In our articles, we will talk about culture in its most unsuitable definition : a societal culture or more precisely a cultural and ethnic space.
With you, one can not talk about literacy without speaking about peoples. Our articles will be about a culture behind us. A smile erased by history, ethnicity, knowledge. A societal and traditional aspect of a culture erased by modernization.
We are talking today about the West African ethnic group : the Fulani
They are also called Fulbe and Fulani, the Fulani are probably from the populations that inhabited the Sahara.
The first Peul families arrived in Burkina Faso in the late 14th century. Nomads and cattle breeders, much of it has been Islamized (Black Fulahs) and others have maintained their traditional way of life (Fulani).
Fulfuldé is the spoken language of the Fulani. The Fulani are strongly Islamized which makes the rites or traditional festivals are unknown.
Words in Fulfulde.
Guèlli / guèmboili : Hello.
Fofo : welcome.
Warga : come here.
Podèllipom : my child.
Decko : habitat.
In Burkina the Fulani live in good intelligence with the sedentary peoples. They are found mainly in the north, in the region of the Sahel where they form the main ethnic group of the region.
Livestock is their only source of wealth and they also keep livestock belonging to the Tuaregs. The Fulani are easily distinguished from other indigenous peoples by their nonchalant and imperturbable approach along the roads and tracks of the country, which they travel accompanied by their flocks, and by their costume called bolare, a vast brown tunic.
They are often wearing a conical straw hat and carry a stick on their shoulders.
Fulani women are renowned for their beauty and adornment. Young girls often wear front necklaces made with pearls and silver coins with holes. Peul society is a class society ; on one side the nobles and on the other the servants.
The peul box is made of a wooden frame covered with a mat (séko). We mainly meet two types of constructions : boxes quite low (you have to bend down to get in) whose circumference, composed of mats is independent of the braided straw roof that overflows on the sides.
There are also boxes of a height of 4 to 5m dome-shaped, made entirely of seko superimposed and beautifully decorated. The Fulani village consists of concessions of several boxes open on a common area that is not fenced. The animals are kept in pens a little away from the houses. Behind us the Fulani culture, in our next article we will follow a new Burkinabe ethnic group.
