Veritatis Gaudium: Multidisciplinary Journal of Postgraduate Studies

Conflicts between nomadic Fulani herders and sedentary farming communities represent one of Nigeria’s most persistent and destructive socio-economic challenges. Although often framed in contemporary discourse as a 21st-century crisis, this paper demonstrates that the phenomenon has deep historical antecedents, with documented clashes dating back to at least the early colonial period. Drawing primarily on C. K. Meek’s seminal 1921 ethnographic and census report on Northern Nigerian tribes, alongside climatic, ecological, and socio-political analyses, the study examines the multi-layered causes of these conflicts. The research identifies four interlocking categories of drivers: geographical and climatic factors (particularly the movement from the arid Sahel and Sudan savannas to the Guinea Savanna in search of pasture); pastoral and economic imperatives; religious and political dimensions; and the quest for land and territorial control. Special attention is paid to how British colonial administrative policies, informed by racial theories of superiority, institutionalized differential treatment that privileged Fulani Muslim elites over indigenous Middle Belt communities, thereby entrenching structural imbalances that persist today. The paper argues that environmental pressures—exacerbated by deforestation, changing rainfall patterns, and desertification—interact with historical narratives of ethnic and religious superiority to transform what was once a largely symbiotic relationship into recurring cycles of violence. By revisiting colonial-era ethnographic records and situating them within contemporary realities, this study provides a historically grounded framework for understanding the roots of herder-farmer conflicts and their implications for national cohesion, food security, and sustainable development in Nigeria.

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