| This study, based upon fieldwork in the town of Guider, northern Cameroon, discusses the display, manipulation, and change of ethnic identity among residents of the town. In particular, it is concerned with "Fulbeization," a process whereby individuals from a number of rural non-Fulbe ethnic groups (known as Haabe, or Pagans), become incorporated into the urban Fulbe ethnic group, usually within a single generation.;This study concludes that ethnicity is best defined in terms of the congruence between sets of cultural institutions and a single human population. Similarities and differences in cultural repertoires, however, may be found both within and across groups of people who see themselves as separate from one other. Cultural similarities and differences, therefore, are of no particular significance, in and of themselves. They gain significance only when bearers of cultural traits find themselves in a specific context. This context is shaped by historical and situational circumstances as well as by considerations of value conflict or compatibility. Cultural similarities and differences are thus best viewed as the raw material out of which ethnic identities come to be fashioned. Traits such as ancestry, race, language, or religion gain salience as socially relevant markers of ethnicity as a result of an oppositional process carried out by bearers of separate traditions who find themselves interacting in a particular historical and situational context.;The Fulbe established themselves through conquest as town-based rulers in northern Cameroon early in the nineteenth century. Originally they were a racially distinct ethnic group, relying on pastoralism for subsistence. Racial purity and a way of life based on the herding of cattle were thus important criteria for defining Fulbe ethnicity. In the past century, however, the Fulbe in Guider have become largely sedentary, intermarrying with the local Haabe. Most have abandoned cattle herding for horticulture, which they adopted from the Haabe. Thus, with the passage of time, racial distinctiveness and subsistence strategy have lost their relevance for marking off Fulbe from non-Fulbe. Currently, relevant attributes for Fulbe ethnicity include the Fulbe language (Fulfulde), the Fulbe religion (Islam), and urban Fulbe customs, all of which can be successfully adopted by non-Fulbe migrants to town in the space of a few years. Fulbeized Haabe, moreover, have been accepted by the genealogically authentic Fulbe in Guider, whose numerical weakness and lack of control in the hinterland of the town have driven them to seek support among local Haabe willing to accept Fulbe culture and to defend the Fulbe way of life. Fulbe in Guider have thus come to accept a non-Fulbe definition of Fulbe ethnicity which ignores ancestry and emphasizes the mastery of Fulbe cultural forms. |
