In Dnata Chiefdom, Kagarko LGA, Kaduna State, a Christian king reigns over a largely Fulani Muslim population. This is significant because the Fulani are nomadic herders known for attacks on Christian communities. Christians are understandably outraged by the murders and kidnappings, but preventing the situation from escalating into a religious war requires remembering that not every member of an ethnic or religious group thinks the same way or wants the same things.
At the palace of His Royal Highness Amb. Dr. Engr. Bitrus James Abwaminajeyi, American missionaries from The Palace Alliance were told they were the first foreigners to meet with the Fulani Ardus (chiefs) and the first Christians to pray a Christian prayer with them. The king had been called away to a state meeting, so the prince represented him, saying the Ardus were grateful for the visit. “It makes them feel that they are loved and their concerns are being heard.”
That such a meeting could take place at all reflects a divide within the Fulani dating to 1804, when an internal jihad split the people into two groups. One amalgamated with the Hausa, integrating fully and holding positions of wealth and power. The other, the Bororo, or “Cow Fulani,” kept their pastoral way of life and did not intermarry extensively with other tribes, becoming the source of much of the contemporary conflict. The integration problem is not universal among all Fulani; it is concentrated among the nomadic subset.
The senior Ardu, named Bash, spoke English and began by thanking the king in absentia for organizing the meeting. He also expressed gratitude that foreigners had traveled so far to hear the Fulani side. “All the time it is we who are seen as the bad guys,” he said, adding that “the Fulanis are all in the bush. They don’t have a place of their own.”
As nomadic herders constantly moving with hundreds of cattle per family, their children rarely attend school. As a result, only 26% of Fulani males and 13% of females are literate.
“We desire for our children to go to school. We also desire a place where we can stay. We desire a place of our own as well.”
One of the other Ardus spoke up and, through a translator, said, “I have also gone to school, but as a shepherd.” The assembled crowd laughed.
He went on to say, “I have seen the whole of Nigeria. If there is a place in Nigeria where I have not taken my cows to graze, it would just be a handful. So, I was born and bred here, in this kingdom.”
He motioned toward Bash and said, “You see my friend here. He went to school and now he can speak a foreign language and communicate with foreign people.”
He concluded by saying that he wanted his children to go to school and have more opportunities in life.
A local political leader explained that the Ardus were part of a community that had given up much of its herding culture and were gradually becoming sedentary, living closer to the city. This would help reduce violence in a number of ways. First, if the Fulani established ranches, they would no longer encroach on Christian farmland. Second, when Christians are abducted by groups of Fulani, they are often taken deep into the bush, where the bandits enjoy a level of anonymity that people living in sedentary communities would not have. It would also place them in closer proximity to their Christian neighbors, allowing understanding to grow through familiarity.
The problem with the Fulani becoming sedentary, however, is that it becomes difficult for them to make a living. “We don’t have any other source of income apart from rearing our cattle,” one Ardu explained. Unemployment and poverty are rampant in Nigeria, where even government jobs may pay as little as $20 a month. With cattle, the Fulani have food, milk, and a sense of purpose. In the towns and cities, they would struggle to find work.
The Ardu went on to summarize the conflict. “Now the people who have been put against us are farmers, and that has been the challenge all the while. The farmer adores his farm. The shepherd adores his cattle.”
Another Ardu explained, “One of our major concerns as preachers is that sometimes we are not able to reach the people we are supposed to preach peace to because of the lack of transportation. We desire that our political leaders would join forces with preachers, whether from the Muslim side or the Christian side, to help bring about peace in Nigeria.”
He went on to express the need for education. “The Fulani don’t have a single school where their children can learn, no matter how small it is. If you are educated, maybe you will know something more than somebody who did not go to school.”
With education, he said, “You will know the value of your life and the value of the life of your neighbor.”
Other concerns the Ardus expressed included the lack of water. Nomadic herders tend to move toward areas with streams and rivers. If they settle in one place, that place must have a reliable water source. The Ardus described a nearby community where “more than 2,000 or 3,000 people are using just two wells.”
Ardu Bash explained that even the minimal water available is not safe to drink. He joked that we should all drink some of it so we would know the truth. But instead of making us drink it, he said, “Go and see. You will sympathize with them. You will cry for them.”
Ardu Bash also showed that he was forward-thinking. One of the attendees at the meeting was the chairman of the education committee, a rare man with a PhD. Bash said, “Even my chairman of the education committee, I said to him, we have been going into these Fulani settlements to enlighten them, to give them enlightenment.”
He not only supports education but is also encouraging the community to reduce the number of cattle they own, a first step toward becoming sedentary. “I even asked them some time back, reduce the number of your cows. If you have 100, reduce them to 30.”
Next, he encouraged them to obtain land. “Have land. We see where to go and get some of this grass. You plant it, you keep your cattle there.”
As the number of cattle decreases, less land will be needed for grazing, and more land can be cultivated for farming. “Maybe we even modernize the species we have. Maybe we bring in and crossbreed other ones that will produce more milk than the ones we have.”
He described the future he envisioned for his people: “If I have a piece of land here, I have my house here, my family here, my cows there, and I farm here, they will stay there.”
In the end, the list of things Ardu Bash believed his people would need in order to give up most of their herds and settle beside their Christian neighbors in peace was relatively short and clearly defined. The needs he identified were water, particularly wells, education, solar power, and possibly crossbreeding cattle so they would yield more milk. With more productive cattle, the Fulani could become ranchers and survive with smaller herds.
Ardu Bash believed that if these steps were taken, there could be peace. “All of this, if we apply all these kinds of things, there will be no crisis again.”
He concluded by reminding those assembled that it is in the interest of the entire nation to bring peace, saying, “If there is no peace, then there is no progress at all.”
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