Les Pêcheurs de la Divinité
DAKAR, SENEGAL - Tucked away next to a busy main road, down a long uneven staircase with disciplined sweaty men running up and down huffing and puffing, behind the tall, dignified Mosque de la Divinité pointing up high into the sky with arched windows and pristinely white painted walls, an anomaly amongst the chipped paint and concrete blocks of the surrounding houses, lies Ouakam, a bustling Lébous fishing village nestled into a curved coast full of movement and life.
Colorful pirogues of varying sizes line the curved shore pointing into the waves. The beach pulses with activity: kids jump and squeal excitedly, splashing in the white water as the tide comes in, a young man carries a boat motor over his shoulder, a mother nurses her baby and takes a selfie with her and a friend, packs of men and boys do pushups and squats on the sand, training for the notorious Senegalese wrestling matches, skinny, mangy squads of cats scour the crevices for scraps. The smell of salt and fish float over the scene. A guardian pelican sits with the elders, overlooking all the business of the day. The constant sound of the ocean pulling and pushing and shaping the shore, the rolling waves, a force that can decide your fate.
Fishermen on their motorized pirogues arrive back from a long day at sea. One man pulls up the motor as they approach the shore, the waves rocking the pirogue forcefully. The men descend on either side of the pirogue and begin to push it onto the shore in sync with the movement of the swell, heaving the heavy, wooden structure forward. Other men from the shore join them to lift the boat, a choreographed routine crafted to precision through generations. They begin to chant in unison as they heave until the pirogue is finally on land. The men scoop out buckets of water from the bottom of the pirogue and gather their catch of the day. The fish and at times other sea creatures, like octopus and prawns, are then handed over to the women, who clean and prepare them for selling at the market, just a few meters up the beach. The market used to be filled with stalls of fish each day, but is now mostly empty, as fish stocks have depleted significantly over the years.
Latyr Gaye is the elected President of Les Pêcheurs du Quai, a tall and respected man who talks in a deep and quiet tone, holding prayer beads in his hand. He has strong, kind eyes that make you feel comfortable trusting him right away. Everyone in the community greets him warmly as he passes. He has a humbled way of carrying himself and it is noticeable that he is looked up to by his fellow villagers. He was born and raised in Buakam and started fishing back in 1985. He has even traveled down south to Gambia to practice his trade. There are three primary forms of fishing that they do in Senegal, he explains to me. There’s fishing with a line, fishing with nets and deep-water diving fishing, often at night, for mainly lobsters which sell for a high buck. There are also fishermen who stay out at sea in larger pirogues, for longer periods of time even up to three weeks.
Over his career, Latyr has worked in all areas of the industry and practiced all forms of the fishing methods. His own son is now a fisherman. He said it’s extremely difficult for a fisherman’s son to make it to a higher level of education due to low funds and inaccessibility, so sometimes you have to put education to the side and focus on fishing as it provides a safety net that can secure child’s future and prevent them from falling into a life of delinquency.
The first time Latyr went fishing, he was happy. He set off on a pirogue with a friend and went just behind the curve of the coast by the rocks. They cast out a line with a big hook and all of a sudden the line started to move with great force. They held onto the line astonished, and his friend, worried, said they should cut the line because it could be a shark, but he said no, we’re going to catch it, so they proceeded to reel the line in with great strength and were pleasantly surprised to discover they had caught a great big thiof fish! They headed back to the shore, unloaded their catch, and everyone in the village came to see how these two little boys caught a great big fish! They were filled with pride and joy and Latyr said this experience marked him and he never forgot it. In the Atlantic Ocean, there is a process called upwelling, where cold nutrient-packed waters from the depths rise to nourish the creatures near the surface, making West African waters significantly rich and abundant. The ocean nourishes a substantial portion of the population, offering a diversity of fish that vary based on the season from little barracudas, to grouper, carangue, seriole, prawns, lobsters and more. Fish are either sold at local markets or brought to factories to be exported internationally. Latyr says the fishing sector has changed a lot from how it used to be. There are a lot less fish these days and even the quality of the fish have declined. He says that one of the main contributors to this is overfishing. “Before, each neighborhood had a pirogue, over time, then each family had a pirogue, until now where each person has one, two or even a dozen pirogues.” Foreign trawlers have also contributed to the depletion of fishing stocks. One trawler can catch the same amount of fish as 1,700 pirogues, and often fish are caught illegally.
“There’s a Wolof proverb that says, before being able to sell, you should be able to eat first. So, we need to limit the amount of boats at sea to protect the ocean.”
Latyr says the ocean is the biggest employer in any sector and delivers a long chain of beneficiaries. Just one pirogue can offer opportunities for multiple trades: there’s those that build the pirogues, the artists who paint them, the fishermen, the women selling in the market, those who deliver the fish to factories to export, the list goes on. In a country where employment is scarce, the fishing sector in Senegal employs over 600,000 people. “There is no other service that is more popular than the sea. There’s no bigger employer. It’s something valuable and beneficial so we should protect it to give to our children.” Latyr says there are people who represent the fishermen who have had no experience with fishing at all and have not even visited the fishing sites and listened to the real problems. “We need people to descend a la base (come down to the ground) and talk to fishermen directly to understand what’s really happening. We should even have special envoys that go with them to sea to see what they do and the risks they take.” Latyr hopes that the fishing sector doesn’t get stuck in the ways of the past and can adapt to the changing times. “For us, fishing is an obligation. If over time, fish become rare, we have to change our practices and methods and go further with them. We have to try and give our children more than what our parents gave us.” Latyr says that in his childhood, fishermen would go out only 100 – 200 meters to find an abundant catch. But now, fishermen can go out several kilometers to find fish. “So, if the distance changes, the method should also change.” Latyr says equipment and materials need to be updated and modernized with new technologies to improve fishing practices. “There’s some practices we do now that are becoming impractical, and over time they will be memories. For example, our grandparents went into the sea with sails, now we use motors.”
Latyr says that just like us, the ocean also has a connection with God. God created it just like He created us and it will always feed us, protect us and facilitate us in our voyages. “The sea is a treasure. Sometimes you hear about a lot of societies that were here, then have fallen, that we have even forgotten, but the sea is always there. It’s a natural phenomenon, and it will exist as long as the world exists. So everyone should try to protect it because we are the beneficiaries of the ocean.”
Just as the tide shapes the coastline, the ocean shapes the lives of the villagers of Buakam. When the ocean provides, they thrive, when she is scarce, their bellies are empty. In this small village it is inherently clear the direct union that exists between the ocean and the people. The ocean has always been there, through the generations of those that have lived and died and learned and adapted and passed on their practices and wisdom to their children who continue to pass it onto theirs. They have learned to read the waves and be humbled by the ocean and listen to and respect its force and power. “If the sea undresses, you too should take off your clothes. If the sea is agitated, you need to give into her demands. The sea has nothing to lose, but you have your life to lose.”