Abstract

This article inquires into the relationship between the state and the Fulaaɓe, a Fulani community with pastoral and nomadic origins in Mauritania. First, it shows the state-driven process of Fulaaɓe marginalization by analyzing elites' discourses on these "bushmen" and their hegemonic forms of government (administrative control, patronage relationships, "ethnic" persecutions, and so forth). Then, it discusses how the Fulaaɓe have found spaces for agency and political mobilization. By recasting the analysis into the Gramscian theoretical framework, the article aims at participating in the political anthropological reflection on hegemony and resistance and in the dialogue on state-society relationships in Africa.

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