URE fishermen from home
Background
Deep in the South South and along the banks of huge rivers, can be found groups of Hausa fishermen. From AnaEze and Ndoni to Asaba Ase, Odi, Kaiama, including Bakassi in Cross River and Eket in Akwa Ibom, for example, these simple men are a growing population. They have a sense of adventure and rich knowledge of aquatic life and they also come with goodwill and home grown fishing practices. With mastery of the movement of water and wind, they are poised to fish in every river and they have. Some of them hail from fishing families in Argungu, Kebbi State, while others are from similar families in Ibi in Taraba State, and there are some from Nasarawa as well as Niger State. A significant number have fished all the way from Argungu following the course of Nigeria’s big and small rivers, to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, Shuaibu Mohammed, secretary of the Hausa community in Ndoni, tells me. Others have rowed along a stretch from Yola in Adamawa State, and fished all the way through the Niger Delta to the Atlantic, with some crossing into Cameroon and Gabon. Theirs is a life filled with adventure, danger, passion and fun. Mohammed adds with a knowing look in his eyes, that in addition to being an expert diver, he has fished for sharks and dolphins in the waters around Equatorial Guinea. They have not only married from the local community, they have also developed a keen interest in the many rivers within which they fish and support their families. Many can speak of a time when the river produced more fish than it does now. They say that the rivers are now shallow and that the fish have moved further off. In a sense they know the history of the river over the past 40 years, for instance. But when the fishing season is over, many of the men turn to various other trades such as tailoring and grocery, which they temporarily leave when the season begins again. A group of men can be found who make fishing nets and other tools. The ‘Guru’ is easily the most popular fishing tool,and the ‘Guru na drum’ found at Ikang, Bakassi is a new very creative version of same. Many of the local fishermen who may be Ijaw, Igbo, Isoko etc, have learnt new fishing habits from their Hausa colleagues. At Ndoni,Amaechi Ugboma, himself a fisherman speaks of the good relationship locals enjoy with Hausa fishermen, and he stresses that they learnt many fishing habits from the latter “We learnt the use of the fishing hook from them. We also borrowed the use of another type of net from Hausa fishermen.Many of them have married Ndoni women, and that is good for all of us.” In Odi, Usman Ibrahim says that a lot has changed among the fishing folk “In the past fisherman could leave Argungu and fish all the way to the Atlantic. But fishermen are lazy now,and can’t do this.”
Decline
The fishermen in the five states of the Niger Delta visited by Daily Trust, also speak on the decline of the rivers around them which they have fished in for many years. Many of them add that oil spillage, the use of dynamite and chemicals by some individuals while fishing, combine to kill many fish and aquatic life, and has made some fish to migrate to other rivers. Bala Tama, Vice Chairman of the Hausa community in Ndoni posits “The river Niger is not as deep as it used to be, and this has affected our fishing. Seventeen years ago, the river Niger was deeper than it is now, and all fishermen here in Ndoni agree on this. If it rains at Asaba or Onitsha a lot of debris float down here, and this also affects fishing.”
Speaking on the same theme at Odi, Sodangi adds “The use of dynamite is killing off many of the fish in the rivers. People also use chemicals on their farms, some of which flow in to the rivers, and this helps to drive the fish away. These are some of the problems we face.” Haruna Abubakar arrived Eket in Akwa Ibom state in 1975. He has been fishing there ever since, and even though the number of fishermen has declined,he is staying put in Eket. On the drop in numbers, he says “We used to have up to fifty fishermen here in Eket. Some have passed on, while others have returned to Ibi due to old age.”
Memories
There are three striking images from the trip: In Ndoni, the Hausa community salutes former Governor Peter Odili, who hails from the town and according to the community ‘pays all water and electricity bills for the entire population’ made up of locals, Hausa and many other groups. They refer to other good deeds which they trace to the former governor “Our women go to the hospital and give birth freely, without paying a Kobo. For babies and small children, no payment is made by our people at the hospital.”
Also, in Ndoni, there is 55 year old Abu Musa who arrived the community forty years ago, from Taraba state seeking wealth. Forty years on he hasn’t found wealth and he tells Daily Trust that he is still searching. There is the Hausa fisherman at Asaba Ase who is a 2009 graduate of fisheries from the university of Benin, but unemployment has now pushed him into fishing. Today, he is busy ennobling fishing activities among the fishermen in his part of Delta state.