Fishing in the Pondo - Sharing the Shade: The Elephants of Gourma, Mali And Niger River - Africa Is Our Continent And Islam Is Our Religion - Forever And Ever Whatever The Matter!! :: إفريقيا هي قارتنا والإسلام هو ديننا أبد الآبدين ومهما الأمر Written
by Pierre Maas and Geert Mommersteeg
Like all the great rivers of Africa, the
Niger passes through several countries before flowing home
to the ocean. Though its delta, in Nigeria, is less than
2000 kilometers (1200 miles) from its source, the river
curves in a huge arc through four countries and forms the
border of a fifth in its 4200-kilometer (2600-mile)
journey. Rising in the Fouta Djallon highlands on
the border of Sierra Leone and Guinea, the river first
flows northeast to reach Mali. In this landlocked country
of the Sahel, the Niger, grandly flowing through the dry
and dusty savannah landscape, is a critically important
source of water. In a good year, only 20 to 50 centimeters
(eight to 20 inches) of rain falls here, and not all years
are good ones. Between two of the major cities of Mali,
Segou and Timbuktu, the terrain falls hardly at all, and
the river divides into multiple braided branches, a
network of interconnected watercourses that includes some
large lakes. Here - if the rains do not fail - the river
overflows its banks every year, and during the rainy
season the bush changes into swampland traversed by many
streams and creeks. This is the Inner Niger Delta, or, as
the local people call it, the Pondo. For many centuries, people have lived in
this potentially rich and prosperous region. As early as
the third century BC small Iron-Age settlements existed
here, and some of the villages developed into wealthy
cities around the end of the first millennium. The best
known of these are Djenne and Timbuktu. The florescence of these commercial towns
was related to the Islamization of the Pondo. Berber
merchants and Moroccan traders from the north had brought
the Qur'an with them well before the 13th century, and
spread its message among the inhabitants of the cities. In
the late 14th century, traders of the Mali Empire opened
up routes to the Begho gold fields, on the borders of
modern-day Ghana and Cote d'lvoire, and both Djenne and
Timbuktu became important centers of the gold and salt
trade between that area and North Africa. Prosperous
Timbuktu, especially, was able to support a population of
Muslim scholars and theologians that gave it a great
reputation as a center of Islamic learning in the 15th and
16th centuries. Nonetheless, traditional beliefs held out
much longer in the surrounding countryside. Not until the
19th century, when a local leader of the Peul herdsmen
proclaimed a religious campaign against paganism, did the
majority of the Pondo peoples embrace Islam. Today between
70 and 90 percent of Mali's population as a whole is
Muslim. Because of the annual inundation of the
Pondo from June until October, every village and town in
the area is situated on a small hill, an island in a flat
landscape. From a distance, the settlements all look
alike: a mound on which the mud buildings form a skyline
that is dominated by the towers of the mosque, pointing
into the air like fingers. The origin of one such island,
a small one near the village of Gomitogo, is explained
this way by local legend. During the construction of the Great
Mosque of Djenne, they say, a jinni, or
supernatural being, was on its way to the town, carrying
mud for the new building. But another jinni,
returning from the site, reported that the mosque was
already finished. Since the mud was not needed anymore,
the first jinni tossed it out of the basket he had
been carrying on his head. Fallen to the ground, the mud
formed the Gomitogo island. The smaller villages in the Pondo are
mainly inhabited by farmers, herdsmen and fishermen. Each
of these professions is more or less the exclusive domain
of one particular ethnic group. For the Peul, or Fulani, herdsmen, the
Pondo is the pasture where, for part of the year, they
graze their herds of cows and flocks of goats. During the
growing season, however, they must leave the Inner Delta
and are forbidden to return until the cultivators, mostly
Bambara, have safely harvested their crops of millet and
rice. The fishermen, the Bozo, are the oldest inhabitants
of the Pondo - indeed, the word pondo derives from
their language. Like the Bambara, they rely on the river,
for the annual Niger flood not only brings in fertile soil
for the farmers but also carries large quantities of fish. Sirimou is a fine example of a Bozo
fishing village. Located six kilometers (nearly four
miles) northwest of Djenne, it has about 800 inhabitants
and, according to oral tradition, is one of the oldest
villages in the Pondo. Though the Bozo of Sirimou are
outnumbered by another ethnic group - the Nono, who are
farmers like the Bambara - Sirimou is nonetheless
considered a Bozo village, because fishing is an essential
means of subsistence for the whole population of the
place. From the south, Sirimou looks like a
fortress. The mosque, whose architecture is clearly
inspired by that of the Great Mosque of Djenne,
strengthens this impression with its high, crenelated
walls. Because it is built on a small hill, the village is
very compact: Small houses, built of loam, abut each other
and border the narrow streets, which open into three small
squares. Each square has its own function: One is the
market place, another serves as the forecourt of the
mosque, and the third is the social center of the village,
where meetings and festivals take place. A typical house here consists of several
adjoining rooms clustered around a small courtyard that is
separated from the street by a man-high wall. A doorway in
the wall, often closed by a hanging mat, connects the
courtyard to the street. Each bedroom is accessible only
from its adjoining living room, which in turn opens on the
courtyard. One room, smaller and blackened by the smoke of
cooking fires, is the kitchen -but only the actual cooking
of meals is done here. All food preparation, such as the
pounding of rice and millet, takes place in the courtyard
or in public places: in the streets or under a large tree
on the edge of the village. The courtyard also contains
the staircase to the flat roof of the house, where laundry
is dried and millet stalks - fodder for the dry season -
are stored. For this latter purpose, the narrow streets
are sometimes spanned by beams to increase the storage
area. As everywhere in the Pondo, Sirimou's
mosque dominates the village. It was built about 30 years
ago on the site of the former mosque, and it is completely
integrated into Sirimou's compact mass of buildings. After each year of exposure to the
elements, the rain-washed, sun-cracked building needs
replastering. Near the end of the cold season, in February
or March, its mud walls are given a fresh coating of loam.
This is a festive occasion for the entire community, and
everyone is present when the masons of the village do the
work, spreading the mud with their hands. In the hot season, the Pondo looks dry,
dusty and desolate. There is no water in the river beds.
For a few months, the sun beats down on the arid fields,
where sheep and goats eat the left-over stubble of the
last harvest. But when - or if - the first rains come in
June or July, the yellowish-brown vegetation turns green
and crops start to grow in the sown fields. Near the end
of July, the water in the Niger begins to rise and the dry
watercourses fill up. Along with the water, fish come to
the Pondo. When the water level in the Inner Niger
Delta has reached its highest, most fish have reached
their greatest weight and are ready to spawn, turning the
inundated area into rich fishing grounds. At the end of
November, when the water begins to retreat, the actual
fishing season starts. The Bozo fishermen of the Pondo are very
skilled. Specialized in their trade, they know the secrets
of the water and its creatures. Almost every species of
fish, of the rich variety found there, has its own
characteristics, exhibits its own behavior and occupies
its own biotope; the fishermen's knowledge of where to
find which fish and how to catch it is equally various.
This knowledge has been controlled by the Bozo since the
Pondo was first settled and, within their ethnic group, is
handed down from one generation to the next. Sardine-like tincui (Alcstes leuciscus)
are an important species to Bozo fishermen because of the
excellent oil they contain, but considerable skill is
needed to catch them. Tineni migrate in large
schools through the Pondo during the fall and winter, but
live in the flooded rice fields during the high-water
season. When the water starts to retreat, the farmers
enclose their fields in small dikes to hold back the water
for their growing rice plants. Before the harvest, though,
they break openings in the dikes to let the water stream
out, and it is there that the fishermen wait with their
nets to catch the small silvery fish. Others, meanwhile, start to fish on the
rivers and creeks. Standing in their narrow pirogues, they
punt to the places where they know they can expect the
best haul. Slowly, they maneuver to certain spots. To the
untrained eye, nothing indicates the presence of fish
there: All that can be seen is water, the surface of the
river flat as a mirror. Then suddenly, a fisherman casts
his net. A few seconds later, as it is drawn in, thrashing
and sparkling fish roil the water. The fisherman shakes
out his net above the boat, and a cascade of wriggling
silver covers his feet ankle-deep. Later in the year, the tineni
gather in the rivers of the Pondo to form dense schools.
Now is the time to make large catches. But since the fish
are migratory, the Bozo fishermen must migrate too.
Camping beside the river in temporary brush huts thatched
with straw mats, the fishermen and part of their families
spend months at a time away from the villages. As the fish
move, the fishermen follow in boats equipped with outboard
motors. Carrying a few belongings with them, they move
along the river to pitch another camp and continue to fish
the schools of tineni. The catch can be sold either fresh or
dried, and since it coincides with the harvest time of
most crops, the fish are an excellent means of exchange
for the staple foods of the region: rice and millet.
However, a fisherman does not trade his tineni with
just any farmer: The barter in fish and fish-oil is
subject to certain rules and traditions, and is carried
out with regard to trade relationships consolidated long
ago between a fisherman's family and a particular farmer's
family or village. Naturally, the fish must be preserved,
since a catch spoils within a day and becomes valueless.
While the Bozo men do the fishing, the women preserve the
catches ashore, either by drying, smoking or scorching the
fish. Dried in the sun, after having been salted, or
smoked over a fire under thick layers of straw mats, the
fish retain their size and taste and may be kept for
approximately six months; dried or smoked fish is an
important ingredient in local dishes. Scorched fish, on
the other hand, which has been laid in a smoldering fire
of dried grasses for several hours, loses most of its
nutritional value and is only used as seasoning. Near the end of the fishing season, about
the month of April, the river near the village of Sirimou
has shrunk to a stream. Large areas of the Pondo are dried
up, and the professional fishermen, their year's work
done, have brought home their catches. Now it is time to
find the last few fish still in the river - a cooperative
project that many of the villagers take part in. Like
beaters in a game drive, men, women and children wade
through the water with triangular nets in their hands. The
small fish are caught in the hand nets, and the big ones
are driven upstream into a large net spread across the
river. Soon, no fish are left in this part of the
Inner Niger Delta and, as everywhere in the Pondo, the
Bozo fishermen of Sirimou must wait about four months
until their river rises again and brings a new supply of
fish - if the river does rise. After all, this is the Sahel, and the
rains are ever uncertain. And even when they do fall, say
the old people of Sirimou, and the Niger floods its Inner
Delta, it will never be as it was during the first decades
of this century. The days before the great droughts of the
early 1970's and mid-1980's are gone forever. Those were the times, they say, when the
Pondo was the granary of a large part of West Africa, when
the harvests were abundant and, especially, when the
waters were full of fish. Comments 💬 التعليقات |