The Motive of the Motif Tattoos of Fulbe Pastoralists
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The Motive of the Motif Tattoos of Fulbe Pastoralists Wendy Wilson-Fall ALL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED hough Islam discourages altering the body, and Fulbe people throughout West Africa have long been known by in spite of reformist jihads which spread through neighbors and strangers for their distinctive physical features and northern Nigeria and southern Niger in the the blue facial tattoos they wear, particularly the women (Rubin mid-nineteenth century, for a long while Fulani 1988:19). Facial and body tattoos were worn by pastoral Fulbe in herders in these areas wore elaborate facial and northern Nigeria and central Niger for at least a century, roughly body tattoos. When I first visited the area in the from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth. I can- 1970s, I was struck by the beauty and diversity of these designs, not offer any definite proof that the tattoos were worn in an ear- which seemed to me symbolic of the outsider status the herders lier era, though perhaps new research in local documents, using T 2 cultivated so carefully among sedentary neighbors. This interest, ajami texts from the region, might shed light on this. In this essay which I was able to explore over a three-year period while a stu- I argue that one critical factor in the proliferation of tattoo styles dent in northern Nigeria, led to many return visits to the region and their former widespread use in the Zaria, Kano, and Katsina as I studied Fulani herding communities. Eventually, I began emirates, as well as the Sokoto Caliphate, was the increasing den- to understand that the tattoos expressed multiple and complex sity of the Fulbe pastoralist population, which began in the time social meanings. of Ousman Dan Fodio, the great Fulani Islamic reformist of the This essay is based on research carried out during several mid-nineteenth century onwards. Why would these pastoralists, periods of residence and visits to Nigeria and the Republic of who self-identified as Muslims, wear irreversible forms of body Niger. These studies, which began during my residence in Zaria, art (Rubin 1988:13)?3 My findings suggest that a large concentra- Kaduna State, in Nigeria, focused on aesthetic and other social tion of Fulbe pastoralists, partially encouraged by the jihad of meanings of facial and body tattoos worn by Fulbe nomadic pas- Fodio and his subsequent rise to power and later motivated by toralists. I was interested in determining whether placement on the relative peace of British rule, led to a regional cultural specific- the body, image or motif, or the time and procedure of tattooing ity that included the wearing of diverse facial tattoos. Tattoo pat- held any particular social, religious, or magical function. A pri- terns functioned as embodied indicators of clan and geographic mary concern was to distinguish those tattoos which might have affiliations. Fulbe also wore distinguishing styles of dress and jew- a special social function (i.e., identification) from tattoos which elry that functioned to identify particular Fulbe communities. were purely decorative. I saw the tattoos that Fulbe wore as a dis- In the following text I describe how the unprecedented number cursive practice that had its own internal logic, and it was this and diversity of Fulbe pastoralists in the area increased the need logic that I sought to understand (Faris 1988:29). Field research for outward displays of specific Fulbe identities in south central was first carried out over a two-year period of residence in Zaria, Niger and north central Nigeria. Brief return visits in 1990, 1992, Nigeria (1975–1977), and complemented by short visits to Nige- and 2011 gave me an opportunity to see if tattoos were still popular ria throughout 1981–1984 while I was resident in the Republic of twenty-five years later. Niger. I was fortunate to be able to continue visiting Niger on a Generally tall and lithe, Fulbe pastoralists express their cul- regular basis from 1984 to 1990.1 tural difference through dress, comportment, and their mobility. 54 | african arts SPRING 2014 VOL. 47, NO. 1 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00122 by guest on 23 September 2021 131127-001_54-65_CS6.indd 54 11/28/13 9:32 AM As a visible, mobile, minority, the Fulbe also enhance their dif- 1 Young Wodaabe woman of the Kasausawa clan. Note the difference in jewelry and hair- ferentness and “otherness” in order to better integrate into local style from the young woman in Figure 2. settings without getting lost; to be among their sedentary hosts, but not of them. All Fulbe speak the same language: from cen- tral Mali to Cameroun it is called Fulfuulde, and from the Atlan- tic coast to central Mali the language is called Pulaar. Tattoos formed part of a strategy of differentiation in northern Nigeria and south-central Niger. Tattoo designs identified the wearers as Fulfuulde speakers4 and as nomads or semisedentary herders within the context of origins of the Fulbe and have not always agreed on the classifica- various sedentary communities that comprised the larger society tions of the various subgroups that range from nomadic to sed- of the region. While their neighbors the Hausa people also wore entary (Hopen 1958; Stenning 1959; Dupire 1970; Wilson 1995; tattoos, as did other ethnic groups in the northeast of Nigeria Kane 2004). I follow the meanings that have been related to me whom they encountered in their migrations, the particular com- by diverse Fulbe informants throughout West Africa, which is bination of designs worn by the Fulbe were uniquely associated that all of these groups make up the larger community known as with them or with communities that once were servile to them. Fulbe. This also follows the view of Dupire, who studied diverse Within Fulbe society, tattoos communicated social information Fulbe communities throughout West Africa (1970), Kane (2004), to other Fulbe herders about clan affiliation. This form of body and more recently Loftdottir (2008). adornment was an instrument in socialization of youth among pastoral, or herding, Fulbe. WODAABE, BOROROJI, FULBE Throughout the text, when I refer to Fulbe people I am includ- Because the use of facial tattoos is directly tied to kin and clan ing the communities that I consider to be part of that language affiliation, I will review the major Fulbe groupings below, while I and cultural group, including the Wodaabe, the Bororoji, and the underscore here that the categories Wodaabe and Bororo consti- various seminomadic and semisedentary clan sections that com- tute only two small groups within the Fulbe population, and the prise other Fulbe communities. Scholars have long pondered the membership of the Bororo (also called Bororoji) fluctuates due VOL. 41, NO. 1 SPRING 2014 african arts | 55 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00122 by guest on 23 September 2021 131127-001_54-65_CS6.indd 55 11/28/13 9:32 AM perimeter of the ear. However, Bororoji wear only aluminum while the Wodaabe wear brass hoops (see Fig. 1, a Wodaabe girl of the Kasausawa clan). Although the Wodaabe perceive themselves in a supe- rior position of hierarchy to the Bororoji, I am not aware of any recent study which has specifically explored these relation- ships, nor of how the Bororoji themselves would describe their social positioning in relation to the Wodaabe. On the other hand, among non-Wodaabe or Bororoji, there has historically been a custom to add geographic names to subsections of clans that refer to their customary sites of trans- humance and placement of hereditary wells.5 An example of such naming would be Diallube Katsinanko’en (meaning peo- ple of the Diallube clan who live in the region of Katsina; the endings “-be” and “-en” both connote the plural).6 While the Bororoji are very close, cul- turally, to the Wodaabe, there are other important distinctions between them that include facial tattoos and marriage cus- toms. Unlike the Wodaabe, the Bororji are exogamous and marry into semisedentary Fulbe clans, particularly the Katsinan- koobe. In terms of transhumance routes, the Wodaabe predominate in the north- ern and central regions of the Sahel zone, where they have lineage-controlled wells, while Bororoji may be found in those zones and as far south as the Gambia, where they exploit the most peripheral pasture zones (Wilson 1995). It is thus that even other Fulbe will refer to the Wodaabe as Bororoji when they are traveling outside 2 Young Fulani girl (Niger) of their home territories in northern Niger. PHOTO: PARURES AFRICAINES, ED. DENISE PAULME AND The Wodaabe have held on to the practice of facial tattoos longer JACQUES BROSSE (PARIS: HACHETTE, 1946) P. 14. (THE than many of their herding counterparts from other Fulbe com- AUTHOR AND HACHETTE HAVE FAILED IN ALL EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY AND LOCATE THE PHOTOGRAPHER.) munities, though the practice is beginning to disappear among people under thirty. The tenacity of this practice reflected the continued endogamy and geographic specificity of the Wodaabe. BEAUTY, ADORNMENT, AND MARKING FULBE IDENTITY Thirty years ago, these herders of West Africa (known variously to exogamous practices with other Fulbe. Except for the Bororoji, as the Fulani, the Peulh, the Fula, or the Fulbe by their neigh- who often live in areas contiguous to the Wodaabe, other Fulbe bors) could still be seen at weekly rural markets and large urban are generally not familiar with the clans and subsection names of centers wearing very distinctive clothing, jewelry, and elabo- the Wodaabe and tend to call them simply Wodaabe or, mistak- rate hairstyles which immediately identified them as part of the enly, Bororoji, which is a more widely used term.