Climate change, urbanization, sedentarization, and dissipation of pastoral Fulani culture in Ghana
Abstract views: 19
/ 
PDF downloads: 7
Keywords:
Climate change, urbanization, sedentarization, cultural dissipation, Fulani in GhanaAbstract
While a lot of research has been conducted on the effects of climate change, urbanization, and sedentarization on pastoralism in Africa, empirical research that synchronizes the combined impact of these three monsters, especially how they conspire to deprive the pastoral Fulani of their beloved culture they strived to protect over the centuries. This study was conducted in Ghana among the Fulani ethnic group, who are notorious pastoralists. Using survey instruments and followed up with detailed interviews, the study found that the pastoralists are drifting towards sedentarization due to the effects of climate change and urbanization that make pastoralism difficult. The study found that pulaaku, which denotes a moral code of conduct that regulates the proper behavior of the Fulani ethnic group, is dissipated through sedentarization, intermarriages, and global impacts. The study concludes that to preserve their identity, the Fulani can form vibrant associations to promote their culture and identity.
Downloads
References
Abubakari, A. (2024). "Then the Fulani herdsmen came with their pastoral culture, and that marked the end of our cattle...": Perspectives on cattle rearing in Wungu Traditional area, Ghana. Journal of Arts and Sociological Research, 5(6), 35-54.
Abubakari, A., & Derkyi, M. A. A. (2024). Pastoralists health and public health threat in Ghana. Sprin Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(8), 24-32.
African Union. (2010). Policy framework for pastoralism in Africa. African Union Commission.
African Union. (2013). Policy framework for pastoralism in Africa. African Union Commission.
Almagor, U. (1980). Pastoral identity and reluctance to change: The Mbanderu of Ngamiland. Journal of African Law, 24(1), 35-61.
Al Okoli, C., & Atelhe, A. G. (2014). Nomads against natives: A political ecology of herder/farmer conflicts in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 4(2), 76-88.
Anter, T. (2011). Who are the Fulani people and their origins? Retrieved 27 June, 2024 from https://tariganter.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/
Ba Konare, D. A. O., & Hellweg, J. (2022). To be Fula is to be noble and proud": How Pulaaku and contemporary social media are shaping diasporic Fula identity. Mande Studies, 24, 175-199.
Barrett, C., Bellemare, M., & Osterloh, S. (2006). Household-level livestock marketing behaviour among northern Kenyan and southern Ethiopian pastoralists. In J. McPeak & P. Little (Eds.), Pastoral livestock marketing in Eastern Africa: Research and policy challenges (pp. 15-38). Practical Action Publishing.
Bassett, J. T. (1988). The political ecology of peasant-herder conflicts in the Northern Ivory Coast. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 78(3), 453-472.
Bassett, T. J. (2009). Mobile pastoralism on the brink of land privatization in Northern Côte d'Ivoire. Geoforum, 40(5), 756-766.
Basupi, L. V., Quinn, C. H., & Dougill, A. J. (2017). Pastoralism and land tenure transformation in sub-Saharan Africa: Conflicting policies and priorities in Ngamiland, Botswana. Land, 6(4), 89.
Bukari, K. N., & Schareika, N. (2015). Stereotypes, prejudices and exclusion of Fulani pastoralists in Ghana. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 5, 20.
Catley, A., Admassu, B., Bekele, G., & Abebe, D. (2014). Livestock mortality in pastoralist herds in Ethiopia during drought and implications for drought response. Disasters, 38(3), 500-516.
Catley, A., Lind, J., & Scoones, I. (2016). The futures of pastoralism in the Horn of Africa: Pathways of growth and change. Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 35(2), 389-403.
Dumenu, W. K., & Obeng, E. A. (2016). Climate change and rural communities in Ghana: Social vulnerability, impacts, adaptations and policy implications. Environmental Science & Policy, 55, 208-217.
Erickson, P., de Leeuw, J., Thornton, P., Said, M., Herrero, M., & Notenbaert, A. (2013). Climate change in sub-Saharan Africa: What consequences for pastoralism? In A. Catley, J. Lind, & I. Scoones (Eds.), Pastoralism and development in Africa: Dynamic change at the margins (pp. 71-81). Routledge.
Feng, X., Qiu, H., Pan, J., & Tang, J. (2021). The impact of climate change on livestock production in pastoral areas of China. Science of the Total Environment, 20, 144838.
Food and Agriculture Organization. (2018). Pastoralism in Africa's drylands. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Gaye, S. B. (2017). Conflits entre agriculteurs et éleveurs dans un contexte de menaces asymétriques au Mali et au Burkina Faso. Séries FES.
Graneheim, U. H., & Lundman, B. (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: Concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Education Today, 24(2), 105-112.
GSS. (2021). 2020 Population and Housing Census. Ghana Statistical Service.
Hermance, J. F. (2014). Historical variability of rainfall in the African East Sahel of Sudan: Implications for development. Springer.
Herrero, M., Wirsenius, S., Henderson, B., Rigolot, C., Thornton, P., Havlik, P., de Boer, I., & Gerber, P. (2015). Livestock and the environment: What have we learned in the past decade? Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 40, 177-202.
Ibrahim, Y. U. A. (2014). Funding, major obstacle to nomadic education – Executive Secretary. Daily Trustfile.
Kojo, E. (2021, April 23). Savannah Region: Migrant Fulani herdsmen commit most armed robberies – Police. Pulse. Retrieved 11 August, 2024 from https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/savannah-region-migrant-fulani-herdsmen-commit-most-armed-robberies-police/bgjmecw
Kundu, D., & Pandey, A. K. (2020). World urbanization: Trends and patterns. In D. Kundu, R. Sietchiping, & M. Kinyanjui (Eds.), Developing national urban policies: Ways forward to green and smart cities (pp. 13-49). Springer Nature.
Lee-Smith, D. (2010). Cities feeding people: An up-date on urban agriculture in equatorial Africa. Environment and Urbanization, 22(2), 483-499.
Levin, I., & Mamlok, D. (2021). Culture and society in the digital age. Information, 12(68), 1-13.
Li, J., Yang, W., Liu, L., Liu, X., Qiu, F., & Ma, X. (2022). Development and environmental impacts of China's livestock and poultry breeding. Journal of Cleaner Production, 371, 133586.
Masipa, T. (2017). The impact of climate change on food security in South Africa: Current realities and challenges ahead. JÀMBÁ: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 9, a411.
McGuirk, E. F., & Nunn, N. (2024). Transhumant pastoralism, climate change, and conflict in Africa. Review of Economic Studies, 00, 1-38.
Mead, G. H. (1963). Mind, self & society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist. University of Chicago Press.
Mensah, J. V., Adamtey, R., & Abdulai, A. R. (2016). Governing interests of Fulani herdsmen and peasant farmers in natural resources in the Asante Akim North District of Ghana. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 3(10), 36-52.
Nwangwu, C., Mbah, P. O., Ike, C. C., Akanu Otu, O., & Ezugworie, C. (2020). Transhumant pastoral economy and human security in Nigeria: Whither civil society organisations? Journal of Asian and African Studies, 55(7), 1033-1053.
Olaniyan, A., Francis, M., & Okeke-Uzodike, U. (2015). The cattle are "Ghanaians," but the herders are strangers: Farmer-herder conflicts, expulsion policy and pastoralist question in Agogo, Ghana. African Studies Quarterly, 15(2), 53-67.
Oppong, Y. P. (2017). Moving through and passing on: Fulani mobility, survival and identity in Ghana (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Riesman, P. (1998). Freedom in Fulani social life: An introspective ethnography. University of Chicago Press.
Satterthwaite, D., McGranahan, G., & Tacoli, C. (2010). Urbanization and its implications for food and farming. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 365, 2809-2820.
Scoones, I. (2023). Livestock, methane, and climate change: The politics of global assessments. WIREs Climate Change, 1-8.
Setrana, M. B. (2021). Citizenship, indigeneity, and the experiences of 1.5- and second-generation Fulani herders in Ghana. Africa Spectrum, 56(1), 81-99.
Singh, R., & Kerven, C. (2023). Pastoralism in South Asia: Contemporary stresses and adaptations of Himalayan pastoralists. Pastoralism, 13(21), 1-10.
Snorek, J., Moser, L., & Renaud, F. G. (2017). The production of contested landscapes: Enclosing the pastoral commons in Niger. Journal of Rural Studies, 51, 125-140.
Tache, B., & Sjaastad, E. (2010). Pastoralists' conceptions of poverty: An analysis of traditional and conventional indicators from Borana, Ethiopia. World Development, 38(8), 1168-1178.
Tinsley, J. H. I., & Gwiriri, L. C. (2022). Understanding the representation of pastoralism in livestock-related climate adaptation policies in Ghana and Nigeria: A review of key policy documents. Nomadic Peoples, 26(1), 83-105.
Tonah, S. (2005). Fulani in Ghana: Migration history, integration and resistance. The Research and Publication Unit Department of Sociology, University of Ghana.
Tonah, S. (2006). Migration and herder-farmer conflicts in Ghana's Volta Basin. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 40(1), 152-178.
Uhembe, A. C. (2015). The state and the management of conflict between nomadic herdsmen and crop farmers in North Central Nigeria: Implications for sustainable development. International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science, 3(7), 20-28.
Ujorha, T. (2014). Pulaaku: How rustling is crippling this beautiful idea of the Fulbe.
UNOWAS. (2018). Pastoralism and security in West Africa and the Sahel: Towards peaceful coexistence. United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel.
Wilson, W. (1995). The Fulani model of sustainable agriculture: Situating Fulbe nomadism in a systemic view of pastoralism and farming. Nomadic Peoples, 36(37), 35-51.
Yator, M. (2023). Adaptation measures adopted by pastoralist livestock farmers in Kenya in response to climate change. Journal of Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems, 2(2), 22-36.
Yeboah, D. K. L. B., Pilegaard, C. H., Abubakari, A., & Doke, A. D. (2024). Moving beyond the threshold: The escalation of farmer-herder conflicts in Akim North Municipality of Ghana. African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review, 14(1), 1-27.
Yeboah, G., Marreh, S., Gubo, Q., & Velankar, Y. (2023). Effect of urbanization and climate change on small ruminant management in Ghana: A case study of Atwima Kwanwoma District. In IEEE Humanitarian Technology Conference (pp. 1066-1070).
Zhou, K., Zhou, F., Chen, L., Li, H., Wang, H., & Li, J. (2024). Alleviating environmental pressure from livestock production: A "livestock-resource environmental carrying capacity" perspective in China. Ecological Indicators, 160, 111800.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Symphony
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
