Notes to chapter five. 1) It must be remembered that many lines of enquiry were cut short by Haja's untimely death. Consequently, I have some unusual gaps in my knowledge of her life history. 2) I occasionally witnessed the confusion that a visit to town, perhaps for the first time, could cause a young man or woman from one of the smaller isolated villages. 3) I gathered that Haja's headaches were attributed to her addiction to Kola. The doctors advised her to give up chewing Kola nuts, but she had been unable to do so. Haja frequently suffered from migraine-type headaches. 4) Like a number of other wealthy Fula women, Haja kept a few goats and sheep in town. At one time her flock had numbered over fifty small stock, but the numbers had dwindled. When I first moved into the household, only three goats remained. Of these, one was sold, whilst the other two were stolen. Haja tended to blame the depletion of her flock entirely on thieves, but it is more likely that the numbers had been radically reduced by sale. One wealthy Fula woman continued to keep a sizeable number of livestock in town. These animals, penned in the woman's compound at night, were driven off to browse and graze on the "Sports Field" every morning, and rounded up every afternoon, by the younger children of her household. During the day the herd was not closely attended. Similarly, Haja's few goats were usually left to scavenge around the neighbouring households. Although they seldom wandered far, the goats were invariably reluctant to return to the house of their own volition! 5) Smiti was a Tellico, and despite the fact that she too had been raised in a cattle camp, Smiti and Haja did not get on at all well. Smiti, a junior wife, bore Alimamy a much-disputed son. Haja, and a number of other people, were convinced that Smiti had "taken her belly elsewhere". (See above) Haja never forgave her. Consequently, I seldom visited Smiti's household. From the little I did observe, and from Haja's own comments, it appears that a large number of Smiti's close kinsmen now resided in this house, quite unlike the situation in Haja's household. 6) Whenever I visited the warri, critical comments were always made regarding Haja's apparent lack of interest. "She never reaches here", I was told, "Yet she is always quick to blame if a cow is lost or wounded". There was an obvious conflict of interest between Haja as herd-owner, and these dependent members of her family. See below. 7) As one informant said, "A thief can steal your cattle, but he cannot steal your house". House ownership is usually single-stranded, and placed in the hands of men. However, a widow's rights to her husband's house are recognised and granted. And, for example, it is common practice for a widow to remain in the house, or room if she shares the property with a co-wife, for the duration of her life. After this, the property will usually pass to her own, or to her co-wives' children. And see Appendix One. 8) i.e. "bush Fula" or, perhaps "cattle Fula". Elsewhere in West Africa, "traditional" Fula pastoralists are known as Bororo, or by some similar term. See Stenning 1959,

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p.4. But cf. Hopen (1958) who distinguishes between Islamised Fulbe na'i (i.e. cattle Fula) and Bororo Fula, spoken of as "practically infidels". (p.2) 9) The daily labour of women ties them to the warri. Women are responsible for milking the cattle, and for processing a variety of dairy products. (See below and Riesman 1977, chapter four). As for the children, it should be remembered that Haja had, over the years, "minded" a number of Alhaji Momadu's children. 10) Before I left Kabala, a few weeks after Haja's death, Alhaji Momadu announced his intention of transferring to Kabala. I think it unlikely that Alhaji Momadu, prior to his sister's death, had the resources to build his own house. His herd, according to Haja, only numbered around forty head. 11) Domestic slavery was abolished many decades ago by both the French (in Guinea) and the British (in Sierra Leone). However, for the Fula in particular, status differentiation based upon putative or real slave ancestry is still significant. There are still recognised slave settlements (runde,F.) in Koinadugu District. (Cf.Viellard 1940,p.126) And see below. Haja Aisaitu rarely disliked anyone without a reason, and would invariably feel obliged to justify her dislike. These justifications were often depersonalised in their construct, and criticism was usually based on a person's perceived social conduct, rather than on a personal characteristic. In this instance, Haja drew attention to her rival's ancestry, to ensure support for her view that this younger co-wife had, by definition, risen above her status, and had disrupted what would generally be accepted as the proper social order. 12) cf. Murray who notes that Tellico:-"do not mix or intermarry with other Fulas". (1958, p.104) 13) Similarly, I once asked Mr. Jalloh, a Futa trader in Kabala market, why he did not spend more time with his cattle. He jokingly replied that were he to do so, his friends would laugh and say "Ah! You have become a Kebu!" There are a number of traditional occupations regarded by Fula as hereditary, for example, woodcutters and carvers (lau'be) praise-singers (farrba), cobblers (garanke) and blacksmiths (wilobe. Of these occupations it is often said that "they are not real Fula", or "they are nations of their own" or again, "they are tribes within a tribe" and some informants said that marriage between "real Fula" and members of these occupational groups was prohibited. Nonetheless intermarriage does occur. Furthermore, my data shows that individuals can and do, move in and out of these "hereditary" occupations. 14) See also Riesman 1977 p.282 where the term lenyol is also translated as "lineage". The sub-groups were also referred to by one school-educated informant as "tribes". Haja, on the other hand, would sometimes refer to the Kebu as her "family" :"We are all one blood", she would say. Haja made similar statements concerning the Fula as a whole, especially those in Kabala. "So so fambule" (Kr.) [trans."so much family"]

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was one of her popular expressions, by which she would draw attention, not only to the "closeness" of the Fula community, but also to the many consanguinal and affinal links that she was able to trace to various other families and individuals in town. 15) Banton (1957) notes:- "Fula social structure is founded upon regional divisions in Futa Jallon." (p.157) I think this is an overstatement. (See Butcher 1965 who makes, I think, a similar error.) Banton describes the competition for the position of Fula Freetown Headman:-"The Alimamy of Fouta Djallon is always chosen from the ruling house of the Timbo and Timbo people [in Freetown] argued that such was their father's custom and there was no reason to change it...In Freetown the Timbi point out that the first headman was from Hacundemaj‚ and that the second was assimilated to the Timbo section; they claim that as, in addition, they are the largest section, the office should now pass to their candidate". But as Banton admits:-"in Mateboi the principle [of succession] has been abandoned on the ground that a Fouta Djallon custom is not necessarily to be followed in a different country". (ibid.) In Kabala, "regionalism" , in this sense, was of little importance. 16) See Mitchell 1956. General discussions of Fula(ni) ethnicity are to be found in Stenning (1959, Introduction), Hopen (1958, chapter one), Dupire (1970 and 1981). And see Burnham (1972) and Schultz (1984) for case studies of ethnic change among Fulani. 17) In general, the active members of the FPU were urban-based traders, like Mr. Jalloh. Although he was keen to stress the all-embracing ideology of the Union, it did not appear that the FPU had much active support outside the town, especially in the more traditional pastoral sector. The national leadership of the FPU all appear to be Sierra Leone born Fula. The president, Alhaji Sirri Wurie is a chartered accountant; the vice-president, Bailor Barrie (a man with close links with Yogomaia) is a wealthy business man, and the secretary-general, is a United Nations Development Project official. Alhaji Barrie, the Fula District headman, is nominally the Chairman of the Kabala branch of the FPU, but cannot be regarded as an active member. Mr. Jalloh, three other traders and two secondary school teachers make up the active local branch membership. These men are between 35-45 years of age. There is some overlap between APC membership and the FPU. The local FPU president, "Sonpari" Barrie was also the vice-president of the local APC branch. Mr. Jalloh and one of the traders were also active APC members. These men would, on formal occasions, speak for the "Fula youth" to represent their interests. During the distribution of sacrificial meat at Haja's burial, Mr. Shaw, one of the entourage of FPU supporters, formally complained to the elders, that the "Youth" had not been shown sufficient respect. He pointed out that it was they who had supervised the digging of the grave. As a result, Mr. Shaw, who was at the time sitting alongside Mr. Jalloh, and a number of other close friends, was given a further and more substantial portion of meat. Butcher (1965, chapter five) mentions similar disputes over the distribution of sacrificial meat.

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18) Haja's attitudes were, no doubt, influenced by the fact that many leading Fula, especially in the North of the country, had been active supporters of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party. The rise of the APC left the Fula community in a politically isolated position. (And see Harrell-Bond et al. 1978, p.272. and Donald 1968, p.151f) 19) As in Liberia, the term "civilised" is of very wide currency. See Brown 1982. 20) Fula women in town frequently observed how clean and tidy houses in the warri were kept. As Haja Fatmata explained:-"The women clean all day. Brush, brush, brush". Warri cuisine is also regarded as particularly "sweet". (see below) 21) Tijani, a ten year old schoolboy, once confided in me that he did not want to sit down in the warri because he was not a "pure Fula" (both his parents were Fula). He thought this over for a minute, then changed his mind. He was a "pure Fula" after all, he decided, but at school. Maybe he would become a driver, like his father, he reasoned. 22) I may or may not have been given an example of this "deep Fula" by Alhaji Barrie. During the course of our conversation which had concerned the links between the Fula in the town with those in the "Bush", Alhaji Barrie mentioned the word silbaadere, which I took to refer to the part of the rope which remains after a cow has been tied. The company laughed as I attempted to pronounce the word. Was it possible that Alhaji Barrie was alluding to the closeness between the sections of the community? I shall never be certain. Incidentally, Nene Jiba, Haja's "slave" often had the children in fits of laughter with her riddles and "double-talk", but I never heard her entertain adults in this way.

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