Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the issues of connections and disruptions using ethnographic data from long-term research carried out in a group of Fulbe Wodaabe in Niger. Some of the defining parameters are changing pastoral conditions, urban migration and growing insecurity.

Paper long abstract:

The Wodaabe in the Zinder province of Niger have long been characterized by a flexible strategy rather than a clear position with regard to the question of integration and withdrawal. Historic accounts from the pre-colonial area to our days show instances of state evasion, but also examples of collaboration and even close connections to state authorities. Today, rural urban migration has led to new forms of mobility and to new patterns of translocal connectedness. At the same time, new territorializing strategies have emerged in the rural realm in order to get access to the resources of aid and development. These trends have entailed social stratification, with the emergence of urban communitites and rural proto-settlements and their new patterns and opportunities for gaining social prestige and influence. They thus have a significant impact on the questions of cultural continuity and social disruptions. The paper argues that despite all the sometimes dramatic change that this implies, there is continuity in the broad pattern of adapting highly flexibly to challenging conditions. Today, however, the limits of these adapting strategies often have to be stretched to the impossible due to new security threats that have dramatically affected the region over the past years.