""Moving Through and Passing On" rewards the reader with
intimate, sensitive observations on Fulani in transition in the
Greater Accra region. Its insights into coping, adapting, and
change have validity and applicability elsewhere." --Donald E.
Vermeer, "African Studies Review"
The Fulani are one of West Africa's most populous and
geographically dispersed ethnic groups. Commonly thought of as a
pastoral people, primarily engaged in cattle herding, Fulani
peoples are in reality highly differentiated in livelihood and
patterns of mobility. Despite having a long history of residence in
Ghana, Fulani are considered "aliens" in the eyes of the state and
"strangers" by the various ethnic groups among whom they reside.
Among Fulani themselves, differences of place, circumstance, and
experience have generated parallel ambigities on matters of
identity and survival. In "Moving Through and Passing On," Yaa P.A.
Oppong focuses on the Fulani of the Greater Accra region to offer
the first detailed account of the lives of this transnational
community in Ghana.
Based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, Oppong
develops detailed case studies and draws upon over two hundred
in-depth life histories to explore issues of mobility, survival,
and identity among this spacially dispersed and diverse group.
Using perspectives and insights gained from oral life histories,
private and public ceremonies, and ethnic associations, she
examines the sites and circumstances in which people profess to be
the "same" or "different" from one another. The markers of Fulani
identity-as recognized by Fulani and non-Fulani alike-are examined.
Oppong also explores the factors that allow them, as a distinct
ethnic category, to maintain and perpetuate this identity and
viability in Greater Accra. The metaphoric analogy of "construction
sites" is employed to define the explicit and implicit events and
recurring processes through which people conceive of themselves as
Fulani. These locations and contexts of action include ethnic
associations, public gatherings, and common rites of passage. The
recurring processes include genealogical reckoning of kinship and
endogamous marriage transactions, and the ways in which ties of
descent and filiation are used to enhance individual survival and
family development goals.
In tracing Fulani mobility, survival, and identity across space
and through time, Oppong connects her investigation to universal
experiences of migration, social change, education, and family
life. "Moving Through and Passing On" will be of interest to
anthropologists, sociologists, and Africa area specialists.
Yaa P.A. Oppong received her doctorate in social anthropology
from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London. She is a research fellow at the Harvard Center for
Population and Development Studies at the Harvard School of Public
Health.
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