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NOMADIC PEOPLES. doi: 10.3828/whpnp.63837646691073
Open Access, CC BY-NC 4.0 © The Author
COVID-19 AND PASTORALISM IN NORTHERN BENIN
Jeannett Martin, Abiguël Elijan and Nikolaus Schareika
Abstract
This article deals with pastoralists’ perceptions of and responses to the
Covid-19 pandemic in northern Benin. Starting from the idea that pasto-
ralists are well situated to respond successfully to the uncertainty that the
pandemic has brought to the world, as their livelihood demands exible
responses to ever-changing situations, we examine how people living in
pastoralism in this region perceive and manage the unprecedented event
and thus aim to contribute to debates on pastoralism and uncertainty. Based
on empirical data collected from August to October 2021, and between
February and April 2022, we show that the characteristics of pastoral
livelihoods in this region helped in managing at least, but by no means
perfectly, or entirely overcoming, the challenges caused by the pandemic
and related state measures.
KEYWORDS: Pastoralism, Covid-19, Benin, uncertainty
Introduction
The spread of the unknown virus Sars-Cov-2 (Corona) and Covid-19 created
a new form of uncertainty (Simula et al. 2020). In this article, we examine
how the Covid-19 pandemic as a form of uncertainty was perceived and dealt
with by people engaging in pastoralism in northern Benin. Scholars inspired
by the new rangeland ecology (Behnke, Scoones and Kerven 1993) describe
pastoralists as self-organising and exible ‘reliability professionals’ (Roe
2020), and as experts in dealing with uncertainties (Scoones 2019, Krätli 2008,
Krätli and Schareika 2010). We take the Covid-19 pandemic as an occasion to
scrutinise the propositions of pastoral exibility, adaptation and uncertainty
management. Acknowledging that non-pastoral people in Africa, including,
for example, peasants, townsfolk, refugees, labour migrants or traders, face
and successfully manage uncertainties too, we specically address the research
done on pastoralists’ uncertainty management and ask how their well-noted
capacities in this regard played out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
Methods
Field research was conducted between August and October 2021, and between
February and April 2022. At this time, the partial lockdown in Southern Benin
(cordon sanitaire) between March and May 2020 had come to an end, while
hygienic restrictions, restrictions on larger gatherings and police controls con-
tinued, and the rst vaccinations from China and Russia were arriving in Benin.
The members of the research team coming from Benin and Germany
used a mixed-method design, comprising participant observation, individual
interviews (141), numerous everyday conversations (with 208 research par-
ticipants), ten focus group discussions and expert interviews (nine health
agents, ve community and state agents, and two journalists). Furthermore,
we did a document analysis and a quantitative survey with 42 agro-pastoralist
households.
Pastoralism, uncertainty and Covid-19
For our analysis, we drew on social anthropology approaches where uncertainty
is seen as a fundamental part of life that varies only in degree and the intensity
of its perception (Calkins 2016: 11, 58; Cooper and Pratten 2015). Uncertainty
is perceived differently according to where, when and under what conditions
a person lives, as are the ways of dealing with it (Boholm 2003). ‘Uncertainty
management’, in general terms, refers to how people negotiate conditions of in-
security and how they create order and predictability in their lives. ‘Pastoralism’
in northern Benin has been described as an economic and social system that
seeks to maximise herd size (Bierschenk 1997), while cattle production in north-
ern Benin has become much more market-oriented during the last three decades
(Ufford 1999). In our analysis, we consider pastoralism as a ‘situated set of socio-
economic practices’, deeply related to cattle and small ruminants, ‘that can be
carried out to varying degrees, and in diverse forms, in rural as well as in (peri-)
urban settings’ (Greiner 2022: 37), such as herding cattle and small ruminants,
and butchering and trading (animals, dairy products, meat and other products).
In Northern Benin, cattle production is often related to the ethnic category of
Fulɓe. Indeed, historically, this group has had a strong connection to pastoral-
ism, and this is still the case today. At the same time, nowadays many individuals
identifying as Fulɓe have other socioeconomic proles. While some individu-
als continue to be socially, economically, emotionally and politically related to
pastoral livelihoods, others have left this domain altogether. Furthermore, some
other people also engage in pastoralism. Therefore, the categories of pastoralists
and Fulɓe in northern Benin overlap but are not congruent.
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
According to Scoones and Nori, referring to Krätli and Schareika (2010),
in pastoral systems, ‘uncertainties are not only lived with, but lived off, … as
variability, mobility, and exibility are central parts of livelihood systems in
pastoral settings’ (Scoones and Nori 2021: 61). To deal with this condition,
pastoral people make use of extensive local knowledge, embrace economic
diversication and adapt their mobility strategies according to changing eco-
logical, economic, social, and political conditions (Scoones and Nori 2021).
Furthermore, they rely on social and religious institutions of relatedness and
engage in forms of collective solidarity at local and translocal levels. In this
way, they create systems of reliability despite the multiplicity of sources of
uncertainty.
Scholars of pastoralism quickly reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic and
studied its economic, social and political impact on pastoral groups in differ-
ent regions (e.g. Simula et al. 2020, Elijan 2021, APESS /IDRC 2021, Egeru,
Sintayehu and Siya 2020, Grifth et al. 2020, Hassell et al. 2020, Ilukor, Akello
and Okiror 2022, Mtimet et al. 2021, Stammler and Ivanova 2020, Fisktjønmo
and Næss 2022, Scoones and Nori 2021), but quantitative analyses are rare
(Grifth et al 2021: 250).
Some scholars looked into how pastoralists responded to the uncertainties
caused by the pandemic (e.g. Scoones and Nori 2021, Fisktjønmo and Næss
2022, Stammler and Ivanova 2020, APESS/IDRC 2021, Simula et al. 2020).
Simula et al. (2020), reporting on ve countries, argue that pastoralists have
been substantially affected by the measures taken against the pandemic: mo-
bility restrictions and market closures were ‘harshly felt in all sites’ (2020: 3),
especially by animal traders, e.g., in Uganda after the countrywide lockdown
in 2020 (Ilukor et al. 2022), and in Somalia, where animals are sold to Saudi
Arabia (Mtimet et al. 2021). According to several authors, the pandemic accel-
erated and intensied the dynamics of changing pastoral livelihoods (Mtimet
et al. 2021, Elijan 2021: 306) and of growing rural differentiation and conict
between groups (Simula et al. 2020). In contrast, Scoones and Nori (2021)
underline pastoralists’ capacities and strategies to deal with uncertainty during
the Covid-19 pandemic. By presenting and discussing our ndings from north-
ern Benin, we aim to contribute to this discussion on pastoralists’ strategies
of uncertainty management deployed in the face of Covid-19. For the purpose
of contextualization we begin by outlining recent dynamics in pastoral liveli-
hoods in the region.
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
Ruptures and structural reforms of pastoral livelihoods in
northern Benin
As a large body of anthropological literature on HIV/AIDS and Ebola has
shown, responses to pandemics are bound to particular economic, sociocul-
tural and political environments. When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in
northern Benin, pastoralist livelihoods were already under considerable pres-
sure. During the last two decades, northern Benin has seen a rapid extension
of cultivated areas, especially because of the growing need for food staples
as a result of ongoing population growth and immigration, as well as the ex-
pansion of cash crop production in combination with growing mechanisation
and intensication. In addition, there has been a huge increase in the number
of cattle in this region. As a consequence of these dynamics, which caused a
rapid shrinking of natural pastures, eld damage caused by cattle triggered
violent clashes between agriculturalists and cattle herders. While this is no
recent phenomenon (see Driel 1999), there has been an increase in violent
incidents during the last few years in northern Benin (Madore 2022), including
a growing risk of violent ‘extremist spillovers’ (Bruijne 2021). Furthermore,
pastoralists in this region are affected by decreasing water resources and rising
temperatures due to climate change (Djohy et al. 2022) as well as by structural
reforms following current pastoral policies. Indeed, pastoralism has become
an object of transformation efforts by the Beninese government since 2017. It
is an important domain of the Plan strategique de développement du secteur
agricole (2017–2025) aiming, inter alia, to improve the productivity of the
pastoral sector and reduce conicts. Measures to achieve these goals include
the administrative control of pastoral mobility, especially transborder mobility,
and programmes of sedentarisation. With the 2019 Code pastoral, the govern-
ment created a legal framework for these projects.
These dynamics have had a huge impact on people living in pastoralism: a
large majority of them (92 per cent of our respondents in the quantitative sur-
vey) stated that, of all hazards, the uncertainty of access to land and pastures
affected and frightened them the most.
COVID-19 in Benin
Regarding Covid-19 cases, Benin was relatively mildly affected. A medi-
cal expert, Dr G., depicted three waves of infection between 2020 and 2021,
each characterised by an increase in cases with some severe illness and deaths
(Allada, Hôpital de Zone, 7 Oct. 2021). Although the actual extent of infec-
tions might be underestimated due to limited testing capacity, the virus seems
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
to have spread relatively slowly. On 2 September 2021, the government
announced a total of 26,309 conrmed cases, 640 treated patients and 163
patients deceased due to Covid-19 since the beginning of case registration.1
In summary, the pandemic was perceived as much less dramatic than in other
countries, such as South Africa, Italy and Brazil.
In accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization,
the government in Benin took rapid and far-reaching measures, similar to other
West African countries (Bonnet et al. 2021, IRD 2022) and unlike countries
such as Tanzania (Meek 2021) and Burundi (Bashizi et al. 2021: 195ff). From
March 2020, temperature checks on travellers at borders, a systematic prescrip-
tion of auto-isolation for persons coming from countries with Covid-19 cases,
distancing regulations and wearing masks became obligatory. In 2020, larger
gatherings were suspended, and schools, universities, mosques, churches and
other public places, such as bars, were closed for several months. A regional
cordon sanitaire was mandated between 23 March and 27 April and prolonged
until 11 May 2020. This enclosed zone was comprised of fteen municipalities
in the southern part of the country. The Beninese Ministry of Health mandated
the same strict hygiene rules for the treatment of bodies of deceased Covid pa-
tients as those used during the Ebola epidemic from 2014–2016, despite WHO
advice concerning the non-infectiousness of bodies after death from Covid
(Bank and Sharpley 2020: 156). Most Corona measures were lifted as of 16
March 2022 (SGG 2022).
We now turn to how people living in the northern part of the country per-
ceived this period and how they responded to government action.
‘We are not affected by the virus’
We quickly learned that almost all pastoralists we talked to were well informed
about the virus, its potential health dangers, ways of transmission and preven-
tion measures against its spread. This high degree of information corroborating
the results of an empirical study on Covid-19 and pastoralist livelihoods in
other West and Central African countries (APESS/IDRC 2021) was found
across age, gender, professional occupation and educational background.
According to our survey results, the overwhelming majority of respondents
received information from mass media (96 per cent), particularly from local
radio and social media. At the same time, the virulence of the coronavirus was
highly contested among our respondents. Most pastoralists described them-
selves as not endangered by the virus; as being ‘not affected’ as this disease
1 https://www.gouv.bj/coronavirus/ (last accessed 20 Nov. 2021).
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
would ‘cause havoc somewhere else’. Many considered malaria a much bigger
threat than Covid-19 (76 per cent of female, 50 per cent of male respondents).
Covid was described as a ‘disease of the city’, or as ‘a disease of the Whites’.
Some described it as a disease of people ‘who travel a lot’ (where this did not
include pastoral mobility); a disease which would ‘kill other people but not
Fulɓe’. Some voices denied that the virus had reached the country at all, and
eighteen per cent of the respondents in the household survey declared that they
would not believe in its existence.
Ninety-four per cent of the interlocutors in the survey did not know any
person who had been infected with, suffered from or died of Corona. ‘If there
is something that the ear listens to but that the eye does not see, the head
remains hard’, explained one man, expressing stark scepticism towards non-
observable phenomena. Some, mostly Fulɓe men, described cattle herders as
being protected against infection with the virus, referring to their ‘hard life
under the sun’, their ‘isolated life in the bush’, their general resistance against
disease, and also their ‘deep belief in God’.
Our observations revealed that such assessments of the risks of the virus
translated into corresponding behaviour. During the dry season of 2022, we
followed members in agro-pastoral Fulɓe households in their daily activities.
None of them wore a hygienic mask or followed any distancing measures.
A foot-controlled hand washing construction at the entrance of the nearby
mosque was without water and soap.
In the local markets, too, hygiene measures were respected by almost
no-one. People would barge their way through the noisy crowd, shake hands
and embrace friends or relatives. When asking Inoussa (52), a butcher, about
Corona and protective measures against this virus, he answered:
I learned that there were solutions to avoid this problem. These measures
include the use of masks, hand washing with soap and water, the use of
hydroalcoholic gel, and a distancing of one metre. However, of all these
measures, I respect none, because this disease does not exist here. (Inoussa,
Papane 24 March 2022)
Likewise, Oroji (39), a pastoralist from a nearby camp who strolled with
a friend in the market stated, ‘I used to wear masks when I went to the market
so that the police would not arrest me. I did not wear it to avoid harm.’ These
observations and statements illustrate the perception of insecurities caused by
the virus; most showed little concern. This was also conrmed by participants
of a marriage ceremony in a Southern Borgu village of Christianised Fulɓe in
March 2022. Together with hundreds of other people, we entered a crowded
church where festively dressed people were jammed together, without wearing
masks. After a lot of singing and dancing, and after the service, people em-
braced each other, stayed and sat together to chat and exchange the latest news.
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
While sitting in the shadow of a tree, being served with food and drinks, we
discussed Corona issues with a group of people. A young, university-educated
man declared: ‘We continue as usual. No, no limitations of people! We are
sure that the police will not come to our small villages. There are no problems
at all.’ These villagers weighed the danger of being punished by the police
against the value of adhering to their socially meaningful ceremonies in favour
of the latter.
Government hygiene measures were particularly ignored during funerals.
A health worker in a Parakou hospital explained that there was an order to dis-
infect the dead body with chemicals, put it in a hygienic plastic bag and bury it
immediately. Relatives of the deceased were not allowed to approach the body
and had to maintain distance during the burial (Parakou, 11 March 2020). We
learned that there were cases of dead bodies being stolen by family members
from the mortuary and cases of already buried bodies being removed from the
grave and reburied following rituals the bereaved deemed indispensable (see
also Bank and Madini 2021, Boaheng 2021 for similar responses in South
Africa and Ghana respectively). These reactions point to the importance that
people – pastoralists, but also others in Benin – attach to ceremonies that forge
family and community ties and easily outweigh concerns about the virus.
From April 2021, the Beninese population was offered free-of-charge vac-
cinations against Covid-19. The question of whether vaccination could prevent
the disease was highly contested and most participants ignored or rejected the
offers. Social media fuelled rumours concerning alleged harm caused by vac-
cines until the government eventually reacted by prohibiting the distribution of
‘fake news’. Similar to the situation in other West African countries (APESS/
IDRC 2021: 31, Seydou 2021), rejection changed only partly during the coun-
try-wide government promotion campaign for Covid-19 vaccinations.
Such reluctance is well-documented within the wider region, shown, for
example, in the case of polio-vaccination in Northern Nigeria in 2003/04
(Yahya 2007) or neonatal tetanus vaccination in Cameroon in the 1990s
(Feldman-Savelsberg, Ndoko and Schmidt-Ehry 2000). These studies point
to the fact that vaccination resistance is often embedded in wider political and
economic processes and particularly in historical experiences with vaccination
experiments (as the pharmaceutical company Pzer has conducted in Northern
Nigeria). Thus, many people became suspicious when they were, on the one
hand, confronted with a deteriorating health system in their country and, on
the other hand, offered free of charge vaccination. Similarly, distrust against
foreign donors and their governments contributed to the resistance against
Covid-19 vaccinations among our respondents in Northern Benin. Our em-
pirical data suggest a link between the perception of broader societal changes
and widespread mistrust of the Covid-19 vaccination. This is illustrated by the
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
statement of Djibo, a pastoralist who, in 2021, was working in a government
campaign for the promotion of Covid-19 vaccination. When asked how herd-
ers in the region responded to the vaccination offer, he replied:
Many people are afraid. Because they think if you are vaccinated, you
will not survive. People say that they want to kill the majority of people
because there are so many of us … Because there are so many people and
the earth is nite, they want to reduce the number of people to better man-
age space. So that’s their logic. And wherever you talk about vaccination
– that’s what they will tell you: Benin is becoming increasingly populated,
and there is no more space for livestock farming and agriculture; therefore,
people want to reduce us so that they can nd space to farm.
Djibo describes the relationship between pastoralists’ perceptions of in-
creasing limitations for their agro-pastoral livelihood and policies to control
land and population growth. This translates into pastoralists’ widespread
fear and suspicion of vaccination. Interestingly, when asked about his own
vaccination status as a vaccination promoter, Djibo said: ‘I have not been vac-
cinated … and I am not going to be vaccinated this year … I am afraid.’ (Djibo,
Kpawa, 21 Oct. 2021)
Insecurities caused by the impact of state action against
Covid-19
While pastoralists did not perceive rising insecurities caused by the virus, most
interlocutors described rising insecurities due to regulations and restrictive
measures that the state and administration had taken. These measures were
mostly, but not exclusively, felt in the domain of economic activity. Cattle trade
and commerce in dairy products were mostly affected. In addition, livestock
raising became complicated for cattle herders when their mobility included the
transgression of regional and national borders. We now describe these percep-
tions in more detail, focusing on herders, cattle traders and women selling
dairy products. They all felt affected in different ways and to varying degrees.
Cattle herders constantly search for pastures to feed their cattle, especially
during the dry season, be it within the national territory or across national
borders. This search is intertwined with the movement of traders, particularly
women involved in the trade of milk and cheese, who navigate between house-
holds and markets. Similarly, cattle traders transport animals between markets
in Benin and neighbouring countries such as Nigeria, Togo or Ghana. The in-
tricate mobility network pastoralists depend on was signicantly disrupted by
mobility restrictions during the pandemic, notably during the cordon sanitaire,
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
which isolated the south, including the large cities of Cotonou and Porto Novo,
and separated it from the north of the country. Concurrently, the neighbouring
countries Nigeria and Togo closed their borders, exacerbating the challenges
faced by pastoralists. The impact of these different mobility restrictions varied
depending on the specic mobility patterns of the pastoralists. Herders practic-
ing small transhumance within northern Benin without crossing regional or
national borders reported no disruptions to their daily routines. In contrast,
those engaged in large transhumant migration, crossing regional and some-
times national borders, encountered substantial difculties (see also APESS/
IDRC 2021: 34).
Traders of cattle and dairy products were severely affected by interrupted
delivery chains, loss of clients and dwindling prots. Bana, a 37-year-old
woman involved in cheese production, complained about decline of income
and lost sales opportunities.
I can’t nd money like before. … They have forbidden us to go around
to sell the milk and cheese. Sometimes when we produce cheese, we eat
it among ourselves. … Our turnover has decreased a lot compared to the
previous years before Corona came.
Similarly, cattle traders such as Mama (41) and Bio (32) reported signi-
cant reductions in turnover due to government-imposed restrictions on group
travel and scarcity of customers. Mama explained: ‘Before the arrival of this
disease, I used to make a turnover of 100,000 francs per day, that is, per mar-
ket day. But today, I can hardly nd 25,000 francs’. Bio, a trader in the same
market, added:
Our activities are not going as well as they used to because the government
has banned group travel … Taximen have taken advantage of this disease.
Additionally, potential customers have become scarce. Our customers who
used to come from Nigeria no longer came after the arrival of Corona.
(Bio, Papane 23 March 2022)
Moreover, mobility restrictions not only affected the economic wellbe-
ing of traders, but also had implications for the health and welfare of their
livestock. Cattle trader Amadou (39) highlighted the difculties in accessing
essential supplies for cattle care such as salt and veterinary services, further
exacerbating their challenges.
Despite the immediate impact of the Covid-19 measures, some traders
noted that cattle trade had already been affected by broader economic trends
predating the pandemic. El Hadji Amadou (48), for instance, attributed the
decline in cattle trading protability to the depreciation of Nigerian currency
and changing market dynamics.
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
The rst difculty we faced was the decline of the Naira, the Nigerian cur-
rency … Nigeria is the most important consumer of beef. However, since
2015, the exchange rate between the Naira and the FCFA has fallen. Thus,
the sale price of beef decreased. Out of the 50 oxen sold, it is perhaps only
for ve or ten that we nd any prot. … Therefore, we changed the mar-
ket. For this reason, we started going to Togo and Ghana. The prices were
good. However, there are fewer customers than in Nigeria. We were at this
point when in 2019 the Corona virus came and made things more difcult.
(El Hadji Amadou, Guema, 16 March 2022)
Traders met with additional hurdles such as border crossings, restricted
market access and decreased demand due to the ban on social gatherings,
which led to substantial capital losses during the years of the pandemic.
Beyond economic concerns, research participants highlighted the multifac-
eted impacts of the pandemic, including the prohibition of social gatherings,
which posed threats to community wellbeing and spiritual practices among
Muslims (see also Piwko 2021) and Christians. A young Muslim pastoralist,
Djabi Saliou (26), remembers:
Corona has prevented many things: Ceremonies, common prayers, going
out freely without masks … It wasn’t good for prayer. We had to leave
a metre of space between us when we prayed. We weren’t used to that.
Travelling to Mecca was also suspended. (Djabi Saliou, Gure Sanru, 20
March 2022)
El Hadji Hamadou (about 70), explained what those regulations meant to
the believers:
Praying close together helps to prevent evil spirits from coming between
us. Praying close together also symbolises compassion and mutual support
in the community. We were also no longer allowed to shake hands to wish
for peace and for our prayers to be answered … That’s a problem! It cre-
ates a spiritual distance between people. (El Hadji Hamadou, Boko-Sine,
7 April 2022)
Likewise, a woman from a Christian pastoralist community complained:
The estrangement between people in the same church … Because of this
illness, we no longer met in churches to pray to God. We no longer meet in
groups to share experiences and so on. This disease distances us from one
another. (Daado, Doguè, 25 Oct. 2021)
Interestingly, and different from the view of a number of researchers (e.g.
Peters and Tetzlaff 2021: 49ff.), most of our respondents did not consider
month-long school and university closures as major problems. Pupils and stu-
dents were simply reintegrated into the household economies.
In our survey of pastoralists, 74 per cent of women and 42 per cent of men
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
conrmed declining household incomes during the pandemic and growing un-
certainties owing to rising prices for food staples and fuel. Penno (about 30), a
wife and mother of ve children, told us: ‘The selling prices of our agricultural
products – nyam, cheese, sweet potatoes – fell by half, while the prices of
goods such as cloth, bowls and buckets skyrocketed.’ Her husband felt obliged
to sell an ox and two sheep so ‘that we could buy food between March and
May 2021’ (Penno, Gure Sanru, 20 March 2022). Many women in pastoral
households felt shrinking household income more directly because they were
responsible for buying and preparing food. This is in line with results of mac-
roeconomic research in Benin: according to surveys from 2020 to 2022, the
national growth rate of consumption decreased from 3.8 per cent to 1.6 per
cent, especially for private consumption (Heffernan 2022: 5). The fact that
two-thirds of all respondents in the survey (66 per cent) declared that they had
sold parts of their herd, and thus part of their most important capital, to cover
unexpected household expenses during the pandemic, shows how deeply the
effects of the state measures were felt economically at the household level (see
also APESS/IDRC 2021: 75).
Responses to uncertainties resulting from state measures
against Covid
Pastoralists in Northern Benin responded to the uncertainties and restrictions
outlined above in multiple ways. Despite restrictions to mobility, many pas-
toralists continued activities according to established practices. Some even
continued to cross national borders, despite the prohibition. They responded to
controls at border checkpoints by negotiating, paying bribes or making clan-
destine border crossings, often at night. Cattle trader Bello continued to walk
to markets in neighbouring countries and cities: to Lomé in Togo and Accra in
Ghana, despite serious difculties.
At the border we are prevented from crossing. We have to take the bush
tracks to cross the border. Sometimes they don’t let us into the markets,
even though our oxen are there. Or it’s the customers who don’t come
because of Corona. Or they [border ofcials, JM] ask us for a vaccination
pass. (Bello, Marché de Tourou, 29 March 2022)
While some decided to stay in their home regions, 74 per cent of male and
93 per cent of female respondents to our survey declared that they had not re-
duced mobility due to pandemic measures. Our data thus indicate that, despite
state restrictions, pastoralists managed to keep up various patterns of mobil-
ity. And they had good reasons to stay mobile. Strictly following the mobility
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
restrictions would have meant cattle owners having to spend money to feed
their cattle with supplements. Traders of cattle would have had an extremely
reduced or zero cash income. Demo (about 40), cattle owner and trader, hus-
band of three wives and father of 18 children, felt obliged to take risks.
Fortunately, my cattle can still stay in a piece of forest (Fôret classée)
– if the forest rangers don’t catch my herders. But the herders know
the places where they can enter the forest unseen. Otherwise I have to
pay. Sometimes they take your motorbike, take it to Alaarou or Bassila
and then ask you for 250,000 FCFA, for example, when the motorbike
may have cost 300,000 FCFA. My neighbour was hit this year. (Demo,
Alaarou/ Tourou, 27 March 2022)
Economically, it made more sense to pastoralists like Bello and Demo to
take the risk of being caught and punished, or the economic charge of paying
bribes, than to stay at home with their cattle and wait for an unknown period
of time.
Pastoral households responded to the restrictions rather by reducing ex-
penses and consumption, and selling animals in order to compensate for
income losses. Women turned to local products for cooking (e.g., sorghum
and corn instead of imported rice and shea butter instead of imported oil). Milk
and cheese traders met with the interruption of supply chains by selling their
products cheaper or on credit, or by bypassing intermediaries. About a quarter
of our respondents (24 per cent) resorted to nancial mechanisms such as loans
and saving groups, and seventeen per cent decided to extend or take up alter-
native activities such as agriculture, trade, handicrafts or salaried work. Some,
like Demo, at least thought of leaving pastoralism altogether, as they saw it as
a ‘too risky’ business (27 March 2022)
With regard to family ceremonies, pastoralists also kept pragmatic and
exible: ‘We still baptised and married our children, but with fewer people.’
(Godi, Wuro Kobi Guru, 20 March 2022).
The pandemic event in the context of specic economic and
sociocultural preconditions for pastoralism
The results of our study indicate that strongly market-oriented activities of
pastoralism were more vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic. Traders of
cattle and small ruminants reported large income and capital losses between
2020 and 2021, especially those involved in cross-country trading. This is con-
sistent with the results of other studies (Mtimet et al. 2021, Simula et al. 2020,
APESS/IDRC 2021: 63).
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
Our results also point to the importance of religious practice, community
relations and the fact that many people living from (agro-)pastoralism have a
rather distanced attitude towards state authorities. They see their communi-
ties as less under the protection of the state and more as subjects to the will
of God as an even greater authority. Some argued that the pandemic was an
expression of God’s omnipotence against which humanity could not defend it-
self. Dening themselves as faithful Muslims (or Christians), they declared the
health of their community members to stand under divine protection during the
pandemic. Moreover, the pastoralists did not rely on one source of authorita-
tive knowledge, but combined information from different sources to build their
views and weigh the risks.
To manage uncertainty, people living from pastoralism build on close social
relationships, especially kinship, friendship and religious and neighbourhood
relations. During family ceremonies – at births, marriages or funerals – they
conrm and strengthen such relationships while creating new ones and assur-
ing themselves of their community (Schareika 2010, Martin 2023, APESS/
IDRC 2021: 39, 41f.). Especially during periods of hardship, crisis and uncer-
tainty, they wanted to turn to these ceremonies in order to secure the reliability
that community relations and networks afford them. This explains, at least
partly, why the months-long ban on gatherings was not (fully) respected in
this milieu.
Finally, why do pastoralists hardly mention the school closures as a prob-
lem? Most parents did not attend school themselves and, with the exception of
a few Christianised Fulɓe communities, they had not relied on formal school-
ing until recently. As students incur additional expenditures but often no direct
income for the household, and as they have an ambivalent relationship with
(state) schools, many adults perceived the school closures during the pandemic
as not a big problem or not a problem at all.2
Conclusion: Dealing with uncertainties provoked by the Covid-
19 pandemic
Our study on pastoralists’ response to Covid-19 in Northern Benin shows that
these emphasised as the main risk to their wellbeing not the threat of infection
with the disease but, in fact, the measures taken against the pandemic, particu-
larly mobility restrictions, market closures and the prohibition of larger social
gathering and contact as in religious ceremonies. Our analysis of pastoralists’
2 However, this view was less shared in urban cattle traders’ households where more
children attend school.
Covid-19 and Pastoralism in Northern Benin
Nomadic Peoples
responses to these measures shows that the pandemic accelerated and intensi-
ed and also accentuated the transformation of pastoral livelihoods that had
been going on long before the spreading of the coronavirus.
The pastoralists we worked with were well informed about Corona and
its risks to health and life. However, they did not accept the ofcial govern-
ment position that these risks constituted a major concern for them. Rather,
they had serious doubts about the need to nd defence mechanisms against
the pandemic, and many stressed that their real trouble was the government
restrictions on movement, social conduct and self-expression. The way they
dealt with these restrictions seems to be in line with what has been seen as char-
acteristic of pastoralist-state relations since colonial times: avoidance of open
contestation and confrontation, compliance where there is risk of punishment
imminent or where rewards are to be expected, and clandestine circumvention
of state rules when judged as the better alternative.
Our data, though, do not allow us to claim that there were uniquely pas-
toral responses or capabilities in response to the uncertainties and restrictions
generated by Benin’s pandemic management. Still, we could gather from ob-
servations, conversations with informants and survey data how the strategies
that guide pastoralists through situations of stress and uncertainty played out
in this particular case. These include the use of wide networks of cooperation
built in the form of social (including kinship) and religious community, geo-
graphical and logistical knowledge to circumvent at least some of the state’s
surveillance capacities, the capability to swiftly shift economic activities on
a continuum of more to less animal-based and, last but not least, the ability
to endure loss as a basic fact of life. As mentioned, none of this should be
idealised as the ingeniously effective capacities of one particular group: loss
and hardship did happen and there were, of course, non-pastoral populations
that drew on these strategies. Still, the exibility and pragmatism attributed to
pastoralists more generally (Scoones and Nori 2021) played an important role
in how they in Northern Benin dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thus, while our data are in line with the results of studies showing nega-
tive effects on household incomes in relation to the pandemic of Covid-19
(Mahmud and Riley 2021, Grifth et al. 2020, Simula et al. 2020, Mtimet et
al. 2021, APESS/IDRC 2021: 37), the pastoral system as an important part of
the economic system in Northern Benin did not collapse. Despite mobility re-
strictions, rising transport costs and loss of income, cattle were still bought and
sold, cheese continued to be produced and some women found ways to sell it.
Interestingly, the pastoralists we encountered discursively transformed
Benin’s response to the pandemic into an arena for the negotiation of exactly
those uncertainties they did not see themselves t to cope with. These uncer-
tainties originated from the state and society at large, and were a source of
Martin, Elijan and Schareika
Nomadic Peoples
constant perplexity in Benin’s pastoral compounds. The vast majority of our
respondents declared ‘uncertainty of access to land and pastures’ to be the big-
gest source of anxiety about their pastoral livelihoods and their future. Refusal
to accept Covid-19 as universal threat number one or the state and its methods
of governance as the adequate power to deal with such an alleged threat thus
became a foil against which to establish an opposing view of the signicant
problems that needed to be addressed and where capable and efcient action
was to be expected from. Therefore, it seems to come as no surprise that the site
most easily dispensed with, from a pandemic technical management and gov-
ernance point of view, became the focus of antagonistic views on Covid-19.
From a state government’s public health point of view, mosques and churches
were sites of super spreader events. From a rural, including pastoral, com-
munity’s point of view, they were rather sites of protection and self-assurance
against state-imposed uncertainty through the strengthening of community-
cum-spiritual relations.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for funding this study
with a one-year research grant for the project ‘COVID-19 and pastoralism in a
context of rupture and structural reforms in Benin’ (REF: SCHA 992/6-1). We
are grateful for the logistical support and advice received from the University
of Parakou and particularly from our numerous research partners in northern
Benin.
Author Contributions
JM and NS contributed to the design, JM and AE to the implementation of the
research, JM and AE to the analysis of the results, JM and NS to the writing
of the manuscript.
Jeannett Martin holds a Ph.D. and a Habilitation in Social and Cultural Anthropology
from the University of Bayreuth. She has done research on kinship, children’s belong-
ing, agro-pastoralism and mobility in West Africa (Benin and Ghana).
Email: jeannett.martin@uni-bayreuth.de
Abiguël Elijan holds a Ph.D. in Socio-Anthropology from the University of Abomey-
Calavi (Republic of Benin). She has worked on Fulbe society, ethnic dynamics and
radicalisation in Northern Benin. She is also interested in questions of pastoralism and
gender.
Email: abiguelelijan@gmail.com
Nikolaus Schareika is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of
Goettingen. He has extensively worked in pastoral societies, particularly in groups of
Woɗaaɓe and Fulɓe in West Africa and at present on processes of social transformation.
Email: nschare@gwdg.de
