Changing population mobility in West Africa

Fulbe pastoralists in Central and South Mali

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6025656
AutoresM De Bruijn (0000-0002-0499-8758, African Studies Centre), Han Van Dijk (0000-0002-4406-4909, African Studies Centre)
Ano2003
Volume102
Fascículo407
Páginas285-307
Data de publicação2003-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAfrican Affairs (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0001-9909 • E-ISSN: 1468-2621
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/afraf/adg005
OpenAlexW2013857935
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas47

Mobility is the most important response by the inhabitants of the Sahel to climatic adversity. This ‘condition sahélienne’, characterized by unstable climatic circumstances, irregular rainfall patterns and periods of drought, has an important influence on people's decision‐making processes regarding their livelihood. Migration studies mainly focus on labour migration to urban areas. Although mobility is part of the repertoire of Sahelian people, the form it takes varies considerably between social groups and individuals, and over time. In this article we focus on a neglected and almost invisible category of rural‐rural migrants in the Sahel, more specifically on Fulbe pastoral people and their developments over the last three decades in the Sahel and the Sudan zone of West Africa and the economic and social conditions in which they find themselves. It concludes that these rural‐rural migrations are deeply engrained in cultural patterns in West Africa, exemplified by specific institutions for dealing with hosts and strangers. However, mobility is often not a planned process, and all kinds of survival strategies are used in a very flexible manner. The phenomenon has given rise to a specific character of cultural dynamics and ways of defining identity for the people involved.

Agriculture · Economic geography · Geography · Identity (music) · Internal migration · Livelihood · Livestock · Pastoralism · Political science · Population · Socioeconomics · Sociology · African Studies and Geopolitics · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Demography · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology