In their analysis of the expansion of the small-scale fishery sector in Senegal, Chauveau and Samba (1989) claim that it is the endogenous dynamics of the artisanal sector that constitutes the engine of this development (p. 614). We think this is a fruitful intake to the problematic of innovation in West African canoe fisheries. Here an attempt will be made to reveal - on a local level - some of the mechanisms behind the endogenous or internal dynamics which, in addition to external factors, have led to the expansion of artisanal fisheries. The causes of this success are imbedded in people's attitude to life and in how they relate to each other and to impulses from the external world. Through history the coastal Fante have had contact with far travelling traders, colonial authorities, overseas companies and aid agencies. They have responded to such external opportunities with cooperation, talent for trade and an innovative attitude. With the onset of Atlantic slave trade, the Fante became intermediaries between inland and European traders. In this context women have been involved in the occupation of market trade as far back as we have written sources. (Nypan, 1960; Lawson, 1971; Lewis, 1977; Odotei, 1991). We will not go further into history here, but when we now turn to examine the role of women as intermediaries in the expansion of production and distribution of fish, it is important to realize that their active economic role is not a new or "imported" phenomenon.
Canoes land 70% of the total marine fish catches in Ghana (Haakonsen, 1988). This artisanal fishery sector consists of more than 8 000 canoes in addition to the estimated 2 000 "Ghana canoes" on seasonal or long term migration to other West African countries (Koranteng, 1990). The number of fishermen is estimated to be 91 400, in addition to 1.5 million people that are "dependants" of these (Koranteng, 1990). This is roughly 10% of Ghana's population. In 1970 the motorisation of canoes was estimated to be 20-25% and in 1989 more than 57% of the total canoe fleet had adopted the outboard motor, and between 1960 and 1990 the canoe landings of fish have risen steadily (Hernæs, 1991).
Women have proved important in financing innovation in this sector. In the initial phases of the introduction of outboard motors in the 50's, the experiments and model projects of the British colonial government, the FAO, the Fisheries Department Research Unit and individual entrepreneurs were important as sources of information and inspiration for trying out the new technology4 (Lawson and Kwei, 1974; Odotei, 1991). However, the success of the outboard motor in the artisanal sector must primarily be assigned to the initiatives of fisher people along the coast of Ghana, who seized the opportunities for increased production and income. Not the least the women saw the utility of the outboard motor as a means to increase production of fish for their processing and trading enterprises. The loan schemes that were promoted by the government in order to motorize the canoe fleet were largely unsuccessful. The repayment conditions of the banks were difficult for the fishermen to meet as they were often unable to pay their debts at the required time intervals, which did not take into consideration the seasonal nature of the fisheries. The fishermen therefore turned to sources of credit within the fishery sector, and these were to a great extent women. Especially from the 70's onwards, women involved themselves financially and became central in the modernization of the canoe fisheries5. A statement by a female canoe owner in Moree illustrates their attitude: "The women found out that there is money in fishing".
The main creditors in this process were women traders, who often hold considerable amounts of capital (Christensen, 1977; Vercruijsse, 1983; Odotei, 1991). They gave credit to canoe companies for the purchase of equipment, and in return they received a portion of the catch until the loan was repaid. With the increased production and primary access to buy the fish, some of these wealthy women were able to combine profitable investments with crucial social contacts. They emerged as a powerful group of large scale intermediaries who converted their gains into social prestige6.
We see the female traders' and financiers' role in an entrepreneur perspective. In her study of female entrepreneurial styles among coastal Fante women, Lewis (1977) sees an entrepreneur as one who assumes all the risks and makes all the decisions concerning the operation of an enterprise in order to achieve some economic and social goal (p. 132). This is what women in Moree do in their small scale and large scale enterprises. When the outboard motor arrived on the scene, they took risks and achieved both economic and social goals, through entrepreneurial strategies.
Business women are not only entrepreneurs, they are also mothers and family breadwinners. Fante women are not restricted from participation in economic activity. They acquire personal worth and establish themselves as social persons primarily by giving birth to children; they thereby secure the continuity of the lineage. They are also expected to be economically independent in order to support these children and contribute economically to the extended family. Lewis (1977) points to the fact that women can dispose of their own income, which made the development of private enterprise among Fante women possible and, moreover, that the extended family, far from being a constraint on the development of entrepreneurship, is one of the most valuable resources on which a woman can draw in her efforts to start and sustain a business (p. 129). In most of the success stories in Moree, conjugal and matrilineal relations have been decisive for the access to the crucial resources of fish, credit and labour, and this holds true not only for women, but also for men. Thus an emphasis on the social aspects of entrepreneurial activity, and not only mere accumulation of wealth, is important in the analysis of the role of female entrepreneurs in introduction or, rather, incorporation of new technoloygy, and the social and economic changes that have happened in the fisheries must be seen in the light of Fante cultural construction of gender.
It has been pointed out that in many West African societies political structures are gender sensitive and dual-sex in nature (Moran, 1990, p. 166). In such a dual-sex type of status system the genders are constucted as two separate, noncomplementary kinds of human beings. Both men and women are able to achieve social esteem via exclusively male and female channels (Okonjo, 1976). A reflection of this is the Akan political structure with the positions of the male Chief and the female Queen Mother (Manoukian 1950, p. 29). Moran (1990, p. 167) points out that entrepreneurial acivity and age grant prestige, and markets are important arenas for women in the dual-sex status system. In Ghana the market system in particular provides an opportunity - if often the only opportunity - for women to rise within a hierarchy that is not dominated by men. The dual-sex system view, combined with the entrepreneur perspective, could enable us to undertstand the social organisation which made possible the extent of female entrepreneurship that took place with the introduction of new technology in fishing communities, and the resultant changes in gender and economic relations.
The large scale fish traders' gender-defined role in the economic system can be viewed as their asset, and their role as financiers in the canoe sector as a niche (see Barth, 1963), which was filled by entrepreneurial women intermediaries in a process of technological and economic change in a certain period of Ghanaian history. Women's entrepreneurial activity in this process also brought about social change; an increasing number of women became owners of the means of production. Through profit acquired in fish trade, measured both in material and monetary forms, but also in the form of power, rank and skills (Barth, 1963, p. 8), women could confirm and strengthen their position in the female sphere of the dual-sex power hierarchy. However, as we shall see, with the control over not only processing and distribution but also over production that some women were able to achieve by financing canoes, motors and nets, they were able to cross the boundary between the female and male sphere in the dual-sex system, at least economically. Notably, to cross boundaries and exchange value through channels of conversion from one sphere to another is typical of entrepreneurial activity (p. 11). But the social costs of changing status from the female to the male sphere are unsurmountable if the entrepreneur has not reached the social and economic summit of the female sphere, or "channel of conversion". When a woman can control and manage the resources crucial for the success of her enterprises - the labour, cooperation and trust of women and children who work for her in fish processing and marketing and depend on her for their livelihood - she has reached a stage where she can become a canoe owner and cross over into the male sphere, and have control over fishermen who become her clients. By integrating her processing, distribution and production enterprises, a female entrepreneur draws on resources in both the male and the female sphere, and in many cases exceeds her male counterparts in wealth and prestige.
