Cows, the jugular of pastoral life

An image rises before your eyes when you  look into pastoral life: The cows bring life to the setting, which is  a bit leafy, and these animals come first among the Fulani. The children come  a distant second. The women? They are not part of the ranking, for they are revered and this is captured […]

An image rises before your eyes when you  look into pastoral life: The cows bring life to the setting, which is  a bit leafy, and these animals come first among the Fulani. The children come  a distant second. The women? They are not part of the ranking, for they are revered and this is captured in Fulani folklore, which is brimful with metaphors praising the woman.The woman is compared to a tree around which so many forms are attracted. There they rotate and gain strength. This tree gives strength to men, and also to cows, says the account. Among the Fulani, life revolves continuously around the cow, and 99% of the livestock sub sector in Nigeria is controlled by the group. “If I have 100 cows, each cow will know me, and I too will know all my cows.”
Yusuf Bosso, National Vice President, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), is speaking on the bond between the Fulani and their cows “Each cow has a name. When you come to a spot where, for instance, many cows are gathered, and call yours by name, they will come out. When you go to them, they will all come to you. If they don’t belong to you, they will run away. Each cow has a mark, which signifies an individual characteristic of the cow. This also helps in deciding the name given to each.”
He shows that one nomad can take care of 300 cows, and adds “All cows have a leader selected from the herd. Without the leader, it’s difficult for them to move from one spot to the next. We usually train ten of them for this role. Then, if one gets lost, the other will take over.It continues in a line like that. One replaces the other, if the previous  one got lost.”
Opening up on the bond between the man  and his cows, he says “When they know that you are the one taking them to the river, they won’t go along to the river with someone they don’t know, except he puts on the clothes of the man they know. Its as simple as that.”
Dr. Nafissatu Mohammed, former Executive Secretary, National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE)comments on this bond “It’s like the relationship between a son and his father, or between a mother and a daughter.”
If a nomad climbs a tree to pluck leaves for his cows, then falls and sustains an injury, the cows won’t leave him, Yusuf Bosso adds, saying “they will stay around him until another comes from the settlement looking for him.”
Speaking  on the way the herds are named, Dr. Mohammed explains “As soon as a calf is born it is given a name, dictated either by the shape of the ear, or the colour of the eyes. If a man has a hundred cows, each cow will have a specific name, and he can refer to that animal, and the animal will know that he is referring to it.”
Concerning the list of priorities of the  Fulani, she says “The animals are competing for importance with the children of the man. The father in a home would perhaps pay less attention to his children. A mother would spend a sleepless night, with a child that is sick and crying all night. The  father would  not even bother to walk over and ask whether they should take the child to the hospital, or give first aid. He leaves that completely to the mother. As soon as he hears any noise coming from where the animals are kept, he is up.No matter how late it is at night, he is going to go out there, to  check what is happening to the animals.This is because they sleep alone, but he is close enough to hear any noise that is coming. It could be some wild animal or a rustler.”

On their environment, the abode where the Fulani dwell, she adds “If you go to their environment, you will be at peace. It is as if you had  shut this world out. There you will see life as it should be, in all its naturalness. They live in the bush and they are not scared.”
On the  values of the nomad, Yusuf Bosso affirms “The nomad does not care about your electricity, your pipe borne water, or your network of roads, which deprive him of cattle routes. What he cares about are his herds of cattle.”
He expands on the social significance of the cows “If a lady is going to her husband’s house for the first time, her father will release 3 cows to her, which she will now milk and begin to make money in her marital home. Almost all Fulani cattle rearers pay dowry with the cows. In our culture when you want to marry, the cow is the dowry. For us, there is nothing as important as the cow. When a woman delivers and doesn’t have milk, then milk is taken from the cow, and given to the baby. The same happens if the mother dies in the course of childbirth.”
He now makes a stunning remark “The cow has value among us. Instead of beating my cow, its better for you to beat my son. This is because we can forgive someone who beats our children. We value and cherish the cow. The cow is the culture in Fulani life.”
Dr. Mohammed  opines on the place of the cow among the Fulani “Their whole lifestyle is built around the animals. If there is any threat to the security of these animals, it will prompt immediate movement, without them saying goodbye to the neighbours. There is no permanence among the nomads. They don’t bother about owning a piece of land on which they could live.”

She says that cattle rustling has had a profound effect on the nomads “They now engage in drinking and drugs. They have no other trade and no other livelihood. It’s so devastating that once they are robbed of these animals, they do not have another option. They are not farmers, and therefore cannot go back to farming. Its difficult to reoerientate them. Cows are their wealth. They don’t keep cash, and they don’t go to the bank.”
She explains other aspects of Fulani life “If there is a need, they sell a cow, and it will take care of fees, drugs, or whatever  it is that is required at that time.They name these animals, and they communicate with them. If I may say, they speak with these animals, and the animals obey them. If you watch them on the highway, when they are crossing, the herdsman will stand and all the animals would stop behind him. They would not cross the highway until they are told to do so.”
Then she concludes “It is all he’s living for. It’s his livelihood, lifestyle, and to that extent, you will see the importance attached to the animal. That is also why they find it very difficult to sell their animals. The concept is that they don’t want any depletion of the herd, but rather they would prefer an increase. He wants to count the number of cows he has, because that’s how the society measures his prestige, his status, which is assessed according to the number of cows he has. This does not only give him a lift, it also boosts his image. He not only has the numbers, but the cows are also looking healthy. It is a competition. The cows must look healthy and well fed. The  nomads get depressed in the dry season, when there’s no pasture, and all watering points have dried up.”