Between Timbuktu and Araouane, Mali 2003… A Fulani family traveling with all their belongings
I can’t remember exactly where we saw them, but they stand in a harvested millet field, so they are near a village with a source of water. The man is at least twenty years older than his wife…still handsome nevertheless.
She was quite young when they married, maybe thirteen or fourteen, because their oldest son looks to be in his mid-teens. It is common to marry girls off soon after puberty. Their family looks on them as a bad investment. A girl will labor for her husband’s family for most of her life, but a boy will labor for his father’s family.
The man takes a young wife who cares for him in his old age. Her son will care for his mother in her old age. It seems like a good system to me except for the marrying an old man part.
Fulani is one of the names for this tribe. Another is Peul. The Wodaabe and Bororo are a subset of this tribe. Although in times past this tribe was nomadic, many have become farmers and settled on the land. One way to tell a Fulani is that the men don’t go anywhere without their sword. If you look, you can see the man is wearing his. It is on his right side and you can just see a cross shape which is the handle of his sword. While we are looking closely, their dog is resting in the shade of the donkey’s belly. Smart dog!