The Toucouleur People
of West Africa
The Toucouleur live primarily in the middle course of the Senegal River valley in northern Senegal and in the far Southern regions of Mauritania. Small groups also live in the westerly regions of Mali, in Gambia and widely dispersed in other West African nations such as Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. Numbers of Toucouleur expatriates are reportedly also to be widely dispersed throughout Europe, but to what extent has not yet been confirmed.
Senegal 
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Located on the western bulge of Africa, Senegal has a varied geography, encompassing both tropical forests and the outer boundaries of the Sahara Desert. Despite a few hills (the tallest rise to 1,640 ft. / 500 m), most of the country consists of low-lying plains. The highest point (581 m) is an unnamed location in the Futa Jalon foothills in Southeast of the country. The arid area, referred to as the Sahel, is an area of recurrent drought and persistent deforestation, overgrazing and famine.
Senegal is bordered by Guinea Republic and Guinea-Bissau to the south, Mali to the east and Mauritania to the north, and encloses the confederated state of The Gambia. To the west lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most land is less than 100m (330ft) above sea level, except for the Fouta Djallon foothills in the Southeast, and the Bambouk Mountains on the Mali border.
On the coast between Dakar and St Louis is a strip of shifting dunes. South of Dakar there are shallow estuaries along the coastline, which is fringed by palm trees. In the northern part of the country, south of the Senegal Basin, lies the arid Fouta Ferlo, a hot dry Sahelian plain with little vegetation.
Of the 75,750 sq. ml. Senegalese landmass most is covered with grasslands or desert. The Southwest portion of the country contains large areas of swampland and jungle.
The Futa Toro 
[ View the Futa Tooro in Northern Senegal jpeg 108kb ]
The largest area of settlement for the modern day Toucouleur people is in the northern St. Louis province of Senegal, in the major geopolitical region officially recognised as the Futa Toro, encompassing a large areas of northern Senegal and southern Mauritania, in the Senegal River Valley.
The Futa Toro is divided into 2 areas, one West called the Toro and one east called the Futa. Toucouleur staying in these two areas are respectively called Tooroodo (singular) / Tooroobe (plural) in the Western region, and Futanke (singular) / Futankoobe (plural) in the Eastern region of the Futa Toro.
In the south-central parts of Senegal another group of Toucouleur are reported to have settled in the Casamance region. This report has however not been verified or confirmed.
The majority of the Toucouleur people in the Senegal River valley, many of who were expelled from Mauritania during the unrest of 1989 between Mauritania and Senegal, have settled on the Senegalese side of the river. They occupy a 350km long narrow belt of country (approx. 20km wide) in the Fouta region, between Fanaye, East of Dagana on the banks of the Dagana tributary of the Senegal River, and Debankane North West of Bakel, about halfway between Matam and Bakel.
This belt of land stretches right onto the border of Mali and Senegal in the East. (The main concentration of Toucouleur in this region is reported to be on the banks of the Dagana River, a tributary of the Senegal River.)
The Senegal River descends from the Fuuta Jaalon Mountains in the Guinea, then meanders its way across Southern Mali and the Sahel plain of northern Senegal to the sea, near St. Louis. This is only the western edge of the vast Sahel region of Western Africa, an arid country of slightly undulating sandy ground with sparse and thorny vegetation. Rainfall, on average 200mm/year, is limited to 3 months per year from mid-July to mid-October.
The Jeeri and the Waalo
There is a distinction between the river delta of the Senegal River itself, which is composed of alluvial silt and salt sand, and the "Marigots" or tributaries, in the 125-mile long valley of the river basin. These foldable edges of the valley are prone to seasonal flooding and cultivated during the low water periods when various crops are planted in the saturated soils.
The Toucouleur distinguish between the lower-lying, foldable ground in the valley, the "Waalo", and the higher, non-foldable ground, the edges of the valley called "Dieri" (French) or "Jeeri"(Pulaar). The "Jeeri" is all the terrain beyond the "valley" on both sides of the river. The "Jeeri" often stretches for a hundred or two hundred km. and far beyond the area inhabited by the Toucouleur.
The Toucouleur have their villages along the edge of this vast Jeeri area, and so there are the Waalo villages and the Jeeri villages of the Toucouleur. Note that it is the Waalo that is prone to flooding, and not the Jeeri. Most Waalo villages have some sort of a mud dike (quite low) around them to keep the waters out.
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