The Fulani, also called Foulani, Fulbhes, Fulfulde, Pular or Fellata depending on the country, are a traditionally pastoral people established throughout West Africa and beyond the Sahelo-Saharan strip, i.e. in total about fifteen different countries and for a total estimated between 25 and 65 million people according to the criteria used.
Particularly numerous in Nigeria, Niger, northern Cameroon ,Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea, they are also present in Chad, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea-Bissau , Sierra Leone, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and Sudan. They are often in the minority, with the exception of Guinea, where they represent the largest community in the country with 53.4% ​​of the population .
Their dispersal and mobility favored exchanges and crossbreeding with other sub-Saharan populations. The basis of their identity, however, is the Muslim religion, pastoral competence, a tendency to endogamy and the Fulani language. They have, in any case, multiple groups.