In northern Senegal, different models of political participation have been taken into the shape of the Fulani people in the vast Ferro Reserve. And galvanized community leaders offer Harder a fresh way to think about how problems can be solved. Her name is Awa Sow, the organizer whose decades of work have earned her respect and rare authority.
“The AWA is a female warrior with a unique authority in the region,” says Aliou Samba BA, leader of the sanctuary's influential hermit association. “Anyone who wants to organize successful activities in her area, whether political, development, cultural or religious, is to pass her.” SOW foreshadows a very different future for Fulani in the Ferro Reserve.
Here, Fulani hermits have political expressions. As a result, in recent years, the government has supported rural development, livestock production and trade. This helped to avoid the conflicts these Fulani experienced in other fields. However, rainfall is declining, killing native grasses and putting more pressure on water resources. Now, instead of the whole family taking part in seasonal migration, it's mostly a man who sets out to Donkey carts loaded with goods and supplies for longer trips, leaving women and children behind in arid villages. SOW's efforts are made through a series of programs and initiatives she leads, aiming to attract those women, and create a political system that could possibly be a useful model for communities far beyond Ferro.
Usmaan Thor, 27, lives in Senegal with his wife (from left), Naana and Kula, and their children, Hadraan Usman and Hawa Kula.
Sow, 63, lives in Barkedji, a rural community of about 25,000 people located in the northern part of the reserve. Her influence has grown far beyond that, so she does not hold an official government role. The problems facing Seminomadic Fulani across the region are complex, so her solutions attack them from different directions.
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One way is to rethink how Fulani women can join politics and exercise more control over their valuable resources. For example, when men leave the Ferro Reserve, women's power often decreases. The temperature of warming has led the men to go longer southwards to raise and feed their livestock, and only return to the village for a few months each year.
