1 Aims of the research
This work aims at providing results from
research on Wodaabe pastoralists in south-eastern Niger in order to systematically
elicit their environmental knowledge (with flora, fauna, geomorphology,
soil and climate as most important domains) and its relation to herding
practices. This research was motivated by the idea of introducing the cognitive
dimension (i.e. knowledge, goals and values) into the study of human environmental
relations (cf. Hunn 1989; Brush 1980). Focus on knowledgeable actors, puts
emphasis on herders’ capacity to voluntarily shape and organise their relation
to the natural environment (cf. Jamieson & Lovelace 1985). Thus pastoral
migration will not be presented as a passive ecological adaptation or response
of herders to a harsh and unpredictable environment. It is rather seen
as guided by informed, thoughtful, and reflexive decision-making, that
aims at organising a seasonally varying resource base. To the Wodaabe pastoral
nomads, herd moving is a sophisticated method of putting into practice
a long-term program of animal nutrition. This program of animal nutrition
is highly goal oriented. It aims at enhancing herd fertility by constantly
increasing animal weight during the fodder abundant seasons, and bringing
the herd with minimal loss in weight and size through the fodder poor seasons.
These goals are related to the external and system immanent conditions
of Wodaabe herding. The most important external condition is the seasonal
variation of fodder resources through out the humid and the dry period.
The most important system immanent conditions are first, the alternation
of cattle’s physical state between well-fed and seriously emaciated during
the annual cycle; and second, the necessity for specialised cattle herding
in the Sahel to continuously sell off animals to obtain money for buying
millet.
Personal ethnographic field work was executed from February to October 1996, January to April 1997 and July to December 1997 among the Siiganko’en fraction of the Suudu Suka’el clan of the Wodaabe of South-eastern Niger (hereafter referred to as the Wodaabe). Different kinds of verbal statements were gathered by inquiry techniques ranging from simple listening to the daily discourse, word listings of different domains, elicitation by standardised techniques like pile sorting and comparison of pairs and triads of plants (see Martin 1995), and interviews designed of grand and mini tour questions (see Spradley 1979; Werner & Schoepfle 1987). Verbal statements of all kinds were generally recorded on tape, transcribed and analysed in Fulfulde language. Plants were identified by the Wodaabe, then collected and inventoried in a herbaria and later scientifically identified. Inquiry on pastoral migration departed from a couple of perspectives: Trajectories of individual herders were directly observed and registered by GPS. Informant descriptions of migrations in former years as well as of the general logic and value of nomadic movement were tape-recorded and analysed. Observation of daily discourse among herders concerning pastoral movement was treated in the same way.
Here presented results and data are entirely drawn from personal fieldwork. Research of direct comparative interest is to be found in Bonfiglioli (1981, 1990, 1991) Bonfiglioli et al. (1984), Stenning (1957, 1959) Bovin (1985, 1990), Thébaud (1988) and Thébaud & Nomao (1987). For other work on the Wodaabe see the reference list.
GPS data stemming from different herders
were summarised to present the general characteristics of seasonal migration
among the concerned group. The generalised trajectory of seasonal migration
was then projected on a digitised version of maps about pasture potentials
published by the IEMVT in 1986 (Institute d' élevage et médecine
veterinaire des pays tropicaux, Maisons-Alfort, France)(see
references).
During one yearly cycle Wodaabe herds and households move through a number of different ecological situations represented by indigenous categories of season.
At the very beginning of the rainy season, Wodaabe herders leave the clayey plains of Kawlaa (south-eastern part of the map, e.g. locations Kabelawa, Baroua, Toumour, Kinziandi; see photo 1) where they spent the dry season to set out for the first part of their seasonal migration (Baartol, see photos 2, 3) and reach a zone of sandy dunes (south-western part of map, e.g. locations Issari, Maine Soroa; see photo 4, 5). Decisive to this movement is the herders’ consideration of soil quality in these two areas. Light sand of the dune area is considered as allowing for a fast sprouting of grass and herbs whereas heavy dark clay of the plain area is considered as only allowing for slow sprouting. The first light rains produce young shoots more quickly and early in sandy than in clayey soils. Herders recognise the relation between soil quality and plant growth and put this knowledge into systematic use for three reasons:
1. At the end of the dry season the pasture is usually very poor or even completely grazed. Animals cope with the last residues of grass and therefore constantly loose weight. Some animals possibly are too weak to move to new pasture areas or even die of hunger. In this situation of shortage Wodaabe herders make use of the time advantage of the light sandy soils and migrate to the western dune areas. The light sandy soils are soon covered by fast coming-up species like Tribulus terrestris. Although it is usually considered poor fodder with thorny fruits that may even cause diarrhoea, it is always appreciated for its quality of coming up quickly.
2. Wodaabe herders believe that fresh green matter is better fodder than dry matter. This principle is translated into a strategy of extending the availability of fresh fodder during the rainy season as far as possible. As the temporal distribution of fresh matter depends on the geological situation in different areas, its duration can be manipulated by spatial mobility. In this sense the seasonal migration (Baartol) into sandy areas serves to go towards and reach “the head of the fresh matter period”. Herders know that the combination of sandy soil and rain earlier produces the appreciated fresh fodder state than a combination of clayey soil and rain. By moving to the fast sprouting sandy soil they extend fresh matter availability to the very beginning of the rainy season. Later on it is shown that they extend the fresh matter period in the same manner by returning to slow sprouting clayey soils.
3. The Wodaabe recognise different stages of the vegetative cycle and attribute the highest nutritional value of the grass to the tillering phase. By changing pasture land (goonsol) within the zone of sandy dunes Wodaabe herders again exploit the temporal and spatial variability of natural resources in their region. Contrary to the view, that scattered rainfalls are limiting factors to which Wodaabe herders adapt by herd moving, it may be regarded as a mechanism of controlling the availability of fodder resources at the growth stage that provides best nutritive value. If rain would fall with equal distribution in time and space, the grass would develop beyond the state of optimal nutritive value everywhere at the same time and herders could only exploit it for a short period (extensive pasturing may have a similar effect since plants that have been grazed will grow again). The spatial distribution of rain allows for a series of successive beginnings of the vegetative cycle within one pastoral zone that herders can systematically exploit by “following the rains” and devoting a high frequency of moves – about every two days – as a tool for timing of fodder resources. The general choice of light sandy soils with the quickly shooting grass species Cenchrus biflorus supports this dynamic technique by constantly and immediately providing new grass patches at an optimal development stage.
When during the central rainy season the
grass is coming into ear its nutritional value declines rapidly. Particularly
Cenchrus biflorus the grass species prevailing on sandy soils and appreciated
for quick shooting and good nutritive quality in earlier development stages
now disturbs cattle with its spiky seeds while grazing. Animals’ ease at
food intake is important for the herder’s assessment of pasture land. The
lesser a cow feels disturbed from its surroundings the more it is expected
to eat. By driving the seasonal migration back (see map: migration route
from end of July to middle of September) to the slow sprouting clayey plains
in the east, herders extend the period of being “in the midst of fresh
matter” with its characteristic and high valued state of vegetative tillering.
The effect of extending the fresh matter
period by moving to the slow sprouting soil of the plain is complemented
by making use of two of its terrain features:
1. the plains that are periodically flooded
with water and
2. the ponds that constantly provide water
during the wet season.
Here the herders find two excellent grass species that reach their best nutritive value at about the second half of the rainy season: Panicum laetum shooting on the flood plain and Echinochloa colona coming up in the ponds (see photo 8). Although the flood plains provide excellent fodder grass, herd and household need the complementary dry areas where the camp is put up. Again the clayey plains provide excellent living and herding conditions with elevated dry plains (photo 7) and small dune fields. On all these substrates grows the very high valued fodder grass Chloris prieurii. In a cyclic pattern the cattle graze in the flood plains during the day and from time to time take a rest on the dry ground. In the evening they ascend the dry areas and return to the swampy pasture at night. In the morning again they come back to the camp on dry ground.
Wodaabe exploit the ecologically contrasting potentials of the land through a high frequency of moves in short (sottol) and medium range (goonsol). The rational behind this high frequency of moves is to do anything to keep the appetite of already filled up animals at a high level: One has to avoid whatever disturbs cattle and to look for whatever they desire. Wodaabe feel that their animals are disturbed by to much herd excrements in the pasture. By continuously looking for pasture where other animals have not yet grazed and providing untouched bush land, herders avoid dissatisfaction of cattle caused by the bad smell of dirty grass.
Wodaabe herders appreciate the value of herbs, climbers and creepers when associated to grass that is considered the major source of energy for cattle. A pasture consisting of herbs only is not appreciated. As a complement to grass, however, these plants become ballirDum geene “something that helps the grass”. In this perspective the clayey plain becomes again important from the late rainy season up to the end of the post rainy season period. Even after the end of rains the clayey soils can provide sufficient moisture to allow for certain grass species and particularly herbs and creepers staying green. Moving to clayey soil therefore again means to the herders to prolong the fresh matter period even when rains have become scarce or stopped completely. Some herbs and creepers highly valued for this reason are Heliotropium ovalifolium, Indigofera hochstetteri, Ipomoea verticillata, Corchorus tridens/ olitorius and Cucumis melo.
When the rains have ceased by the end of September the grassland withers completely. From the very beginning of the first rains the herders’ goal has been to satisfy cattle’s nutritional needs and preferences in a most perfect way in order to achieve the physical state necessary for mating. Cows that have been covered by the end of the rainy season give evidence for a high performance of the nomads’ herd moving and a well chosen migration route. After withering of the bush the orientation of the nutritional program shifts from the cow’s mating to “getting the herd through the dry season” (feYYina na’i).
The clayey plain of Wodaabe home country (area of locations Kabelawa, Baroua, Toumour, Kinziandi; see photo 11, 12, 16) excellently serves herders’ resource management with its characteristic of being a “slow” grass producer, which contains salts and rich nutrients (the indigenous concept of mbaawu “capacity” comprises this latter quality). Here appears a supreme class fodder resource that the Wodaabe call kunDeeri. When the vegetative development of grass breaks off prematurely at the stage of tillering due to poor rain, the grass withers staying short, carrying no ear and gleaming reddish. The deficit of water is prerequisite to this process. Wodaabe say “when there is too much water you get grass of poor quality. When there is only a small quantity of water, the vegetative development of grass breaks off early, then you have kunDeeri, which is best fodder”. Herders thus dispose of a naturally provided tool of storage which conserves grass at the peak of its nutritional value (particularly protein content). This allows for high milk yields (photo 13) and even for further weight gains of cattle during the first part of the dry season (October/ November). Wodaabe therefore eagerly apply short and middle range moves during this period to put out their herds on pastures with protein rich short grass.
During the early dry season the clayey
plain exhibits some more benefits. Its dominant grass species is Chloris
prieurii, which is appreciated for its softness and delicacy. The creeper
Colocynthis citrullus bears a now ripening and highly valued kind of melon
that brings back some fresh matter into the yellow-brownish bush. Furthermore
the melons contain a fare amount of water so that cattle can stay away
from watering places. However, the herders also appreciate the clayey plains
for their numerous ponds (photo 9), that
during the early dry season serve as watering place and therefore allow
to delay the hard work of watering at the wells.
Another element of the early dry season
herding scheme is the herders’ effort to put their cattle far into untouched
bush land. They say, “in the early dry season it is dry grass that has
not at all been touched during the rainy season, that has not been beaten,
that withered just like this, this is what you want about the grass”. The
herders look for untouched bush land with protein rich short grass (kunDeeri)
and Colocynthis citrullus, but they are also increasingly oriented towards
the zone of their habitual dry season pastures. The Wodaabe apply a combination
of medium range moves (goonsol) and
short range camp site adjustments (sottol) to exploit pasture lands during
this period. The frequency of these moves however is reduced with camps
staying about four to eight days at one site.
When herders have exploited the most interesting
resources available within reach of medium range moves animals should have
reached maximum weight. The herders’ task now shifts from putting on weight
to preventing loss of weight. By now the ponds have dried up and the nomads
finally have to resort to a well (photo 14,
15)
and its surrounding pasture land. Mobility is reduced with regard to frequency
and distance of journey. The short range move performed about every seven
to ten days drives the herd from site to site within one pasture land surrounding
a well.
When the strong cold wind of the cold dry season (December to February) begins to strike man and animal, the Wodaabe profit from another feature of the clayey plains: its woody depressions. These serve as a shield against the cold wind and its negative effect on cattle’s metabolism.
Now that fresh matter as well as protein rich short grass are no longer available in the bush, Wodaabe attach great importance to certain shrub and tree species that are complementary to grass in the cattle’s diet. Having spent some time with grazing, beasts go on browsing shrubs and trees and then return to grass. Herders find that the complement of shrubs and trees furthers the animals’ capacity to exploit grass resources and put that down to the content of salt in the leaves of certain shrubs and trees. During the late rainy season and the early hot dry season the clayey plain provided these nutrients and salts directly through fresh matter and protein rich short grass. In the early rainy season, locally produced natron is regularly given to the herd in order to provide these elements (i.e. sodium, potassium and calcium) usually lacking in poor sandy soils. And now from the end of the short grass period shrubs and trees give nutrients and salt to the beasts’ diet.
In the Wodaabe home country and in the preferred dry season pasture land Kawlaa, the characteristic tree species is Salvadora persica. Herders agree that this tree by far outshines any other species in nutritive value. Then Wodaabe cite Cadaba farinosa and Maerua crassifolia as most interesting complements to grass. The Wodaabe assessment conforms to results of Le Houérou (1980: 263) who holds that: “Some species such as Salvadora persica and Cadaba spp. are extremely rich in minerals (15-30%) and probably also in trace elements. Salvadora, rich in NaCl, constitutes a true ‘salt cure’ for livestock on its own”.
When at the end of the cold dry season pasture becomes scarcer and of poorer quality, herders have to consider the effect of bringing the herd onto new pasture land and the loss of energy because of the move. Moving can no longer be as flexible as during the rainy and early dry season. Herders are therefore bound to pasture land around a well, that they successively exploit by short range camp site adjustments. Only when the pasture land is completely exhausted herders may decide for a middle range move (goonsol) to get into another pasture land around another well, e.g. from Baroua to Kinziandi or Kabelawa. However, a herder will try to avoid to leave his chosen well as long as possible, not only because a long journey would tire the herd but also because the fact of coming new to an area would put him last in the order of access to the well.
When the south-western wind loowru marks the muggy period of the hot dry season and announces the coming of the first clouds, herders try to replace the lack of good grass by using the food energy value of certain tree resources. The young leaves of now budding trees as Boscia senegalensis and Cordia sinensis as well as the fruits of the now bearing Maerua crassifolia help to relieve animals from hunger. Wodaabe say “this brings cattle over the dry and into the rainy season”.
It is however important to note that in the Wodaabe pastoral system shrubs and trees can never replace grass for any longer period. When the herders resort to trees as food energy sources they are already in urgent need for the young shoots of grass that start the next seasonal cycle and its associated program of animal nutrition.
Lack of space and in some parts data put
two sorts of limitations to this map presentation. First, the graph of
seasonal migration is an abstraction of different sets of data and shows
the general trend of seasonal spatial behaviour among Siiganko’en Wodaabe
of south-eastern Niger. Presentation of the migration routes of several
different herders would reveal individual variation within this generalised
trend. Second, spatial strategies to overcome shortcomings of pasture in
the whole study area are not treated in this map presentation. These strategies
comprise migrations to areas of retreat in Borno, in the Nigerian part
of Lake Chad, and in parts of former Lake Chad to the South-east of N’guigmi
(photo 17). Wodaabe who spend the early
dry season in Borno (i.e. south to the Komadougou Yobe) recross the river
(photo 6) by the end of July to continue
the seasonal migration back to the east as it is presented in the text.
(For drought strategies see Bovin 1990; Thébaud 1999.)
Pastoral mobility has often been explained
as the herders’ adaptation to harsh and uncontrollable environments in
arid and semi-arid regions (cf. Dyson-Hudson 1980). Broad functional analysis
of the kind: pastoral mobility is a behavioural response to low and erratic
rainfall patterns, however, does not account for the fact that nomads deliberately
use mobility to mould the environment to their benefit. Analysis of environmental
knowledge reveals that pastoral mobility is a way of goal-specific interaction
with seasonally changing ecological conditions. By introducing the idea
of a nutritional program for cattle that is put into operation by the herders’
movements, it can be shown that these latter are not solely related to
environmental conditions but also to a specific and inherently structured
production system through which the potentiality of the habitat is selectively
organised and exploited. Nutritional program in this sense means the following
things:
- Goal-orientation. Out of several possibilities the Wodaabe have chosen one specific economic orientation: maximisation of the reproductive potential of the herd through systematic optimisation of animal nutrition through high mobility. This is contrary to idea that pastoral nomads only try to somehow survive in harsh natural environments.
- Foresight. The Wodaabe have a detailed insight into the ecological conditions through the yearly cycle and of how the physical condition of cattle is thereby influenced. This goes for the general trend as well as for particular periods of time although there can be, of course, no perfect knowledge of what will happen a few months ahead.
- Sequence of related steps in herd management. What herders do at a given point within the yearly cycle is not only related to immediate ecological conditions but also to what they expect those and their effect on the state of the herds to be. Herders, with regard to nutrition, are always preparing their animals for what they physically shall achieve or master within future ecological conditions.
Bonfiglioli, A. M., 1981, Ngaynaaka: Herding According to the WoDaaBe. Discussion Paper No. 2. Tahua, Niger: Niger Range and Livestock Project.6 Further ReadingsBonfiglioli, Angelo Maliki, 1990, “Pastoralisme, agro-pastoralisme et retour: itinéraires sahéliens”, in Cahiers des Sciences humaines, 26, 255-66.
Bonfiglioli, A. M., 1991, “Mobilité et survie. Les pasteurs sahéliens face aux changements de leur environnement”, in Georges Dupré (ed.), Savoirs paysans et developpement. Paris: Karthala, pp. 237-52.
Bonfiglioli, A. M., C. White, L. Loutan and J.J. Swift, 1984, “The Wodaabe”, in J.J. Swift (ed.), Pastoral Development in Central Niger: Report of the Niger Range and Livestock Project. Niamey, pp. 255-529.
Bovin, M., 1985, “Nomades ‘sauvage’ et paysans ‘civilisés’: Wodaabe et Kanuri au Borno”, in Journal des africanistes 55, 53-73.
Bovin, M., 1990, “Nomads of the Drought: Fulbe and Wodaabe Nomads Between Power and Marginalization in the Sahel of Burkina Faso and Niger Republic”, in M. Bovin and L. Manger (eds.), Adaptive Strategies in African Arid Lands. Proceedings from a Seminar at the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Uppsala, Sweden, April 1989. Uppsala, pp. 25-57.
Brush, St. B., 1980, “Potato Taxonomies in Andean Agriculture”, in D. Brokensha, D.M. Warren and O. Werner (eds.), Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Development. Lanham, MD and London: University Press of America, pp. 37-47.
Dyson-Hudson, N., 1980, “Strategies of Resource Exploitation among East African Savanna Pastoralists“, in D.R. Harris (ed.), Human Ecology in Savanna Environments. London: Academic Press, pp. 171-184.
Hunn, E., 1989, “Ethnoecology: The Relevance of Cognitive Anthropology for Human Ecology”, in M. Freilich (ed.), The Relevance of Culture. New York, pp. 143-60.
IEMVT (Institute d' élevage et médecine veterinaire des pays tropicaux) (eds.), 1986, Elevage et potentialitées pastorales sahéliennes. Synhéses cartographiques - Niger. (IEMVT, 10 rue Pierre Curie - 94704 MAISON-ALFORT Cedex , France, Tél: 01 43 68 88 73).
Jamieson, N. L. and G.W. Lovelace, 1985, “Cultural Values and Human Ecology: Some Initial Considerations”, in K. L. Hutterer, T. A. Rambo and G. W. Lovelace(eds.), Cultural Values and Human Ecology in Southeast Asia. Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia Nr. 27. Ann Arbor, pp. 27-54.
Le Houérou, H. N., 1980, “Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of Browse in West Africa”, in H. N. Le Houérou (ed.), Browse in Africa: The Current State of Knowledge. International Livestock Centre for Africa. Addis Ababa, pp. 261-89.
Martin, G. J., 1995, Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual. London: Chapman and Hall.
Spradley, J.P., 1979, The Ethnographic Interview. New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston.
Stenning, D. J., 1957, “Transhumance, Migratory Drift, Migration; Patterns of Pastoral Fulani Nomadism”, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 87, 57-75.
Stenning, D. J., 1959, Savannah Nomads: A Study of the Wodaabe Pastoral Fulani of Western Bornu Province. London: Oxford University Press.
Thébaud, B., 1988, Élevage et développement au Niger. Quel avenir pour les éleveurs du Sahel? Genève: Bureau international du travail.
Thébaud, B., 1999, Gestion de l’espace et crise pastorale au Sahel: étude comparative du Niger oriental et du Yagha burkinabé. Thèse de doctorat, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Paris.
Thébaud, B. and A. Nomao, 1987, L’aménagement de l’élevage dans le département de Diffa: Premier billan des principaux systèmes de production et éléments d’intervention. Projet de développement de l’élevage dans le Niger Centre-Est (PDENCE).
Werner, O. and G. M. Schoepfle, 1987, Systematic Fieldwork. 2 Vols. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Press.
