cultural identity" (ibid). Riesman makes similar observations about the Jelogbe Fulani.(1977, p.156-60). Whilst the Fula in Sierra Leone do not face the harsh environmental conditions of either the Atuot or the Jelogbe, I feel that here also, transhumance represents "the true Fula life". I did not witness a camp transfer at first hand, but I know that they were a cause of excitement and, when completed, of celebration. The increased social activity which accompanied the transfer was much enjoyed, and friends and relatives who had assisted with the move were feasted. (cf. Baxter 1975,p.208-9) For "Jalloh", a young schoolboy, this was the best "party time" to visit the cattle camp. 11) "Sierra Leone does not possess the large tracts of rangeland, which in many other countries in Africa, often form the principal areas for livestock production. In such countries the main problems to be faced in rangeland management are usually low and erratic rainfall whereas in Sierra Leone the problem is the converse. High rainfall gives rise to high levels of primary production which, without sufficient animals to utilise the growth, leads to a large amount of fibrous and generally unpalatable vegetation". (Hunting Technical Services 1979, p.57) 12) Hunting Technical Services (1979) consider that the availability of dry season fodder "is the most important limiting factor in animal nutrition" (p.1) They add:-" During the wet season much of the valley bottoms and swamps are too wet and rainfed upland rice planting excludes the presence of loosely herded cattle in the cropping areas...A major ecological reason for the use of higher ground at this time is the availability of water allowing for the exploitation of the better and less fibrous grasses which grow there". (ibid, p.2) But there is much local and regional variation. Hunting Technical Services observe:- "around Kabala and Koinadugu in January and February [which includes Madogbo] , animals were making extensive use of rice fallows and valley grazing. To the east, between the Loma mountains and the Tingi hills, a large proportion of the stock were on burnt slopes while the remainder were found on an unburnt short grassland areas" (ibid, 64). 13) For instance, during one of my visits Wurie Juwe made arrangements with local Yalunka over the firing of the dry season bush. He needed assistance with the "firing" itself, but Wurie Juwe also wished to ensure that enough people were present to hunt the "beef" (i.e. game) inevitably driven before fire. Relations between herder and farmer vary a great deal from locality to locality. In longer established warris I visited near Kabala, I was told that cattle were encouraged to graze upon dry season farms, and that cattle dung was actively sought by Limba farmers. Elsewhere, such obvious economic and/or ecological symbiosis was not in evidence. Intermarriage between herder and farmer also occurs. Sam notes:- "A striking aspect among the immigrant population as a whole has been intermarriages; the Fulas were the most active participants of all the groups in Bafodea. They had married Limba girls in pursuit of their economic goals and also paid allegiance to the chiefs" (1984, p.26) 14) Kamara (1981) notes:- "In the Sinkunia area [Koinadugu District] there is an upward trend in the numbers of farmers spending more years in one settlement...with 28% of the farmers having stayed in the same settlement for a period of three years.

112

The situation is different for the Mashebra area [Bombali District] which has a downward trend...Nomadicity is much faster in Mashebra with 30% of the respondents spending less than one year in one settlement". (168-9) The figures are rather confusing and, I suggest, should be treated with some caution. The variation may, partly, be explained by the fact that there is more intense crop farming in Mashebra, an area of bolilands (which are usually unsuitable for grazing animals in the raily season when they become flooded). As Kamara explains:-"In Mashebra...cattle farmers are assigned to areas by the Chiefdom Cattle Settlement Committee every year. They change settlemnt in relation to the shifting cultivation patterns of the crop farmers. Cattle settlements have to be a considerable distance from crop farms. Consequently the available grazing pasture is depleted much faster than in Sinkunia where suitable grazing areas are abundant". (ibid, p.169) Area Years of residence. <1 1 2 3 4 4+ Sinkunia (no. of settlements) 5 5 10 14 9 7 Mashebra 9 7 6 5 3 0 However, it is not clear how long Fula herders have been in the Mashebra area. This missing piece of information is, I think, crucial to the interpretation of Kamara's data. 15) In this, the traditional Fula herders in Sierra Leone are, like the pastoral WoDaaBe, an "interstitial population". (Stenning 1966, 389). Stenning notes:- "The formation of large groups with well-defined and specifically territorial rights to water and grazing has not occurred. Consequently, there is no past or present institution concerned with the defence of territory for its own sake in perpetuity. At whatever period or time span we care to choose we find the WoDaaBe negotiating, with aliens and in languages not their own, for temporary rights to pasture and water; usually doing so at the personal level". (ibid) 16) In many areas of Koinadugu, there is suspicion among the farming communities, that Fula herders have gained favour through financial support of their chiefs. Konteh (1984) provides an admirable illustration:-" The problem posed to Farmers by the cattle has created ill feeling between the Limba and Fula communities in Bafodea. The court has a long list of cases between crop growers and Fula cattle herders...A case came up involving a farmer and a cattle herder. The farmer, Pa Salifu, left his children to guard the rice plot while he went away to tap palm wine. No sooner had he gone when six bulls approached the rice field. The children were afraid of the animals. To drive them away and prevent them from eating the rice, they threw a spear at a bull seriously wounding it. When their father returned, they told him what had happened. The father was aware of the serious nature of cattle cases and decided to apologise to the herders immediately. He took a friend along with him and gave ten Leones to the Fula for the wounded bull. The Fula took the money as a symbol of guilt and carried the matter to the chief. In the chief's court, the matter took serious dimension. When he was charged with wounding a bull, he was fined fifty Leones and apologised. The chief joined Pa Salifu in asking for forgiveness. The Fula took the fifty Leones on condition that Pa Salifu took the cow and treated it until it was cured. Pa Salifu said he did not know how to treat or handle a cow. Instead, he tried again and provided sixty Leones which he gave to the Fula to use for treating the wounded animal. The Fula accepted the money on condition that if the cow died, Pa Salifu would pay six hundred Leones.

113

The Limba farmers told me that the chief always sides with the Fulas in such cases. The reason for supporting the Fulas is that it is only the Fulas who can help the chief with the gift of cattle or meat when he has important political personalities or government officers visiting his chiefdom. The other reason is that the Fulas have money and can help the chief, if he wants their help. Because of the support the chief gives to the Fulas, the Limbas hardly take a case to him if their rice ot other crops are destroyed by Fula cattle. They go to the court. They see the court functioning in their interest...not long ago, a Fula was fined ten bushels of rice. (p.19-20) 17) I do not know the full particulars, but circumstantial evidence would seem to suggest that my suspicions, and the rumours were correct. Shortly after Chernor Wurie announced his intention to move towards Bafodea, I heard that Alhaji Boie was planning to transfer one of his warris near to the vacated site. Chernor Wurie may well have been under "political" pressure to agree to such a move. Alhaji Boie was not only a very wealthy man, he was also very infuential. More to the point, perhaps, was the large amount of labour at his disposal. I was told, with other examples in mind, that it was not unknown for a wealthy herd-owner to use intimidation as a method to increase the pasture at his herd's disposal. A number of stategies could be adopted. Cattle rustling, directed at the warri in question, was one such strategy. A more sophisticated, but equally threatening, strategy was to create "woman palaver" in the warri one wished to displace. I was told that an older herd owners, threatened by the amorous interests of young unmarried hired herdsmen in his own young wives, would soon consider moving to a safer distance. 18) cf. Sam (1984) who notes:- "The aftermath of the 1982 general elections also caused mass migrations not only in Bafodea town but in the entire chiefdom. Those who migrated out of Bafodea Chiefdom were mainly Fula doing so because of political disturbances. The Fula were accused of resentment to the Limba candidate...The Fula cattle were slaughtered...and their warris burnt. The Fula retaliated..(which) led to civil unrest in the area. Most people claim that a number of Fula were killed. When the Fula could no longer withstand victimisation they moved their camps with all their cattle to Musaia" (p.36) I believe this latter point is incorrect. I suggest that Fula removed themselves from the vicinity of the towns to the relative safety of the bush. Many may have moved in the general direction of Musaia but, certainly, did not reach the town itself, the site of some of the most violent disturbances. 19) I do not only refer to the further migration of traditional Fula herders, say, from Guinea, into the area. More and more urban-based traders are investing in cattle, creating new warris, managed by hired herdsmen. (cf. White 1987.) 20) There is a great deal of variation between Fulani groups in milking arrangements. For example, Waters-Bayer notes that among the Fulani pastoralists of Kaduna, Nigeria:-" Milking, like herding was usually done by men and boys", (1985, p.6) although, here too, the cows are milked only in the morning. Dupire (1963) suggests that the evaluation of the task of milking as properly male or female varies with the distance that the cattle have to move; where the cattle must needs be driven over long distances it is likely that the task of milking will fall to the men. (p.75-6) 21) Holt (1973) comments that the "milking potential" of Ndama cattle is "very low". The highest recorded yield over 11 cows at Musaia Station in 1950 was 115.4

114

Gallons in 237 days. (p.14) Hunting Technical Services suggest:-"partial-milking in village herds gives a daily milk yield of 0.6 litres per cow". (1979, p.44) 22) Women can own cattle, although management responsibilities are usually vested in men. (See below) It is customary for a young child to be allocated a female cow by his or her parents. Any offspring are likewise regarded as the child's future property. In practice, it appears that these allocated animals are often "eaten" for other, more pressing purposes, although the claims may well persist. Cattle thus "inherited" by a woman may be taken with her to her husband's warri, although she may prefer to leave her cattle with her own kinsmen for security. Upon marriage, a bride may also be given a few cattle by her kinsmen, to take to her husband's warri. These cattle remain the wife's property, and cannot be sold, or otherwise disposed of, without her approval. 23) The importance of women's labour should not be underestimated. As Dahl notes:-" Daily care ties particular beasts to particular people. The animals become dependent on certain humans and accept to be handled by them. We can call this the "reproduction of animal domestication". (1987, p.250-1) 24) Kasoto and Kaseya, I feel, would be regarded by most Fula as typical warris. Elsewhere, local circumstances have permitted the formation of other settlement types. In some long established cattle camps I visited, large and permanent farms had also been developed nearby. (See above) And, one warri I visited was shaded by a group of mango trees, planted, I was told, by the herd-owner over fifteen years ago. 25) Cf. Water-Bayers (1985) who provides a detailed description of dairying by settled Fulani women in central Nigeria. 26) The rainy season extends from April until November, with the heaviest rain falling between July and September. Rainfall is varied, but fairly reliable. Records from Musaia, (three or four miles North of Madogbo) show an annual rainfall of around 80" per annum. 27) Cf. Hunting Technical Services (1979) which suggests:- "This kind of husbandry would not be possible unless surface water was so abundant as to allow cattle to water themselves. Nor would it be possible if there were appreciable levels of stock theft or predation. The chief implication of this kind of husbandry is that it does not tie up a large labour force skilled in knowledge about cattle, and it is possible that there is little "subsistence pastoralism" in Sierra Leone of the typical sort described for savanna and sahelian regions". (p.16). This analysis is only partly correct and ignores the important contribution of women to Fula husbandry. Fula do depend upon their cattle as suppliers of milk although, in addition, they must needs rely on other sources of income. Cattle rustling was a problem, although it was rare for more than two or three cows to be stolen on any one occasion. Cattle raiding on the scale witnessed among East African herders, does not occur. 28) During the 1984-5 dry season, Wurie Juwe was taken to court by a local Yalunka farmer over cattle-inflicted damage to his crops. The farmer argued that Wurie Juwe should be made responsible for (payment of?) the fencing in the area in which he grazed his cattle during the dry season. The court did not agree, and in this instance

115

confirmed the view that it was unreasonable to expect a herder to be able to control his cattle during the dry season. As Wurie Juwe said, "The cows are animals and know only what they eat. In the dry season they have to travel long distances". 29) As Stenning notes:-"This is not mixed farming in the accepted sense of the term. It is rather a reliance on a dual mode of subsistence in which farming and stockraising at once complement and circumscribe each other". (1959, p.6-7 and see pages following.) 30) As noted previously the Tellico Fula have the reputation as being the least integrated of the Fula sub-groups. It is possible that maintenance of large upland rice farms has inhibited dependence on the market. This may relate to Hasmieu Barrie's shame at the thought of his wives going to market. (See above) Kebu Fula, on the other hand, (if the contrast is accurate) must needs rely on the commercial market for much agricultural produce; selling cattle for grain. 31) It is possible that Haja's herd once numbered well over one hundred and fifty head. She had sold many cattle in recent years to pay for the construction of property in Kabala, and to cover household expenditure, especially after the death of Alimamy Jalloh in 1980. 32) I visited several warris that consisted essentially of a widow and her married sons. Remarriage of an older woman does not necessitate her removal to her husband's place of residence; in fact there may be little contact between the spouses. Under these circumstances, by exercising authority over her sons, a widow may become very influential in the management of the cattle camp. 33) Cf. White (1984, p. 7ff) and Hill (1970, p.64ff) Dupire (1962b) notes that cases of WoDaaBe working as herders for others were the result of extreme poverty and rare; a temporary recourse at times of hardship. (p.126) In Sierra Leone, herding animals belonging to, say, Futa Fula, is a source of income for rich and poor herders alike. 34) Cf. Horowitz (1975) indicates why this should be:- "A cattle owning Manga Farmer may either raise the animals or entrust them to a professional herder, a Fulani. Since the herd must be kept away from the cultivated fields, the first option requires abandoning village and settled life, for the lonely and, to the Manga, fearful life of the bush. For them farming represents the ultimate economic activity for an ordinary man". (397) Horowitz notes that giving cattle to the herder is "risky" since the Manga farmer "has few claims on the loyalty of the herder...The Manga feel that the Fulani do no give Manga animals the care they give their own; for example, they say the Fulani deprive Manga calves of milk while allowing their own calves to suck as much as they need. They accuse Fulani of smuggling Manga animals across the border for sale in Nigerian markets, and then claiming that the animals were stolen or that they ran off". (ibid, p.397-8) This is a familiar story. For example, Konteh (1984) observes:-"If a Limba farmer owns a cow, sheep or goat, he will take it to the warri...and leave it with a Fula for rearing...Some Limba complained that they had not been treated honestly in this deal." (p.17)

116