Privacy Without Walls: Individuality and Ritual in Fulfuulde Life

There is no one “pure” Fulani, or Fulbe culture, except as perceived from an essentialist view or from within, where one’s own culture is always privileged. Instead, there are many Fulbe traditions and cultures, and these change over time. In Fulfuulde speaking communities (east of Macina) one finds the creation of privacy and social space through people's behavior instead of physical structures. Privacy does not depend on material constructions such as doors or walls, but is embodied in hierarchical, engendered spaces and zones of privacy that are part of everyday ritual. This paper interrogates how rituals of privacy mediate space, and how space is used to produce privacy. It looks at household rituals that are located in the habitus of everyday life which serve as important markers of cultural literacy. I propose that “creating social space” and “creating privacy” are critical elements that embody the social contract in the small dispersed communities typical of herding famil...