Wahab Gaolo is identified as a contemporary of Mamadou Gaolo and as a member of the Gaolo group, a Fulani-speaking community with genealogical and narrative functions. His activity extended beyond the western savannahs into Chad, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Zaire. The scale of this survey reflects the mobility of Fulfulde-speaking populations and the geographical dispersion of families connected by migration.

His purpose was to learn the genealogy and history of families that had emigrated to those countries. This was not merely a collection of isolated family names: genealogical inquiry connected branches that had moved away from their original communities and preserved relationships across distance. The passage therefore places Wahab within a wider tradition in which travel was essential to reconstructing the ramifications of an ethnic group.

The Gaolos are distinguished from the dieli, although they are said to possess equivalent prerogatives. They were talkers and declaimers rather than musicians, while their women sang with rudimentary instruments; many genealogists were found among them. Wahab’s survey exemplifies the group’s role in maintaining historical knowledge through oral performance and consultation.