THE FULANI CATTLE REARER, THAT YOU MAY KNOW THEM - YUSUF MAITAMA SULE.

"The philosophy of the herdsman, you may have ob­served and may have seen is that the Fulani herdsman is always in front of his cows, leading them. He is not behind them driving them from be­hind. He is in front leading his cattle. The Fulani herdsman hangs a stick over his shoulders. That stick is not for beating them. It is for guarding his cattle. That Fulani herdsman can make his cattle do everything he wants them to do. While he is leading them in front, if he stops anywhere, they all would stop. If he should jump into the water, they all would jump into the water. If he starts running, all of them would run af­ter him. He names all of his cattle. If he calls any one of his cattle by their name, they would come to him. It would leave the herd and come to him.

“In those days when there was the cattle tax, the Jangali, and if the tax man came to count the cattle in his herds, if he did not want his cattle to be counted, he would whistle or make a tune and the cows would all disperse into the forest.

“After the tax man had gone, he would make another whistle and they would all come back to him. During the rainstorm, the herdsman would take shelter under the tree and these animals would come and chase him away from under the tree and bring him to the open and make a circle around him, protecting him. “They would not want him to sit under the tree for the fear that thunder may fall and crush their leader. Now, why do these cows behave like that? Why are they so obedient to their leader? The herdsman has sacrificed his life for his cattle, he has sacrificed his leisure for his cattle; he has sacrificed his health for his cattle”.

“For the herdsman never leaves his cattle. He would sleep with the cows in the forest. If any one of them sleeps in the middle of the night, he would go out and get his herbs and leaves and treat this cow. If in the middle of the night he hears the cry of a leopard try­ing to take away a single calf, he would rather die than allow that wild animal to take away his calf.”