42-year-old Osmanu Sambo sits in front of his walled family house in Donkorkrom, the capital of the Kwahu North District in the Eastern Region of Ghana, which is more than 400km from Accra, the country’s capital, with a cheerful face that masks the pain, anguish, dejection, and rejection he has had to live with all his life.
This Donkorkrom community, which used to be peaceful in the two Afram Plains districts – Kwahu North and Kwahu South – has “become a hostile ground for us, the Fulani people”, he said during an exclusive interview.
“Since 2016, we haven’t had peace here. We have been discriminated against on several fronts. But the major one is that the indigenes or the local people, and by extension Ghanaians in general, keep referring to us, the Fulani people, that we are not Ghanaians”.
Sambo told this journalist who took the risk of travelling on dangerous roads and a ferry on the famous River Volta – the main river system in the country that flows south into Ghana from the Bobo-Dioulasso highlands of Burkina Faso – to come and ascertain the abiding discrimination and human rights abuses against the Fulbe, mostly referred to as Fulani or Fulani people, and the constant tagging as non-Ghanaians, which has left them devastated and hopeless.
It is not only the Fulanis in the Afram Plains who are being tagged and labelled non-citizens, even though their great-grandparents were born and bred in Ghana and have lived in the country for over 100 years. It is a countrywide problem faced by the Fulani people who were born in the country, as well as the nomadic Fulani people who seasonally moved with their cattle into the country for pastures during the harmattan and dry seasons.
Pointing in the direction of the four expired copies of his passport, Sambo said: “Anytime I try to renew my passport, I need to have documented evidence because of the kinds of questions that I would be asked to prove that I am a Ghanaian. This is very bad!”.
“Recently, I went and renewed my passport, and I was told that Sambo, which is my surname, is not a Ghanaian name. However, they, the officials of the Passport Office, preferred names such as Michael, Matthew and other Christian and English names as Ghanaian names.
Even aside from the Fulani names, if you go to the National Identification Authority (NIA) or Passport Office to apply for a Ghana card or passport, and you bear a Muslim name, the questions they would ask you are different from a person who bears Kwame or Kweku or any of the Akan names. So, these are the things that are not right in the country,” he cried out.
However, the NIA, which issues the Ghana card, the national identification card for citizens and non-citizens, and the Passport Office, which is an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, have constantly denied this claim of discrimination.
“My uncle, who is the Fulani chief of Donkorkrom, faces difficulties in obtaining national documents such as the Ghana card and passport, although he was born and grew up here.
It is difficult for him to get Ghana card registration here because his surname is Sambo. It was extremely difficult for him. He even found it tough when he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. The short story is that he came to Accra, so I applied for a passport for him, but we didn’t find it easy at all”.
The Fulani Chief of the Donkorkrom, Alhaji Iddrisu Sambo, added that it was not easy at all. During the registration for the Ghana card, he said the local people didn’t allow the Fulanis to be registered because they claimed that they were not Ghanaians.
Alhaji Sambo, however, explained that the leadership of the Fulani community met with the Kwahu North District Chief Executive and the superpowers in the big cities before they were allowed to register the Fulani community – but not all of them were registered.
“If one Fulani gets his or her Ghana card today, the next day, they will deny another Fulani person. This shows the racism in the system. You can show your birth certificate issued in the country where you were born at this hospital at this place.
You can show proof of your birth certificate, but they will deny you. Any document that involves nationality, the many members of the Fulani community are denied. We are suffering. Generally, the Fulani community’s access to national identification is a hassle”.
Can you imagine that the Fulani people are allowed to participate in general elections? During elections, the government allows them to vote after they have registered for the voter ID cards, Sambo said, adding that, but when it comes to Ghana cards, passports and other national documents, then public officials and other citizens would say that they know who is a Ghanaian and who has the right to have these documents.
The General Secretary of the Fulani Community in Ghana, Yakubu Barry, lamented the discrimination against the Fulbe. He said: “We are Fulbe, we are not Ghanaians, and we can’t be Ghanaians. However, most Fulbe have been living in Ghana for over a century, so they are Ghanaians”.
He said they are being marginalised and discriminated against.
“That is why our association, the Fulani Community in Ghana, is advocating against discrimination, stereotyping, and marginalisation against the Fulbe”.
He continued: “The 1992 constitution of Ghana does not discriminate against any tribe. Being a citizen is by law. The Constitution does not say being a citizen is by tribe or by your look or stature. So, we, the Fulbe, feel discriminated against.
Our rights are being trampled. We are denied every national document, including the National Health Insurance (NHI) card,” he said.
But senior officials at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) that issues the health insurance cards said they were issued to Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians alike.
Additionally, the Programmes Manager for Security Sector Governance and Local and Urban Sector Governance at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Paul Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah, corroborated the fact that according to Ghana’s constitution, anyone who was born here before the coming into force of the constitution is a citizen.
“Most of these Fulani people have lived here over the years. They have their generations over generations who have lived here and have been born here. We have citizenship by registration, so if the person wants to be a citizen of Ghana even though he is a Fulani but is not an original citizen of Ghana, he can follow the procedure to become a citizen.
However, don’t forget the fact even though the ECOWAS Protocol and the African Union (AU) protocol give free movement across boundaries, it doesn’t mean that makes you an automatic citizen when you are not originally a citizen of the country”.
So, if people want to be citizens where they were not originally citizens by birth or by any association, marriage or anything, they need to go through the process of acquiring citizenship, and that should not be a problem for us. That is also one of the problems that people have put all Fulani people together as non-Ghanaians, it is a wrong notation, Mr Aborampah Mensah said.
Other challenges
Besides the citizenship challenge, there is also a constant impasse between the Fulbe pastoralists, which has extended to all people of Fulani descent in the communities, especially where there are more Fulbe pastoralists.
While the Fulani pastoralists are looking for grazing land to feed their cattle, the community farmers also need the same land for farming, leading to conflict. The protracted conflicts in some cases have led to all Fulanis being labelled as criminals.
The national security and security agencies are concerned.
How can these challenges be resolved?
The National Peace Council has tried mediation, peace promotion activities, creating a platform for inter-faith engagements to address the challenges of the Fulani people and the farmers. But progress has been slow.
The Ministry of National Security, together with the security agencies, tried to do a ranging system located in the Afram Plains, where they were able to secure large tracts of land for a fence-ranging system for cattle. Hopefully, this would keep the cattle from venturing into farms.
Who are the Fulani people?
Studies show that the Fulani people of western and north-central Africa are also known as Peuhl and Fula, which is their traditional name.
The name Fulani which is commonly used according to the studies, was given to the Fulbe by the Hausa of Nigeria and Niger. Some scholars also say the Fulani migrated south from northern Africa, and their exact origins are unknown.
However, a lasting solution needs to be found to the burning issues affecting the Fulanis.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report with support from CJID/ IWPR
