WE SLEPT ON TOP OF TREES TO AVOID BANDITS

The problem I encountered first was the rustling of our cattle and other livestock, including chickens, and the killing of two of our residents.

After that we decided to leave the community since we didn’t have anything left and our lives were at risk. We came back here and left our homes and farms. The bandits later came back and even set the houses ablaze. So, we are left with nothing. I am currently begging to eat because I don’t have the strength to do labour work.

The worst part of it is that I cannot go anywhere apart from here in the Sunami community of Gusau because anywhere you go now, people will start accusing you or stigmatising you as a Fulani man who is being suspected of banditry.

What happened that I cannot forget is losing what is my strength and what I consider as my everything in this world, which is my cattle. As a Fulani man, we don’t have anything we are more proud of than having cattle. Even when we farm, our priority is cattle rearing, which we don’t have access to now.

All our livestock and cattle were taken by those bandit people, who are always called Fulani. We even lost two of our colleagues.

So currently we don’t have any other pain bigger than this one. I can always recall the day of that attack. After surviving, we all went into the forest with our families, and we slept on top of the trees. Women also had to climb trees and sleep on top to avoid the bandits’ wahala. A few among the women who couldn’t climb trees had to find a cave to hide in the forest. The night was terrible because my neighbour’s house was the first that was attacked.

Actually, being a Fulani man here, we’re currently stable and are not facing any intimidation. They accept us with a good heart and help us, but where we left was where we encountered a lot of bias and intimidation as Fulani. We were not free from bandits and people looked at us all the time as people not to trust even in the marketplaces.

To be sincere, this place is safe for us. We have access everywhere because we are begging and we move to every angle and cranny of the place and nobody is saying any bad thing to us currently. But from a general perspective, people usually consider us as bandits.

It has become a normal thing in society now that we Fulani are not trusted and are always being regarded as criminal or not sincere individuals, but we have no option other than to put up with the situation until everything becomes history. Some people are usually saying it in your presence and in your face. Someone will even look you face to face and insult you and call you a bandit, not knowing what you are going through. If you respond, that can turn you into a mad man, but if you ignore and leave, it will just be past tense. Sincerely speaking, it is our colleagues who are responsible for all those things.

Even if we are not bandits, some of our colleagues are part of it and they are dominant in the system, so why will we deny the accusations? We must let people tell the truth that some of us are criminals.

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As narrated by: Ibrahim Ladan – 70 (Jangeme, Zamfara).

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This snippet is published as part of the series, What We Lost to the Bandits.