Plight of 50 abandoned milk maids

Zainab’s agony
She weeps. Children engage in baby talk and play by the trees. Our hearts turn to these laughing ones, and we briefly forget the story which has not received a mention in the media, and which lies at the heart of the lady’s lament: It is the story of male nomads who flee from their wives who now sleep just a little and   slowly become hypertensive, and their children who keep asking after their absent father and the stolen cows. On cases of hypertension and insomnia among the nomadic Fulani, Dr. Idris Jamo of the Ladugga Medical Centre in Kaduna state, says ‘I came across 3 female patients recently in Ladugga, whose husbands ran away soon after their cows were stolen. They complain of sleeplessness, body aches, loss of appetite and palpitations. Majority of the women we meet are those whose husbands were killed, and these are more common in this area than the wives of men who ran away. But the latter are present too in the reserve’. The  flight of the husband  has now turned lively dwellings into lonely places, where silence replaces the daily  sounds of the habitation. Calabashes which were once brimful with milk, are now quite empty, and the settlement is becoming desolate. People now speak of ‘Vinde’, a Fulfulde word used to refer to an abandoned homestead. If the husband has left, or the cows have been stolen, it is as though the homestead is empty, the Fulani reason. Mohammed Bello Tukur, Acting Secretary General, Confederation of Traditional Herder Organisations in Africa (CORET) says of the fleeing nomads ‘Most of the time it’s not actually the head of the family that leaves the Ruga, it’s the youth groups that are leaving. They are the ones that go out with the cows, and these are people within the ages of 20 to 40. They are the most active group, and they are the bread winners, and the ones that look after the family’. The flight of the nomads began as a mere trickle, but now it is becoming a flood. The implication of all this is that the Ruga, the settlement of the nomadic Fulani itself, is collapsing or facing a series of  threats. Saleh Momale, Acting Director, The Pastoral Resolve comments ‘There are hundreds of pastoral families whose cattle have been rustled now in the cities, living on the threshold of society. There are women, children and the elderly living as beggars on the streets of our cities. The Ruga has collapsed and so will the moral upbringing of the children in the long run. ‘Mohammed Tukur adds ‘Rustling wipes out the entire family setting. By the time you take the entire livelihood of a person, that person leaves .Therefore, the Ruga is under threat today. As a physical form and as an idea, the Ruga is threatened. For a variety of reasons, there are fewer Rugage or settlements today, than there were ten years ago’.  Given all that is happening, it seems that the settlement itself is weeping.
We return to the weeping woman. With a bent head she utters a word over and over and we draw closer. The word is a simple, almost musical one. It is ‘Dilli’, a Fulfulde word  which means ‘he has left’, to explain that her husband has left the household. ‘Dilli… Dilli’, she repeats, raising her head as though in prayer. Sadness shows her inner dignity and unlocks the special poetry of her people, some of which is lost in the translation done for me. The sudden flight is a fall out of the theft of their herds by cattle rustlers and there are 32,000 herders in Nigeria today, who have lost cattle to rustlers, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) indicates. If each herder has one wife and three children, this gives the reader a fair idea of the numbers involved, as well as the way rustling can cripple a family’s hopes and their immediate economy, paralyzing so much in its wake. Many cannot cope with the loss of all their wealth which the cows symbolise, and the men simply disappear after days of mulling over the matter. An example of this tendency to mull and a decision to flee, is Wakili Bebe  ,a herder who lost 35 cows around Kachia in Kaduna state three weeks ago. He tells Weekly Trust  that he  mulled  running away from his wife when his cows were rustled. Somehow, he didn’t flee, and he’s still with his wife. Unlike many around him, Bebe did not bolt. He is an exception to a pattern of behaviour which is becoming the norm among herders in parts of the north today, or at least this is what Weekly Trust observed in parts of Nasarawa, Kaduna and the FCT, while investigating this story over a 4 week period, helped by Madakin Ladugga, Ardo Lawal Dono and a few others.
To the east
But where could the fleeing nomads be heading to? Dr Tukur Baba of the Department of Sociology, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto, an expert on the Sociology of Pastoral Society’s, explains that there are 22 countries in Africa where the fleeing nomads could easily flee to and settle among  fellow pastoral folk, who have a common culture, language and interests. He shows that the nomads have always followed an easterly movement right from the very beginning of their dispersal, and will do so even now as they flee ‘The movement of pastoralists from the Senegambia valley began in the 11th century and increased in waves up to the 13th. Due to population pressure and conflicts in the region, they left the valley and started an eastward movement. They couldn’t move westwards because of the Atlantic ocean which served as a barrier, and so they had to turn and move in an easterly direction.’ According to him when there were conflicts on Nigeria’s Mambilla plateau some years ago, the nomads there soon moved eastwards into Cameroon, and he argues that the fleeing nomads are likely to travel through the countries to the east of Nigeria rather than westwards. This is because moving towards the east is a natural intuition among the Fulani. These countries to Nigeria’s east stretch in a line from Cameroon, through Chad to South Sudan and into Ethiopia and Eritrea. This vast area represents an additional home to nomads fleeing the crippling effects of rustling in Nigeria, and the area is significant physical and cultural space if anyone seeks to trace the nomads.
One school of thought argues that the flight of the nomads is inspired by Pulaaku. Mohammed Tukur sheds light on the concept ‘This is an all encompassing behavioural pattern that Fulbe culture imposes on the group. It requires you to be a modest person, to have a sense of courage, to be shy ‘Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi of the CDC comments  ‘It means that the Fulani should not engage in anything that will reduce his status, that will bring shame on you, or your family. On this Saleh Momale also says ‘The concept of Pulaaku places enormous responsibility on the Pullo to live up to his responsibility .Responsibility to his immediate family, to his extended family, to the Fulbe people and to the society at large. Failure to live up to this responsibility is seen as a negation of Pulaaku and a source of shame.’ On the link between fleeing and Pulaaku, he argues ‘While it is against the concept of Pulaaku to abandon ones family, such an act in terms of losing an entire means of livelihood without an alternative, can also be triggered by Pulaaku.’
Its frustration
Professor Ibrahim Mukoshy of the Department of Languages, Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, doubts that there is a culture of nomads fleeing from wives and families. He tells Weekly Trust that if the Fulani leave a place and they often do this, then they move as a group, adding that the departure of one person who also does not provide for wife and family while leaving, is not in keeping with Fulani culture which praises its female members  even in its folklore. His words “To hear that a woman leaves her husband, is common. Sometimes, it happens. But for a man to leave his wife is not part of Fulani culture. It is not easy to leave one’s family and run away.” Saleh Momale adds ‘Fleeing is actually the exception, rather than the norm among the Fulani. In the past, you will find that such a person will engage in short distance migration with his entire family. This has been the normal cultural response to a high level of shame. A situation where an individual flees on his own is an exception, it is not the norm.’ He looks at the present situation. ‘Today, you find that the migration is much more out of frustration and a lack of hope, and not the result of shame. It is not directly the result of shame, but really it is a consequence of frustration and a loss of hope.’ He argues ‘ For instance, if a man’s cows were stolen, the one who lost his cows has not done anything shameful. He did not commit the crime. So, this flight is a fallout of frustration and hopelessness, to the effect that there is nothing a man will be able to do now for his family and dependents, since all his cattle were stolen’.
Hussaini Yusuf Bosso, National Vice President, MACBAN, while acknowledging that nomads are actually fleeing their wives and families today, explains the situation of the wives ‘There is no husband and nobody to assist them. But some have parents to help them, and there are some of them who have no parents.’He presents an Islamic perspective on the situation of the women ‘They cannot remarry until after four years. Even after four years, the matter must be taken to the Sharia court. From there the judge will end the former marriage, and the court will give her the freedom to go and remarry.’ The women are in a quandary: They fear what the future brings, and they are already crippled by what the present has to offer.
Professor Rashid Aderinoye, Executive Secretary, National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) reasons ‘These children and women are just like displaced persons. Our commission right now has no specific programme for them. We won’t be able to assist them until we have done a survey to determine the numbers affected in the country, and where they are located. At that point we will be able to intervene and help.’ Baba Othman Ngelzarma, National Secretary General MACBAN, says that the association ‘will contact the leaders of the various communities where the women and children are to be found, to do a proper census of the groups there, and see what exactly MACBAN could do to  assist the women. But this will be after returning from the field. Certainly, we cannot allow the children to grow up in this manner.’ Mohammed Tukur thinks that people are ‘not aware of the secondary effects of cattle rustling and banditry. People don’t know of the secondary effects on women and children, so we in CORET will like to bring to the attention of government and  development partners, the great changes which have lately come upon the pastoral household.’ He also thinks that CORET and interested partners could engage in Habbanaye, a form of restocking among the Fulani, which is the gift to each affected family of a cow ‘When it gives birth the family members can share the calves, while the others retain ownership of the mother.’ Soon everybody would have a cow and that helps.
But tears run down the elderly lady’s face  bringing  it life and youth, and making it almost  happy. Women from the Fulani settlement who are seated in a poorly formed semi circle are also at the point of tears. They listen. Some of the women are very young, but the lady in tears who wears a dark hijab, is an exception. She weeps without making a sound, just the way a royal would. Her name is Zainab Umar Idi. Her husband fled soon after his cows were stolen at Assakiyo last year, and her grandson has also vanished. She is silent and now looks into our faces.
Exodus
Aisha Ahmadu is also in pain. Her husband fled a week after the family cows were stolen last year somewhere in Nasarawa state. The men hardly last a week once the cows are taken ‘He ran away soon after his cows were rustled during the Ombatse crises. We lost 200 cows during the incident.’ Now, in order to keep the family going, Aisha has turned to the hawking of nono (milk), and the sale of water and wood, to provide food for her family of 5 children. The sale of wood irks her ‘We Fulani never had to sell wood before, but things have changed’, she laments, saying that the sale of milk isn’t a problem to the Fulani. But wood irks. There are countless nomadic women facing the same set of circumstances in many parts of the north. From the sale of milk, Aisha makes between 350 – 400 Naira every day, an amount which she says does not provide enough resources for the family’s upkeep. She adds that up till now she has neither heard from her husband, nor met anyone who has seen him. But, she says ‘I have been quite sad, and I was hospitalized for a while. Also, I have not been sleeping well, and I am being treated for hypertension.’ According to her the settlement where the family lived, was burnt down during the Ombatse crisis, and this explains why she has relocated to another  outside Lafia,where the interview takes place.
Khadijat Isa’s story is similar to that of Aisha ‘My husband is nowhere to be found. He might have been killed, but we have not discovered his corpse. 120 of his cows were stolen, and he fled soon after this happened. I am the only wife of my husband, and we have 4 children.’ She too sells milk, but the 400 Naira she makes from this every day ,is unable to meet the needs of the family which range from  payments for food, to the settling of hospital bills, clothing and much else. Hauwa Saleh’s account is equally gripping ‘My husband was at the stream with the cows, when the Ombatse militia arrived and killed all the animals. We believe that he was also killed on that same day. This was in September last year.’ Today, in a   major turnaround which is actually a feature of sedentary life, she harvests mangoes and sells these to feed her family, and she receives assistance from her neighbours. This is how she lives from one day to the next. Khadijat Usman’s husband ran away in November last year. This was soon after his cows were killed by the Ombatse militia. She has two children to look after, and has not heard from her husband since he left. Adama Adamu and Rakiya Musa have identical experiences. Khadijat Idris’ husband has been missing since August last year, when his 300 cows were grabbed in the dead of night.’ He was worried and very disturbed before he left’, she tells Weekly Trust. But she hopes that he is alive and well. Tears form in her eyes. Ardo Lawal Dono explains that the flight of the nomads is connected with the effects of rustling ‘The theft of cattle began here some 4 years ago, and the fleeing nomads are likely to travel to other countries in the region.’ On the wives left behind by the nomads, he adds ‘They can only be catered for by their relatives in the meantime. If they lost their husbands in violence or the husband fled, they cannot go to town to reside, since they don’t have anybody there. They can only look for their relatives and stay with them.’ In Lafia, hypertension and insomnia are common among the women in settlements of the nomads.  
‘I am in charge’
More of such hypertensive women can be found at the Ladugga grazing reserve in Kaduna state, which has been described as Nigeria’s best grazing reserve. Here, there is much land for pasture and many cows too. The river Kaduna courses through a part of the reserve. But a very bad road stretching many kilometres, leads into the grazing area, making it difficult to access at the height of the rainy season. Early this year Aisha Abdullah’s husband left her all of a sudden ‘They stole our cows. Then one day,my husband  went out to look for food, and he didn’t return. We lived at Maro village near crossing here in Kaduna state.’ Now, she sells fura da nono (millet and yoghurt meal) to earn some money to support the family. But she says, like the other women, that this does not suffice. Her brothers and sisters assist her in looking after the 7 children.
One day Zainab Abdullahi’s husband disappeared. This was soon after his 40 cows were taken by rustlers. She has painful memories of the event, for her 3 week old child was killed by the rustlers ‘It happened at 10.00 am. The rustlers arrived with many guns and shot into the air. They asked me to bring the child, and they killed him with a cutlass. Then they immediately took all our cows.’ Today, Aishatu Usman has the huge task of bringing 9 children up all on her own. She sells butter and milk  which  yield  300 Naira each day,but she adds that this does not go far enough to bring up 9 children. ‘300 Naira every day to feed 9 children’, she  wonders aloud, almost laughing. Her husband, like all the other herders before him, fled when his cows were grabbed by rustlers. Hajara Usman saw her husband last in September 2014 shortly after his 35 cows were stolen. He vanished soon after this. She has not heard a word from him, and no reports have come indicating his whereabouts. Hajara Tanko’s husband lost 150 cows when the rustlers arrived one night at their settlement at Maro in Kaduna state early this year. ‘After 2 -5 days searching for the cows, my husband vanished. He might have been killed while on the search,’she thinks. But she is not sure about this. Now she sells ‘local rice’in order to feed her 9 children. For Hafsat Idris ‘life is completely upside down. I am the one feeding the children, educating them, paying hospital bills, taking care of everything. I am in charge’. Calls to his phone never go through, which could mean that her husband may not be in the country. Other wives have made similar phone calls, but the phones never ring. The silence is an ominous one, but they do not dwell too much on what this could mean. Salaha Abubakar, Samshiya Abdulrahman and Rakiya Samaila and many women  resident in Ladugga, each face  crippling  circumstances : a vanished husband, many children to feed and a low or nonexistent economic base for them to rely upon .
Kawu’s hypertensive family
An   untarred road stretches 20 kilometres taking the visitor from Bwari town into the Kawu grazing reserve, FCT. It is tough going. At this time of the year the reserve is fertile country. The family of Abdullahi Ibrahim perfectly mirrors the crises affecting the average nomadic family today. His whole family has become hypertensive. He is hypertensive, alongside his two wives, and the wives of their two sons who ran away, after their cows were stolen. This is his story: In May 2014 armed rustlers arrived at his settlement in the dead of night. They stole  200 cows, and all of these are cows which he had inherited from his grandparents. Now, he does  not have a single cow to his name. The situation has made him hypertensive for he has 10 children and 4 wives to look after. Rabiu Abdullahi, a herder, is one of his sons who ran away soon after the cows were stolen. Aisha, Rabiu’s soft spoken mother, thinks that he ran away at the ‘beginning of the dry season’. Another of her sons, Mohammed Abdullahi also fled soon after the cows were rustled. No wonder she has become hypertensive ‘I cannot sleep at night because I spend time thinking after my sons, and the wives they left behind and their children too. How do we look after the many children? ’Hajara Abdullahi’s   two sons, Idris Abdullahi and Yakubu Abdullahi, have also run away ‘I am always thinking after my sons and the wives and 9 children they left behind. I don’t sleep well and I have become hypertensive.’ Their husband says ‘I too have become hypertensive, because I am often thinking about my sons, and their wives and children left here with us.’ Hypertension is on the rise in this polite pastoral family which has lost all its cows.
‘19 children to feed’
Barangoni is a mass of land on the outskirts of Bwari, in the FCT. You won’t know about it, except you are told, or if you visited. It represents country which the Fulani like so much. Thus they have settled there in great numbers and it borders the Kawu grazing reserve. Here too can be found countless women whose husbands fled. Aisha Umaru is one of them. Two months ago her husband’s 50 cows were stolen. She remembers that he became very unhappy when this happened. But now, she is ill too, because she has 8 children to look after ‘I don’t sleep well now, especially since he ran away. But I haven’t gone to the hospital yet.’She does not have money to go for medical attention. Asmau Haruna’s husband also ran away 2 months ago, just like Aisha’s. 30 cows were stolen and she now has to feed 9 children every day. But, Asmau is battling insomnia ‘I don’t sleep well, and I don’t even have the money to go to the hospital to be examined by the doctor. I have to borrow money in order to feed my family, and I haven’t finished paying back all the money I borrowed.’ Halima Idris’ husband also lost 50 cows to rustlers. She too does not sleep well.Bilkisu Adamu battles  insomnia on one hand, and sells milk to feed her 4 children on the other ‘Each day I realise between 400 to 500 Naira from the sale of milk, but this is not enough to feed my  four  children.’ Bilkisu has many battles to fight.
Safiya Yau’s husband fled in October last year when the family’s cows, numbering 30 were rustled. But the story around this theft is a violent one. According to Aisha Ardo, her mother in law ‘The thieves came by 10.00 pm and they arrived  armed with guns. After killing the Ardo, our husband, they went away with 30 cows .’ Both Aisha Ardo and her co wife, Halira Ardo, are now hypertensive ‘We developed high blood pressure upon the death of our husband. I spent ten days in the hospital this year’, Aisha says. The two women have to look after a total of 19 children. The sale of milk would hardly suffice to take care of the needs of the family, they tell me. Halima Muhammadu, Maryam Jibrin and many others are hypertensive, and sell milk to support their families.
We meet Ramatu Abubakar who still manages a warm child like smile and wears a light green blouse, which makes her look radiant and happy. Her twin sons, Hassan and Hussaini, both ran away after their cows were rustled, and their two wives who still live in the settlement are now hypertensive, and look after the children with some difficulty, Ramatu adds. She gazes into the distance as though seeking an answer to the many issues which ring the nomadic Fulani in a perfect cycle of horror. These are not the best of times for Nigeria’s milk maids who  not only witness the rustling of cattle, and the crippling of livelihoods every day, but now marriage itself may be on the brink of collapse.