Abstract
This chapter examines current processes of family formation in agro-pastoral Fulɓe ‘kinship enterprises’ in Northern Benin based on empirical data from six field research stays in Northern Benin between 2009 and 2021. Rather than starting from the assumption that descent and marriage form the base of Fulɓe families, I argue that people in in these socio-economic units initiate their family projects and uphold the idea of enduring bonds of relatedness in historically and context-specific ways, that is, through ritualized practices during ceremonial acts, by taking marriage decisions, through daily care work for humans and more-than-humans and through the transfer of rights over cattle. Such a processual and holistic approach to the study of kinship and family allows for understanding the ‘family’ projects in kinship enterprises as the result of particular historical-political contexts, of specific social practices, of ongoing processes of kinning and of their constant negotiations.
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Notes
- 1.
I would like to express my gratitude to Tobias Koellner for his helpful and critical comments on a former version of this text; to Abiguël Elijan, Barbara Löhde and Nikolaus Schareika for inspiring conversations on the topic; and to Jonathan Riches for proofreading the text.
- 2.
For a summary of this debate, see Schareika et al. (2021: 54f.).
- 3.
Yanagisako’s anthropological analysis of northern Italian family firms can be read as one example of such a combined analysis.
- 4.
An interesting example of such materializations is Hans Bertram’s historical analysis of social transformations in nineteenth-century Europe (Bertram, 2019). Here the sociologist argues that transformations in production systems went hand in hand with changing notions of ‘family’ and particular materializations of these models, especially forms of housing (Bertram, 2019: 24–27).
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- 7.
One reason for this is that cattle trade is organized around a system of male intermediaries (called dilani) who search for clients and negotiate prices for Fulbe cattle owners. Likewise, intermediaries (usually female and non-Fulbe) buy the Wagashi cheese often directly from the wuros.
- 8.
The typology was developed on the basis of three regional case studies: in SO-Niger, in the far north of Cameroon and in the Cameroonian Adamawa Region, with the aim to better understand current transformations in pastoral production systems in Central Africa.
- 9.
It also remains to be examined, whether ‘competition between pastoralists has become more important than collaboration’, and whether in this region the practice of exchange of livestock between wuros has declined (Schareika et al., 2021: 61).
- 10.
Pastoralists produce with a high degree of economic autonomy, as they, to a lesser degree, depend on wider forms of economic solidarity than purely hoe-farming systems (Bierschenk, 1997: 5).
- 11.
In the meantime, men of the wuro ritually slaughter and dismember a young ox. Under the authority of the elderly, particular parts of the meat are distributed among particular groups of participants. In the afternoon, accompanied by lots of chatting and laughing, the participants share a festive meal comprising a sorghum porridge with fresh milk, which is prepared by women, and the barbecued meat.
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- 13.
Instead, age hierarchy is emphasized by expecting the father of the newborn to stay away from the lawru or (in the case of the mother) to remain in the hut or in the background during the ceremony (see Martin, 2018: 90 f.).
- 14.
A bride is expected to ‘hide’ from her prospective husband until the latter, together with his friends, would find and bring her to his wuro.
- 15.
Cattle remains symbolically as well as economically the most important form of bride wealth. Nevertheless, in a few regions, as in the described case, this element has been replaced by gifts in the form of money.
- 16.
However, negotiations between members of the families concerned may start much earlier, sometimes after the birth of a child. I here refer to the stage of the process called bangal, when festivities take place and the girl is ritually searched for and brought to her husband’s (paternal) wuro.
- 17.
It is mostly girls who attended secondary school who sometimes contest or in some cases even oppose their parents’ decision. In some cases this leads to serious family conflicts. In one case I heard of, it became a matter of police intervention.
- 18.
There are a few exceptions to this general rule: some marriages between Fulbe men and women from a neighbouring ethnic group are established for political reasons. Furthermore, some Fulbe with higher education marry partners from other ethnic backgrounds (see Martin, 2018: 120ff.).
- 19.
In other contexts, that is, in Burkina Fasos’s capital of Ouagadougou (personal information from Barbara Löhde, 1 June, 2022), but also in Parakou, dissolutions of Fulbe marriages seem to happen more frequently.
- 20.
This stands in contrast with more ‘inclusive’ ways of using relatedness. For example, Innuit communities of whale hunters and fishers in Alaska, who own neither land nor animals, include a maximum number of ‘useful’ people in their social networks and declare and relate to them as ‘relatives’ (Bodenhorn, 2000; Nuttall, 2000).
- 21.
- 22.
The beauty of women is highly valued and celebrated in Fulbe societies, including in Northern Benin.
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- 24.
Nevertheless, some household heads discuss with their sons or wives before taking decisions. Furthermore, in contexts such as in Burkina Fasos’s capital Ouagadougou, where some women are able to purchase cattle with their own money, this situation might also differ (personal communication with Barbara Löhde, 1 June 2022).
- 25.
According to some of my interlocutors, in some regions of the Borgu, this widely understood norm is currently only seldomly put into practice.
- 26.
This is also illustrated by the case of a herd owner, Oroji, and his two wives: ‘While (...) Oroji’s herd already comprises 83 cattle, his two wives are still waiting for their first cow’ (Schareika, 1994: 136, my translation). Furthermore, some husbands have the tendency to control their wives’ cattle, as Schareika continues to explain in this case: ‘And should it [the first cow] arrive, it will be taken into the herd of the husband, who will not dare to touch his father-in-law’s cow, but will, even if not rightfully, touch its offspring’ (Schareika, 1994: 136, my translation). Some husbands in Schareika’s study even actively torpedoed their wives’ efforts to build up their own cattle capital (see Schareika, 1994: 138–140). Due to those tendencies, women usually have fewer opportunities for capital accumulation (Bierschenk, 1997: 157 f.).
- 27.
- 28.
They sell it fresh, as sour milk, butter or cheese in the villages near their homesteads or transhumance camps.
- 29.
In other pastoral groups, i.e., Fulbe-Woɗaaɓe in Niger, it is women that do the milking of cattle (Schareika, 1994: 92, fn 95).
- 30.
For example, a male relative of the husband may be instructed to allocate milk to his wife, and the distribution of milk does also not always follow uniform and comprehensible criteria (Kuhn, 1997: 65ff.).
- 31.
For example, on the size and composition of the herd, the number and condition of the cows (only cows with calves may produce milk), the productivity of the dairy cows (which, compared, for example, to European dairy cows is low) or on seasonal fluctuations between rainy and dry seasons (Schareika, 1994: 92, fn 96; 93ff.).
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Martin, J. (2023). How ‘Enduring Family Bonds’ Are Made: Insights from Fulɓe Kinship Enterprises in Northern Benin. In: Koellner, T. (eds) Family Firms and Business Families in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20525-5_2
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