have spreaded to Nigeria and later to the Niger River delta. One of the first West African to adopt Islam has built a lasting reputation for Islamic scholarship. In 1804 the great Fulani hero, Sheshu Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad( A muslim holy war or spiritual struggle against infields) against the Hausa. The Fulani defeated them and used their triumph to build the largest of West Africa's empires, later the british expanded it to Nigeria.
Islam has been part of the Fulani cultural identity which distinguishes themselves from other groups. Some of them Admit that they're non Muslim beleivers but is rare to find since urban Fulani are extremely Muslim. They do practice polygamy, the condition or practice of having more than one spouse at one time.
The true Fulani are the ones who show "palaaku," a mixture of these three values: Reserve, Stoicism, and Love of cattle. Palaaku is put into action in a male initiation ceremony in which young men beat eachother with walking sticks; Signs of pain aren't allowed. It also comes into play when a bride's father transfers one of his cattle to the groom, then the marriage is considered official. If the cattle isn't present during the ceremony, urban Fulani are scorned or ridiculed by their nomadic cousins. Herding is an all male occupation; During the flooding of the Niger delta young men are sent to dry season camps for months at a time.
These urban people are known for their wealth of oral and written literature. They have recurring theme for poetry and history, and a lot of folklore, riddles, and proverbs. Their language is called Fulfude, mostly spoken in Niger Congo. There are 13 million Fulfude speakers in the world. It is written in a Roman script, traditionally, Arabic was used with modifications to handle local sounds and words.