Almost as soon as the immigrants arrived, distinctions developed between them and their indigenous coworkers. The immigrants came to be known as Fellata, a term with negative connotations that...

Almost as soon as the immigrants arrived, distinctions developed between them and their indigenous coworkers. The immigrants came to be known as Fellata, a term with negative connotations that obliterated their own, separate tribal distinctions. In response to their new cultural environment, the West Africans adopted some outward traits of their Sudanese neighbors, especially styles of dress and housing. However, to differentiate themselves from the Sudanese, they also intensified some of their own cultural practices, emphasizing fundamentalist Islamic practices in contrast to the animistic beliefs in spirit possession and trance found among Arabs in North Africa. They began to apply the word Takari to themselves, a respectful term signifying “pilgrims.” Although they replaced a negative term (Fellata) with a positive one, they essentially accepted the view of themselves as members of an ethnic group different from their hosts. Thus, they participated in the formation of an ethnic identity, initially imposed on them but then adopted as part of their self-definition.