PI: Marie-Annick Moreau | Collaborators: Moshi S. Bora and Karim S. Tenge
Project ID: 2022SG11 | Location of Research: Ruwe, Tanzania
Host Institution: University College London
Fishing with woven traps was once widespread across the world’s lakes, rivers, and coasts, from the weirs of medieval Europe to the salmon fences of the Pacific Northwest. On Tanzania’s Rufiji River floodplain, the Ndengereko people still use a variety of fishing traps and techniques to catch fish as they move across the shifting waterscape. From local plant materials—reeds, palm leaves, and the twigs and branches of riparian trees—men weave basket traps and fishing fences (weirs) for use in the channels and ponds that swell and shrink with the floods. Women fish as well in drying ponds, using lengths of fabric to scoop up juvenile fishes and shrimp. These methods have been on the decline since the 1970s, with the adoption of nylon nets and changes to local ways of life after a forced relocation to the river terraces. Nonetheless, until recently traditional tools remained the most productive for catching fish at certain points in the flood cycle. The 2025 completion of the Julius K. Nyerere megadam on the Rufiji River, however, threatens downstream wetlands, and was already affecting water levels and fish catches during the project.
This project documents the material knowledge involved in making and using such traditional fish traps among communities of the northcentral Rufiji floodplain. The Ndengereko are the dominant ethnic group in the area, and are recognised as skilled fishers, practicing a flood-adapted farming/fishing livelihood system. Historically, the Ndengereko did not accumulate material possessions, investing instead in feasts and ceremonies to secure social prestige. As a result, there are few physical manifestations of Ndengereko culture, with fish traps and woven baskets notable exceptions. Values of reciprocity associated with trap fishing—of labour, fishing sites, and catches—between and among communities remain central to people’s understanding of fairness and belonging, and influence attempts to manage local fisheries resources today. This project systematically documented how materials used to make fish traps are collected from the local environment; the various types and purposes of the traps; the steps in their construction and who is involved; where traps are sited in the landscape and why there; and traps’ cultural significance. The project team also collected personal narratives of how people came to learn how to make and use the traps and of the value they assign to them; specialised vocabulary in the endangered local language (Ndengereko) as relates to the objects and their use; and, as appropriate, recordings of songs and stories relating to the objects studied.
Methodology
This project focuses on three types of traditional fishing traps (a basket trap, fixed weir and mobile weir) and women’s traditional cloth-fishing technique. The project followed a qualitative methodology, documenting material culture through observation, recordings (photography and video), semi-structured interviews (SSI – individual and group, video and/or audio recorded), and informal conversations. The team documented the production process for traps from collection of plant materials, to making, through to use and harvest. They identified experts to invite to the project following the recommendations of a community meeting. Interpretation in the field was on-the-spot and provided by the local project collaborators, Moshi S. Bora and Karim S. Tenge. All interviews were transcribed by them and translated from Swahili to English by an outside translator, or by Karim S. Tenge working with an elder informant.
Photos and videos were taken with a Canon EOS 250D camera, with an 18-55mm lens and a telephoto 75-300mm lens. A Movo VRX10 universal video microphone was used with the camera, as well as a backup Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder with a Rode Lavalier GO clip on microphone.
Selected Assets
The following provide an overview of the project documentation.
Basket trap — collecting materials
Mzee Kulenga discusses working with the mngombe type of vine. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Basket trap — fishing
The men finish fishing and describe the struggles they face because of the hydroelectric megadam upstream. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Fixed weir — making
A compilation of clips showing Turo making the fish fence panel, from the first row of twining until the final row. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Mobile weir — group interview
Abdalah Saidi Mwingo describes the stones used to anchor the fishing fence. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Mobile weir — transporting
Abdalah Saidi Mwingo carries a fencing panel on one shoulder from the motorcycle-truck to a nearby fieldhouse. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Mobile weir — positioning
Bumbo is working inside the trap chamber to make its inner folds, while the other men assist him by positioning and tying in stakes on the outside of the chamber. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Clothe-seine fishing — women’s fishing event
The women sing and encourage each other while fishing. The song is a prayer for protection from the elders/guardian spirits of the pond. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Basket trap — making
Adding new palm leaves to the rope, and tying sticks to the hoop. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Fixed weir — collecting materials
Turo uses a small knife to cut and soften milala palm leaves for use in weaving. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Fixed weir — harvesting
Turo has caught a small cichlid (kumba) and strings it up on the fence with a palm leaf strip. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Mobile weir — making
Bumbo explains that twisting the milala rope helps to give the panel its rectangular shape. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Mobile weir — erecting
Bumbo (back side of fence) and Lumolumo (front side) work together to pass palm leaf ties through the fence. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Mobile weir — harvesting
Lumolumo and Bumbo crouch by the pond’s edge. Lumolumo says a prayer to the water spirits, asking for their protection. He throws a few coins into the water as a gift. By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Clothe-seine fishing — group interview
The women discuss the practice of kutanda fishing today and in the past (when people lived permanently on the floodplain). By Marie-Annick Moreau.
Acknowledgements from the Project Team
This project would not have been possible without the collaboration of our expert craftspeople and fishers, and we are extremely grateful to them for their patient explanations and good cheer. Thank you to the village and district officials for welcoming our project and to the entire Ruwe community for their support. Marie-Annick would like to especially thank Moshi, Karim, and their families for their warm hospitality. We are also grateful to Tanzania’s Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) for granting permission to conduct this research.