Nomadic cattle herders in the Sahel depend on movement to survive. As drought deepens, pasture shrinks, water grows harder to reach, and long-used migration routes are overtaken by farms, this dryland livestock system comes under pressure from every side.
From Chad to Senegal, the film follows pastoral communities as they try to keep herds moving through a harsher landscape and a more restrictive economy. What emerges is not a portrait of an outdated way of life, but of a system still adapted to arid land, yet increasingly constrained by land conflict, insecurity, failing veterinary support, rising grain prices, and competition from imported meat.
The result is a sharper question: what happens when a mobile cattle system built for the Sahel can no longer move?
Documentary: The Fulani Shepherds: A Cry in Africa
Director: Clara Ott & Eric Elléna
Production: French Connection Films & France Télévisions (2010)
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