Moving Through and Passing On: Fulani Mobility, Survival and Identity in Ghana

by Oppong,Yaa P.A.

• ISBN13: 9780765801265
• ISBN10: 0765801264
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Fulani are one of West Africa's most populous and geographically dispersed ethnic groups. Commonly thought of as a pastoral people, primarily engaged in cattle herding, Fulani peoples are in reality highly differentiated in livelihood and patterns of mobility. Despite having a long history of residence in Ghana, Fulani are considered "aliens" in the eyes of the state and "strangers" by the various ethnic groups among whom they reside. Among Fulani themselves, differences of place, circumstance, and experience have generated parallel ambiguities on matters of identity and survival. In Moving Through and Passing On, Yaa P.A. Oppong focuses on the Fulani of the Greater Accra region to offer the first detailed account of the lives of this transnational community in Ghana.Based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, Oppong develops detailed case studies and draws upon over two hundred in-depth life histories to explore issues of mobility, survival, and identity among this spacially dispersed and diverse group. Using perspectives and insights gained from oral life histories, private and public ceremonies, and ethnic associations, she examines the sites and circumstances in which people profess to be the "same" or "different" from one another. The markers of Fulani identity -- as recognized by Fulani and non-Fulani alike -- are examined. Oppong also explores the factors that allow them, as a distinct ethnic category, to maintain and perpetuate this identity and viability in Greater Accra. The metaphoric analogy of "construction sites" is employed to define the explicit and implicit events and recurring processes through which people conceive of themselves as Fulani. Theselocations and contexts of action include ethnic associations, public gatherings, and common rites of passage. The recurring processes include genealogical reckoning of kinship and endogamous marriage transactions, and the ways in w

Author Biography

Yaa P. A. Oppong is a research fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	p. ix
Maps	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Movement, Identity, and Survival	p. 1
Fulani in West Africa and Ghana	p. 3
Resources of Identity: Sameness and Difference	p. 6
Argument	p. 9
Subsequent Chapters	p. 13
Who are "We?": Crossing Boundaries through Space and Time	p. 19
West Africa	p. 19
The Fulani on the Move: Representations in Space, Time, and Myth	p. 28
Fulani in Greater Accra: Following Cows and Forgetting Home	p. 47
Ghana	p. 47
Fulani in Greater Accra	p. 55
Some Fulani Individuals in Greater Accra Today: Socioeconomic Profiles	p. 56
Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in Fulani Society: Solidarity and Dispersal	p. 65
New Madina	p. 77
Globalizing Kinship: Marriage and Mobility among Far-Flung Fulani Families	p. 87
Fulani Marriage in Greater Accra	p. 88
Arranged Marriages: Force and Free Will	p. 95
Family Marriage	p. 100
Non-Family Marriage	p. 105
Globalizing Kinship: The Geography of Fulani Marriage	p. 108
Webs of Kinship: Separation and Solidarity	p. 111
Mobile Stories, Gendered Lives: Socialization, Training and Education	p. 121
Gendered Differentials in Experiences and Opportunities: The Life Cycle Approach	p. 122
The Virtues and Vices of Formalized Education	p. 135
Pulaaku	p. 151
Hamidu's Story	p. 153
Suudu-baabas: Fulani Ethnic Associations	p. 161
"There are Different Suudu-baabas"	p. 163
Organization of Suudu-baabas	p. 171
Aims and Objectives: "Public Issues"	p. 175
Performance and Identity: Conflict and Contradiction in Social Drama	p. 183
Sameness and Difference	p. 185
Rhetoric and Reality	p. 193
Tensions in Traditions	p. 197
"We Have No Home Like Ghana..."	p. 205
Postscript	p. 212
A Note on Field Methods	p. 217
"Sitting at the Edge of the Mat"	p. 217
"Mobile Ethnography"	p. 218
Myths of Origin	p. 225
Case Studies	p. 227
Bibliography	p. 231
Index	p. 257
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