Fulani

The Fulani are a widely dispersed ethnic group historically associated with cattle pastoralism across the West and Central African Sahel, spanning territory from Senegal and Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, making them one of the most geographically extensive ethnic groups in the world. Fulani history includes the founding of several major Islamic states, most notably the nineteenth-century Sokoto Caliphate under Usman dan Fodio. Fulani society today ranges from fully nomadic pastoralist clans to settled urban and agricultural communities, and in recent decades pastoralist Fulani groups have been party to well-documented land-use conflicts with farming communities across the Sahel.