Farmer-herder conflicts as 'contentious politics' - The case of Fulani pastoralists in West Africa

Despite the growing interest in farmer-herder conflicts in West
Africa, common explanations often result in narratives that strip
herding people of their political agency and deprive their social
interactions - including violent ones - of their political meaning. This
research seeks to offer a theoretical counterargument to such
essentialised understandings by examining how pastoralists
experience, interpret and engage farmer-herder conflicts as
consciously political, both at the local and transnational level. To
this end, the research project will be carried out as an in-depth
qualitative case study focusing on one, diverse ethnic group - the
Fulani - with a large nomadic pastoral community scattered across
West Africa's semi-arid belt. Conceptually, the research will reframe
farmer-herder conflicts involving Fulani pastoralists as instances of
'contentious politics', that is "interactions in which actors make
claims bearing on other actors' interests, leading to coordinated
efforts on behalf of shared interests or programs, in which
governments are involved as targets, initiators of claims, or third
parties" (Tilly and Tarrow 2012:7). By doing so, the research will
contribute to reshaping the narrative around farmer-herder conflicts
and open up new avenues for explaining how they might be
reproduced, reinterpreted, or reinvented across time and space. This,
in turn, will carry practical implications for security and development
policies.