Edeha: Where women have perfected the art of fish smoking

Edeha community is one of the riverine communities in Koton-Karfe Local Government Area of Kogi State, part of which is located at the popular Murtala Muhammad Bridge along Abuja-Lokoja highway.

The major occupations of the inhabitants are fishing and farming, and women of this community are known for selling fresh and smoked fishes to travellers along the highway.

Since fish is a perishable item, the women resort to preserving it through smoking, an art they do with ease and utmost care.

However, findings by our reporter show that fishing business appear to have suffered some set back this year due to the recent flood that submerged over 60 riverine communities, forcing fish to become scarce in the rivers.

The inhabitants of the riverine communities were displaced as their farms were also taken over by the flood, with majority of them relocating to IDP camps in Koton-Karfe and some parts of Lokoja town.

Mrs Kende Alhassan, a smoked fish dealer in Edeha community, while speaking with our reporter, said she inherited the fishing business from her late mother whom she said always carried her along to the river to buy fresh fish and then bring them home to smoke before selling to customers.

She said after her marriage in 1984 to her husband Aliyu Hussain, she decided to continue with the smoked fish business.

She said her business has thrived over the years. “I have been doing this business since 1984, which was the year I got married. Customers and travellers along the highway always stop to buy fish. We have enjoyed good times in this business, but things are not as good as they were, especially since the coming of the present APC administration.”

Mrs. Alhassan, who is a mother of eight, said she has been able to train all her children in primary, secondary and higher institutions through smoked fish business.

She added that she was also able to build a house through the smoked fish business.

“Yes, I can proudly say I have been blessed through this smoked fish business which I inherited from my late mother, Hajiya Salamatu Ibrahim, some years ago. I can say that all my children are in school through this fish business. Although my husband has also been supportive but I carried the major responsibility,” she said.

She recalled how she sold between three to five full baskets of smoked fish daily some years back, but laments that since the assumption of the present administration, her business is gradually going down due to poor patronage.

“Few years back, I used to supply smoked fish to customers in Abuja and Lokoja, apart from some of my customers who call to book for fish, especially during festival period. Some of them will stop over and collect the fish on their way to the east,” she added.

Alhassan said her major challenge was lack of support from local and state governments, saying successive administrations have neglected the fish smokers especially when it comes to loans.

“The only support I can remember we women who are into smoked fish business here in Edeha community have benefitted was during the administration of late Governor Abubakar Audu, who supported us with loans and even built these stalls you are seeing now,” she said.

Another smoked fish seller, Mrs Salamatu Mamma, a native of Edegaki, said she got married to Usman Mundi who hails from Edeha community, and has been in the smoked fish business for over 15 years.

She goes to the riverside to buy fresh fish in large quantity and brings them back home to smoke between five and seven days, after which she will display and sell them to customers.

She said she sometimes buys a medium sized basket of fresh fish for betwwen N8,000 and N12,000.

According to her, the preservation of the fish was one of the major challenges, saying she sometimes engage two of her daughters to support in preparing the fish, arranging firewood and then smoking the fish.

“The reason why smoked fish is costlier than fresh fish is because of the processes involved. One has to be very carefull during the smoking process to avoid the fish getting burnt.”

She said she has been supportive of her husband, who is a retired school teacher through the fish business in footing some bills at home and also paying her children’s school fees.

Mamma, however, said she inherited the smoked fish business from her late grand mother, Safiya Abdullahi, who she said trained her from childhood at Edegaki riverine community.

“Actually, I used to carry a small basin and join my grandmother who was into smoked fish business to buy fresh fish at the river bank and then bring it back to smoke them before selling to customers along the highway,” she said.

She recalled that “There was a year the canoe I boarded with my grandmother almost capsized on our way to buy fish at the neigbouring Ikumo riverine community, but all is now history as God saved our lives that day,” she said.

She said she took over the business after her grandmother’s demise while she was still single.

Mamma, who said she continued with the smoked fish business after she got married at Edeha community, noted that the passion women had for the smoked fish business in their days could not be compared with the fish business of today.

“Also, there were lots of fishes in the river in those days and I buy them at a cheaper rate compared to now that the fish business is no longer thriving due to economic hardship in the country,” she said.

She thanked God that she was able to make some impact from her business over the years, by putting up 10 single rooms at Jamata village, which she says tenants are currently occupying, apart from training her children in school.

She however said that the lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic seriously affected not only her smoked fish business but other fish sellers in the area.

“You know the Covid-19 Pandemic which led to total lockdown seriously affected my fish business. Since there was no inter or intra state movement, there was no patronage. Our customers who would normally stop to buy fish were no longer coming. Majority of us were just idle then,” she said.

She recalled how she used to supply smoked fish in large quantities to some of her customers who operate restaurants in Abuja some years back, saying “but things have changed completely as there is no money again. Some of my customers who used to stop at the Murtala Muhammad Bridge to buy are no longer coming like before. They are all complaining about the harsh economic realities in the country,” she said.

She therefore appealed to government to come to her aid in providing soft loans, saying women who are into fish business in the community have not been carried along by the local or state government over the years.

“We go to obtain voters card and vote on every election day, but until today, neither the state nor the local government has supported us with any king of loan to boost our business, not to talk of rebuilding our homes that were destroyed by flood,” she said.

Also speaking with our reporter, Hajiya Fatima A. Isah, who said she has also been in the smoked fish business for over 26 years, said it was through the fish business she realized money to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the Muslim pilgrimage in 2001.

She noted that the smoked fish business was one of the lucrative businesses that majority of women, especially in riverine communities, have engaged in over the years.

She said she learnt the fish business from her late grand mother who used to take her to the river to fish.

“As I grew up, I started learning how to fish on my own and later when I got married, she supported me with a token to start my own fish business,” she said.

She identified lack of government support in providing loans and rebuilding as well as improving the lives of flood victims as some of the major challenges facing fish sellers in the area, while appealing to authorities to come to the aid of victims of the recent flood, especially the riverine communities to enable them go back to continue with their normal lives.

Isah used to make between N20,000 and N30,000 daily from selling smoked fish some years back, “but now that there is no market, one hardly make half of that amount these days due to lack of customers and economic hardship in the country.”