Largest Minority

I am back at Peace Corps training center near Mali's capital city, Bamako.  I have completed the two weeks of In Service Training and am all set up to head back to my village and get started on projects.  But I can't.  One murder and several kidnappings have recently occured in northern Mali and I have been asked to hang out in Bamako a little longer to wait for the terrorist activity to settle down.  Kinda weird and scary, but at least it gives me a chance to write about something I have been thinking about a lot: the Fula people.

Mali has an incredible amount of cultural diversity.  Mali's struggle to develope has preserved a variety of lifestyles that would have otherwise been drastically changed by globalization.  There are 40 or more languages and maybe 20 different ethnicities.  In the states I recognize minorities based mainly on physical appearance, but in Mali it takes a trained eye (and ear) to distinguish one ethnicity from another.  For me, it is very hard not to look at someone here and simply think of them as Malian. 

The one exception are the Fula (also known as Peul or Fulani), West Africa's largest minority.  They are especially prevelant in Mali's Mopti region.  Several Fula live near my village and I interact with them daily.  Since they are quite distinct in appearance and are a very large minority in my area, I have learned not only how to recognize them but also how to greet them in their own language.

The Fula have a culture very distinct from any other African ethnicity.  Though they can be found throughout West Africa, they do not represent a majority anywhere.  At 17% though, they are a large minority and play an important role in the ethnic dynamics of the country.  The Fula are stubborn towards change which results in a very unusual way of life.  They hardly speak Bambara or Dogon languages and few of them have given up on their traditional semi nomadic way of life.  I find them both intimidating and fascinating.

A Fula individual can be distinguished from the Dogon in my area based on certain physical characteristics.  The have narrower faces and skinnier noses.  Fulani skin tone is a few shades lighter than the very dark Dogon people.  Fulani men do not constantly shave their heads they way most men in my village do and the Fulani women can let their braids get quite long.  Lastly, scarification and mouth tattoos are very common in a Fulani face. 

The fula also have a unique style of dress.  The man above has a traditional Fula hat and traditional dress.  Women have an excessive amount of jewelry.

I think it is great that I can recognize a Fulani, but it is not only they way they look that is interesting, it is also the way they live.  The most important characteristic about the Fula is that they are semi nomadic.  There are Fulani villages, but they are for the most part temporary.  Their straw houses are simple and can be easily erected and abondoned.  As they wander the wilds of Dogon they herd goats, sheep, and cattle.  When I go on hikes I will always come across a herding Fulani.  The women spend their days going into villages or markets selling the product of herding animals: Milk.  The Fulani around my village come in often to greet and sell me milk or yogurt.  Its a great perk when I run out of powder milk.

The relationship between Dogon and Fulani seems to be relaxed.  They hang out in my village with my family and friends a lot.  They like to make fun of eachother in a healthy way.  Nearly everyone in my village speaks the Fula language as a second language (making Bambara the third most common language in my village and French, Mali's official language, only the 4th most common language in my village).  However, my site mate Zacharia once witnessed a fight break out between a Fulani man and a bus driver (who I think was from Niger).  He described that fight as a Fulani group on one side of the fight and a Dogon group on the other side.  It made me wonder about racism in Mali and to what degree it affects the lives of minority ethnicities such as the Fulani.

To be a minority in Africa is very different than being a minority in the States.  People from all over the world live in America, but of course our westernizing influences are strong so in a strange way we are very diverse and homogenous at the same time.  So many different backgrounds and races exist in the States, but I feel as though third generation Chinese, and a third generation Mexican have almost everything in common; that is, they are both very American.  In Mali it seems to be the opposite.  Everyone is black and African and whatever, but cultures do not blend into any kind of encompassing Malian or African standard.  Because of this it is very hard to compare the Fula to Minorities in the States.  America's largest minority are Hispanics (the title once belonged to African Americans), but I would think that it is very difficult for a Hispanic in America to relate to a Fula in Africa when it comes to matters of ethnicity, identity, and racism.

The funny thing about all this is that I myself, living in a Dogon village, am a minority.  But I feel that I am such an extreme example of a different culture living within a majority culture that it almost doesn't count.  Especially since my life as a Peace Corps volunteer is temporary.