Entrepreneurial Women in Ghanaian Canoe Fisheries

The case of the Fante fishing town Moree

Noter:

1. The paper will be available in French as Overaa, R. (1996) Les femmes, chefs d'enterprise dans la pêche piroguière au Ghana. Le cas de la ville Fante de Moree. In: Chauveau, J.P., Chaboud, C. and Jul-Larsen, E. (Eds.) Les pêches piroguières ouest-africaines. Perspectives en sciences sociales. Karthala, Paris. Tilbake

2. The data for this paper was collected during fieldwork in Moree in 1991 (see Overå, 1992). Tilbake

3. See Christensen, 1977; Lewis, 1977; Hernæs, 1991; Odotei, 1991; Overå, 1992 and 1993. Tilbake

4. Along with the introduction of the outboard motor and modern nets, projects were implemented to rationalize the fish smoking technology (Odotei, 1991). This will, however, not be the main topic here. Tilbake

5. Modernization in our context can hardly be seen as "westernization", although outboard motors are imported. Berger's definition of modernization as "the institutional concomitans of a technologically induced economic growth" (see Wuthnov, Hunter, Bergesen and Kurzweil 1984, p. 55) is quite to the point here. In Moree a typical "modern" symbol is the cassette players that the young fishermen often buy for the money they earned during a fishing season. But the music they play is ghanaian, preferrably in the Fante language, and not black american, which is the favourite of their age-mates in Accra. A very popular activity in Moree, not the least among the children, is to listen to cassettes with traditional Fante stories and fairytales. The significance of the cassette player is not the "western dream", but rather that the owner is a clever fisherman "who has travelled" (and earned a lot of money) and, moreover, shares his wealth with his friends and family. Tilbake

6. Some have characterized them as capitalist exploiters (Vercruijsse, 1984; Ninsin, 1991). However, we question the relevance of using such concepts in this context. The close integration of economic and social relations, that are gender defined, must inevitably have consequences for our understanding of the role of these intermediaries. The cultural specifics of West Africa, such as "the coexistence of polygyny, lineages and class divisions may create different dividing points in a society from those familar in the West" (Vellenga, 1986, p. 63). Tilbake

7. In a survey conducted in March 1989 (Koranteng, 1990), the number of canoes was counted to be 324 in Moree, and 88% of these were motorized. The higher number of 500 canoes suggested by the Chief Fisherman is not taken to be accurate, but the number may also have risen during the two years from 1989 to 1991, and the fact that the 1989 survey was conducted in March means that many canoes were still away on seasonal fisheries. The number of female canoe owners (25%) is also very approximate, but is probably not exaggerated. Christensen (1977) found in a sample of 80 canoes with equipment, that 35% were owned by women (p. 86). Tilbake

8. Terms used for wholesaler are also front woman (at the Elmina fish market), standing woman or fish mother, but this means women who are wholesalers for canoes that land fish on beaches or in harbours other than their hometown. Other terms are fish dealer, women purchasers (Odotei, 1991), or merchant (Ninsin, 1990). I have used the more general term fish mammy elsewhere (Overå 1992, 1993), in the meaning of a large scale fish processor and trader. But the categorisation of the different types of women dealing with fish needs to be developed further. Tilbake

9. It is mostly female wholesalers from northern Ghana who transport the fish from the big inland marketing centres to their home regions, often further than 600 km away from Moree, and to neighbouring countries, such as Burkina Faso. It has also been observed that the trading routes of women from the coast go that far. Tilbake