THE UNGA – THE EXTRA-ORDINARY FISHERMEN

  Almost every Unga man you meet in and around the Bangweulu swamps, or indeed anywhere in the world, is a typical fisherman. Our main economic activity is fishing, and so, we are into it as soon as we start crawling. It is no wonder we are sometimes mockingly referred to as ba Tubulu, meaning one who spends most of his time in water and, therefore, even relieves himself therein.

It is estimated that twenty-three per cent of the fish consumed in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia is procured from Lunga. This goes to show that we possess unmatched expertise in fishing, which I discuss in a series of posts starting with this one. Research shows that we have over 80 fish species, which calls for various ways of catching it.

As in any other trade, you need to know what you want to achieve in order to employ a particular system to achieve your goal. As fishermen, we also employ several fishing methods and tools to get the type of fish we desire. We, therefore, adopt suitable methods for particular kinds of fish we want to catch.

It also depends on whether the fish we want to catch is for our own consumption or for commercial purposes. For home consumption, we use as simple and usually cheap methods as ukusaya, kwela, kukata, kufushila, kuloba, etc. (will be explained in detail later). These are methods that are used by both women and children to supplement our family nutrition.

Among the many methods used to catch fish for commercial exploitation are: Mukombo also known as kusakila, Kusebesha, Malalikisha, Mukwau and many others that I will try to describe in more detail in future posts.

In today’s post, I will explain Mukombo or Kusakila, but before I do that, we can look at some of the supplementary tools needed by fishermen to successfully go out fishing.

A dug-out canoe is a must in any fishing outing. Whether one is using gillnets (masumbu) or weirs (bwamba). He may carry accompanying tools such as ulwipo, a special, small dug-out ladle to scoop out unwanted water from the canoe. He can also carry a spear, luso or misumbo  which are sharpened steel bars inserted in reeds or small bamboo poles for use in self-defense, in case of a confrontation with alligators; or to spear fish and other water animals for food. Other tools may include mulama, also called mbobolo  which is a piece of stick used to finish off live fish so it does not jump out of the canoe. Akatule is one key tool used in Mukombo fishing method.

Let us then look at Mukombo or Kusakila. (Will use one of the two words to mean the same thing).

Mukombo is a method used to drive fish to the set nets by beating water using akatule; a circular wooden cone with a flat base fitted to a bamboo pole. A fisherman will first set his net called kachala or musakila, which is simply a gill net with floaters only, without sinkers.  It is fitted with floaters only for easy of re-setting in different places. The net will normally be 50 yards (45m) long and 20 to 25 meshes wide depending on water depth.

 If they are in a group, which is common in commercial fishing, Fishermen will set their nets next to each other, leaving no space in between for fish to escape; making a semi-circle called iceelo in shallow water, swamp or lagoon. Those at each end of iceelo will set their nets in such a way as not to allow fish that detect nets and run along to escape by making a small semi-circle, kapetelo, of the net at the end which traps the possible-runaway fish. Kapetelo is very ideal for catching big breams!

They will then go to the mouth of the nets and beat the water with tutule (plural of katule); as they paddle forwards, thereby driving the fish towards the nets.  This is repeated as many times in a day as possible. (We normally have heavy brunch, a combination of breakfast and lunch, before we go for Mukombo.)

The type of fish caught this way will depend on the mesh size of the gillnet. For breams, red-breasted tilapia, Mpende, Boulanger (Polwe), Gunther (Nsuku), Castelnau (Ntasa), the mesh might be from 2.5 to 3.5 inches. For Sparmali Smith (Matuku), the mesh may be 1 inch to 1.5 inches. These and a few other types such as Mbilya, Nsangula, etc.  are likely to be caught through Mukombo.

Umukombo is used typically between July to November when water has receded as you may not be successful with this method in very deep water. As can be seen the type of fish caught is highly valuable and is normally split open and sun-dried (amakumba). The fish is then sold to fish traders, generally from Copperbelt).

In the next post, I discuss another method used in commercial fishing called Ukusebesha. You can leave your comments and /or sign up for direct receipt of my posts right into your mailbox. Till then, enjoy!

Lukuku River to Lunga- Pic by Dr Manning, 1973