The Fante practice a duo-local pattern of residence whereby both women and men continue to live with their matrikin after marriage. The wife works and cooks in her fie, but in the evening she goes to the fie of her husband to bring him his evening meal, and to sleep with him. In polygynous marriages the wives alternate on a monthly basis in this arrangement. Husband and wife also have separate personal economies, but have joint duties in catering for the children. Children mostly reside with the mother, but adolescent boys often spend a period with their father, and fostering is also very common. Husbands are expected to contribute with school fees and chop money (money for cooking), and wives are expected to give birth to children and cook good food for them and the husband. In fact the quality of the food is perceived as a symbol of the quality of the relationship between the spouses. Women are also regarded as the "bank of the household", who should make wise dispositions of the income from the fishing season to carry the family through the lean season, and lend the husband money when he is broke. This is a mutual relationship; women borrow money from wholesalers, matrikin, friends, susu groups (saving groups) and sometimes a bank, but a third of them mentioned the husband as the most important source of credit.
The dilemma of fulfilling both one's conjugal obligations on the one hand and matrikin responsibilities and family ties on the other is central in Fante (Akan) culture (Oppong 1981; Bleek 1987; Hagan 1983; Vellenga 1986; Abu 1983). This is a problem that has constantly to be negotiated in daily life. Since children belong to the matrilineage of the mother and the residence of the wife and husband is duo-local, the contribution a wife can expect from her husband rests very much on his appreciation of the children as a security base for the future. But the father's role is not only of an economic nature. A child is associated with the mother's blood (mogya) and the father's spirit (ntoro)(Mankoukian, 1950, p. 24). The child needs both in order to become a complete human being, and the father's spirit is inherited through the paternal line. But in practice a man cannot expect security in old age from his children unless he has contributed economically to their upbringing and upkeep. As we shall see, not all husbands fulfil these duties, and divorces are frequent.
Hagan (1983) describes the pattern of divorce in an Effutu fishing town not far from Moree where he sees clear variations in the divorce rates. There is one peak in April, when the fishermen return to their families after months of seasonal migration, and another in September after the fishing season, when the annual account between husband and wife has to be made (p. 199). One cause of the "seasonal divorces" is the long separation of the spouses which frequently leads to extramarital relations. But the most important cause of problems in a marriage is when economic duties are not fulfilled. Hagan also sees an increase in divorce rates with age, and "financial change between the spouses is the most crucial issue" (p. 201). For women the peak of divorces is between the age of 40 and 59, whilst for the men there are two peaks in the 50-59 and in the 70-79 age group. The two most important reasons are that the man is either not able to support his wife anymore due to his advancing age, or the wife does not need his support any longer. Many women at this age are at the height of their career; the children are grown and can work for them, and she may have established her own fie. The husband, on the other hand, is growing old, and is more and more dependent on the support of the children.
When asked in what to invest a large sum of money, the majority of women in Moree answer that they would "invest in fish business". For those who are so prosperous that they can imagine the possibility, the major goal is to build a house. The building is often done very gradually, and many families live in uncompleted houses. These uncompleted houses in Moree can literally be seen as physical manifestations of people's life projects. As fish traders and mothers, women hope to be able to create a fie; a house for their children and maternal relatives. This is not only a means to ensure economic security in old age and a social position in the community. The establishment of a fie as a "workshop" for her enterprises is also neccessary for her further business expansion. A woman who has secured her supply of fish needs a location where she can build many smoking ovens, and where she can organize people effectively to do the laborious work tasks of washing, smoking, packing and marketing the fish. This is the prerequisite if a fish trader is going to succeed in a long distance trade enterprise, and it is in the processing and marketing of fish the great turnovers are to be found, not in selling fresh fish from a canoe.
In the context of fisheries in Moree, then, the crucial resources that a woman needs access to, in order to pursue a successful career, are the right to buy fish, short term trading credit, long term investment capital, and the ability to recruit and administrate reliable workers and business contacts. Characteristically "an entrepreneur is someone who take the initiative in adminestering resources, and pursues an expansive economic policy" (Barth, 1963 p. 5). Through three cases from Moree we shall see how women go about their strategies to pursue these resources, and what opportunities and constraints they meet in their choices of strategies.
