Fula or Fulani or Fulbe (the latter Anglicization of the word in their language, Fulbbe) are an ethnic group of people spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and The Sudan of east Africa.
Fulas are not a majority in every country they live but they are the fifth most populous Ethnic group in Africa, but in Guinea they represent a plurality of the population (largest single group).
The history of the Fulani seems to begin with the Berber people of North Africa around the 8th or 11th century AD. As the Berbers migrated down from North Africa and mixed with the peoples in the Senegal region of West Africa the Fulani people came into existence.
They Berbers are predominantly nomadic and farmers, over a thousand year period from AD 900 – 1900, they spread out over most of West Africa (Western Sudan) & even into some areas of Central Africa. Some groups of Fulani have been found as far as the western borders of Ethiopia.
As they encountered these other people, they conquered the less powerful tribes. Along the way many Fulani completely or partially abandoned their traditional nomadic life in favor of a sedentary existence in towns or on farms among the conquered people.
The nomadic Fulani continued eastward in search of the best grazing land for their cattle. Their lives revolved around and were dedicated to their herds. The more cattle a man owned, the more respect he was given. Today, estimate 18 million Fulani people stretch across Africa.
They remain to be the largest group of nomadic people in the world.
Beginning as early as the 17th and 18th centuries, but mainly in the 19th century, Fulas and others took control of various states in West Africa by Usman Dan Fodio.
Over 99% of Fulani are Muslims. It is said that to be a Fulani is to be a Muslim. There are a small group of Fulani called the Mbororo, or Wodaabe, found in Niger and Cameroon, who resisted Islam, and have kept much of their pre-Islamic way of life and beliefs.
And in different places, small groups of Fulani are choosing to follow the way of Christ.
In 1804 Usuman Dan Fodio, a studious and charismatic Muslim Fulani scholar, began to preach the reformist ideology in the Hausa kingdoms which led to creation of the first Fulani Empire (Sokoto Caliphate).
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