The Fulani pastoralists of the Western Highlands of Cameroon are a subgroup of
the Fulbe, a wider pastoral group whose members are dispersed across Sub-Saharan Africa.
They migrated and settled in the region in the early twentieth century at different times in
migratory waves. Since arriving in the region, they have experienced different stages of
transformation due to changing socioeconomic, political and ecological conditions influencing
their nomadic lifestyle. The Fulani pastoralists have moved from a purely nomadic
lifestyle that involved permanent seasonal migration with their herds and families to a
semi-nomadic lifestyle involving return to their previous settlements at the end of each
transhumance season, and they finally have adopted a more sedentary community lifestyle
that involves only the seasonal movement of herdsmen and their cattle during dry periods.
This pastoralist transformation process was motivated by the hospitality of native farming
communities, the British colonial administration and postcolonial government of Cameroon,
population growth and environmental degradation in the Western Highlands of
grazing and cultivable land. This transformation has been beneficial to both pastoralists and
native farming groups by improving local community development through increased
agro-pastoral production and the realization of communal development projects in education
and non-agro-pastoral economic activities. Several challenges have confronted this
Fulani pastoralist transformation and its community development in the Western Highlandsof Cameroon: landuse competition involving farmer–herder conflicts and inter-tribal wars;
climate change, including rainfall variability; and environmental degradation including the
disappearance of agro-pastoral lands. This paper, based on field research, investigates the
various approaches, benefits and challenges involved in Fulani pastoralists’ settlement
transformation in the Western Highlands of Cameroon.