Fishing

The methods that people used to catch fish varied, as did the extent to which people specialized in fishing. For some, like those in Ewe communities, fishing is a livelihood and way of life. For others, it was a way to supplement their diets as opportunities allowed. The building of Bui Dam and the formation of Bui Lake after 2012 caused dramatic change in the kinds of fish living in local waters and in people’s ability to make a living through fishing. Some of the sustainable fishing techniques long used by Ewe fishermen no longer work because of these changes, including the use of ingenious basketry traps made from locally available materials. In July 2022, several Ewe fishermen shared their knowledge and, over the course of several days, demonstrated how to build a basketry fish trap (exa in Ewe) as part of the British Museum’s Endangered Material Knowledge (EMKP) Programme. Here’s a look at the steps involved in making this useful tool from local materials, about which you will soon be able to learn more from materials that will be available through EMKP.

Maxwell Gbadago, Dzobo Sebastian and Dzobo Rubben are Ewe fishermen from the village of Akanyakrom. Before its residents were displaced and relocated to a site downstream of the dam and away from the river in 2012, Akanyakrom was a riverside village upstream of the dam site. For these Ewe fishermen, fishing is not just a livelihood—it is central to their identity and culture. In the words of Maxwell Gbadago,

“For the longest time, we didn’t need money because we were rich in fish. This richness in fish was also a richness in community and culture. We all worked together as a community to not only get food but to protect our land. The land thanked us by providing more than we could use. At one time, fish were so plentiful that you could fill your boat and your belly and still have more for your wife to trade for other goods. She could get anything your family needed by trading it for fish. Like this, the community worked together so there was no need for competition.”

This ingenious and now endangered technology helped Ewe fisherman to fish sustainably for generations. Fishermen knew to adjust the size of a basketry trap and the closeness of its weave to the kind of fish they wanted to catch. They used traps during the rainy flood season when waters are cloudy and fish are moving upstream and into flowing tributaries. Fishermen know that this is the time when fish breed, and they know to limit their fishing and rely on tools that allow small and younger fish to go free. They know to use basketry traps to feed the family rather than make big catches. Basketry traps allow small and immature fish to escape through the gaps between sticks, at they same time as they entice larger fish to enter the trap. In this way, they helped to sustain fish breeding stocks at the same time as they enabled people to meet their need for food.

Fishermen from Akanyakrom expressed concern about the effects of the dam on their livelihoods. Winds and waves on the newly formed lake (left) make it unsafe to fish using the locally made canoes of Ewe fishermen. Fishermen now need motor-powered larger boats to fish safely on the lake, equipment that is beyond the reach of local Ewe people. People today come from other regions of Ghana and beyond to fish in Bui Lake and fishing is increasingly done with industrially produced nets and little regard for maintaining the breeding populations that ensure sustainable fishing. For these reasons, Ewe fishing communities who have lived in Banda for over a century find it increasingly difficult to make a living through fishing, as generations of their forbearers had done.