“People think the fishing business is for the illiterate, but they cannot be more wrong”

The Small-scale fisheries Summit that took place in Rome prior to the FAO Committee on Fisheries early September showed the elephant in the room regarding the future of small-scale fishing communities:

Only one out of the approximately 80 SSF representatives was below 30 years old. We talked to three young African men and woman working in the sector to understand the challenges and prejudices young people face in making a living off small-scale fisheries.

Dorcas Kilola Malogho from Kenya, Angelo Juvenary Matagili from Tanzania and Nana Kweigyah from Ghana are from different contexts and countries, but they have at least two things in common: they are young and they work in small-scale fisheries in Africa. They also share English as a common language which has allowed them to stay in touch beyond the first conference specifically gathering youth from the African confederation of artisanal fisheries organisations (CAOPA) in 2021.

 “Youth in Africa face the common challenges of unemployment and limited employability skills, of limited access to credit, the threats of climate change and a high propensity to engage in illegal acts,” explains Angelo Juvenary Matagili, who is the coordinator of CAOPA youth since 2019. He is the son and grandson of fishermen and has been involved in the fishing business since he was a teenager when he used to help his father manage the camps for fishermen fishing for sardines on Lake Victoria.

On the Western coast of Africa, in the Central Region of Ghana, in Abandze, Nana Kweigyah was also born in a fishing community, to a fisherman and a woman fish processor. “My father had a canoe and a crew. In those days, if we were not in school, we were at the beach assisting or helping mum in processing; smoking and frying the fish.”

Dorcas Kilola Malogho, from Mombasa, however, has quite a different story. With no fishermen or women fish processor in her lineage, she started processing fish because her neighbour, Mercy Mghanga, successful fish trader, encouraged and mentored her into it. “We were not that close then, but I loved and admired what she did and I wanted to learn more about it”.

Since their first steps in the fisheries world, these three young men and woman have moved far ahead. Dorcas was elected secretary of a women in fisheries company and recently bought two fridges which allow her business to prosper and to give employment to more women. Angelo co-founded a fishers’ union and started a business of solar lamps with a partner. Nana is a secondary school teacher, but also owns a canoe and co-founded a canoe owners association. How did they reach here?

Small-scale fisheries in Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana – an introduction

In Tanzania, almost all fisheries are small-scale (98%), with approximately 470,000 tons of fish landed every year, a substantial increase in the last 5 years. According to FAO, there are approximately 210,000 registered fishermen and 4 million people depend on the fisheries value chain, both coastal and inland.

DORCAS Kilola MALOGHO, KENYA

Dorcas was born in Mombasa (Kenya) in 1994. She studied marketing, but could not finish her studies. She then worked in an insurance company, but when marketing and parenting became difficult, she tried to find another occupation. Her neighbour introduced her to fisheries recently and she is now secretary of the Coastal Women in Fisheries Entrepreneurship (CWiFE), a Kenyan organization of women fish processors.

On Lake Victoria, where Angelo was born, silver cyprinid fishing (commonly known as “dagaa” or sardine) is seasonal. When there is no moon, the fishermen move from their settlements and install camps on islands where, during 10 days, they fish sardines with the help of kerosene lamps called “karabai.” “We came up with the idea of solar lights because kerosene is dangerous,” Angelo explains. He partnered with a few others to start a company to use renewable energy to improve the working conditions of small-scale fishers. Beyond the skin irritation and breathing problems, the danger of burning and the risk of the boat catching fire, fishers need to use 40% of their benefits to cover the fuel costs. “The solar lamps cost approximately the amount one year of kerosene, and the lamp can last up to 10 years and the battery 3-5 years.”

With only 15,000 fishermen and 10,000 tonnes of catch per year, Kenyan artisanal fisheries are far behind their Southern neighbour Tanzania in terms of socioeconomic relevance. However, the women in fisheries are finding innovating ideas to guarantee their supply and make ends meet. In the coastal areas, where Dorcas lives, artisanal fishers are organised in Beach Management Units, a form of co-management that was put in place by the government, but which has not solved the problem of marginalization of small-scale fishers facing other sectors’ competition.

Still, fishers, women fish processors and retailers make the most of tourism, one of the sectors competing with them for coastal space, selling fish to hotels. “I do not like selling to Mombasa hotels because they buy at credit and pay at the end of the month,” Dorcas winces, adding that Nairobi hotels pay better and in cash. Women in Kenyan artisanal fisheries are also looking at ways to export some of their premium farmed seafood products: octopus, oyster, catfish and tilapia.

With a strong sector but rivalling with foreign industrial vessels, Ghana’s artisanal fisheries are an important element for food security in the country, as fish is the primary source of animal protein. According to a survey of the canoe sector in 2016, there are approximately 12,000 canoes and 108,000 fishermen, but more than 2 million people (10% of the population) depend on fisheries for their livelihoods.

However, a fast-declining catch and other challenges such as IUU fishing, competition with industrial fleets and climate change is putting the sector under severe strain. “People genuinely want things to change, but we are not getting the right support,” Nana laments. He feels powerless in facing these challenges: “My big concern is not being able to address the illegalities that are driving the collapse.” One of the causes: Ghanaian flagged trawlers of foreign origin (mostly Asian) plunder marine resources and declare it as bycatch, transshipping at sea large quantities of undersized juveniles.

Participation and representativity: how to be heard

To face these challenges, Nana created with the support of other canoe owners the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG). “When I came back to the fisheries sector after college, I identified two gaps: the people who are the most concerned about decisions in artisanal fisheries are not being engaged and measures taken to fight IUU were not yielding results.” In Ghana, the chief fishermen are the leaders in fishing communities, but throughout the years this position has become somewhat hereditary, with people who are not linked to fisheries representing fishers in official meetings.

ANGELO JUVENARY MATAGILI, TANZANIA

Angelo was born in Dar-es-Salam in 1985 and raised in Mwanza (Tanzania). He has been involved in fisheries since he is young, helping his father with the fishing camps on Lake Victoria. In 2007, he founded the Fishers Union Organisation (FUO), the first union representing small-scale fishermen in his country. Mid-2010s, with some partners, he started a solar company to bring clean energy solutions for fishing communities. He is the youth coordinator of the African Confederation of Artisanal Fisheries Organisations (CAOPA).

“The real people are on the beach: the canoe and gear owners. We need to bring them at the dialogue table because they are the ones investing in the sector and because the crew is loyal to them,” Nana concludes. Angelo concurs, with a similar experience in Tanzania where fishing agents pretend to represent small-scale fishers: “The factory agents are the ones who have power and money but we tell the government they need to go to the landing sites to meet the real fishermen.” For this reason, also, Angelo and some other fishers, formed in 2007 the Fishers Union Organisation (FUO), the first union in Tanzania to represent small-scale fishers.

For youth, participation is also difficult inside fishing organisations: “Youth are not often given the opportunity to speak, because the older ones are afraid to be replaced,” Dorcas explains, even though the organization she is part of, Coastal Women in Fisheries Entrepreneurship (CWiFE), gave her the chance at the first conference she attended: “I had to learn it all from scratch.”

The sea of opportunities

The three concur that one of the main problems youth faces is the lack of youth-specific policies and training, as very little is done at government level to develop fisheries policies that target them. “Limited employability skills prevent youth from finding jobs and innovating in fisheries,” explains Angelo.

Dorcas believes that with a little training much can be done: “Even if you have not gone to school, you can still learn quality control and manage the cold chain well.” With this mindset, CWiFE obtained a grant from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to empower women in the post-harvest trade. Dorcas is looking in ways that CWiFE has more presence on social media, by having a Facebook business account, so they can put their products on an online platform and reach new customers: “the more the customers, the more employment we can give.”

Nana Kweigyah, ghana

Nana was born in the fishing community of Abandze, Central Region, Ghana in 1984. Hi father owned a canoe and his mother was a fish processor. He studied geography and economics at university and is now a high school teacher. After college, he saved to be able to buy a canoe. He is chairman of the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG).

You can follow him on Twitter at: @NKweigyah.

On the other hand, there are also prejudices that prevent youth from venturing in fisheries: “People think fisheries is for the illiterate,” Dorcas protests and Nana adds: “Educated youth do not want to get involved in a business where they will become poorer and they will rather seek white collar jobs.” However, Nana sees potential jobs in specialized services for fishers, either financial, social or educational, but also more obvious opportunities in fish processing and boat-making: “Can we move to more advanced boats within the means of the fishers? There are also loads of grey areas in processing. At the moment we only smoke, fry and dry fish. Can we do more?” Dorcas dreams to see her son working as a boat builder: “I want to see my family prosper into fisheries.”

But another stumbling block is the lack of access to capital and credit, says Angelo. For the solar lamps, they received funds from a university in the Netherlands, and now they obtain loans from funding partners. But not all are so lucky. Nana, for example, faced difficulties when he reached training college, as his father’s business was not doing well. He worked hard as a teacher to save and buy a canoe. Dorcas also had to start buying a small amount of fish on her own funds or on credit with the fishermen: she left her ID and phone with the fishers as a guarantee she would pay.

Yet, they are determined. Despite the difficulties, the three of them intend to continue making a living off fishing, supporting their communities and derive satisfaction from it. As Nana says: “What gives me a lot of joy is that I am able to provide livelihoods for people, for the crew. With the fish, I can also support others who reach out to me for help. With the little they get they can feed their families.”

Banner photo: A detail of Angelo, Nana and Dorcas (left to right) at the final declaration of the CAOPA Youth Gathering, July 2021. All photos, but Angelo’s portrait are courtesy of CAOPA. Angelo’s portrait was taken by CFFA in June 2022 at the UN Ocean Conference.

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