ABSTRACT
The striking and seemingly paradoxical diversification in the social and cultural systems of people labelled Fulani attests to their successful and innovative adaptation to opportunities and challenges found in multiple Fulani biophysical and socio-cultural environments. This chapter will focus on one segment of the pastoral Fulani, the Mbororo’en, who have moved into West Africa’s most unusual ecozone, the montane grasslands along the south central border of Nigeria and Cameroun. The study 2 of Mbororo life in this area has several attractive features not found in most other locales. First, it has West Africa’s highest elevation, its coolest weather, and some of its heaviest rainfall and best grassland. Second, Fulani immigration has been recent enough that both oral and written records are quite good and lend themselves to validity checks with comparative ease. Third, since the area was, prior to Fulani penetration, generally unaffected by political, economic, and religious events in either the coastal or sudanic zones, there was almost no presence of Islam or of Hausa language, culture and trade to confound the study of Fulani adaptive change. Finally, the area has been under the influence or hegemony of five regimes: Fombina (Adamawa), Germany, Great Britain, and then divided between independent Nigeria and Cameroun.
