Technology and Tradition in West African Maritime Fisheries: Tombo, Sierra Leone

摘要

Maritime fishing in the West African littoral is an intensive and specialized occupation, and fish has historically been a regular item of exchange in the western Sudan for more than a thousand years. Although these fishing populations have a long history the authors have received comparatively little attention by scholars or professionals interested in development. Fewer still are historicaL studies that focus on African maritime fishing activities, although the fishing industry in Africa dates back to the Predynastic Period in Egypt and to Stone Age Africa. The paper provides an historical overview of a single West African maritime community whose subsistence is today based solely upon the production and exchange of fishery products.