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FISH AND FISHING IN THE RIVERS AND WETLANDS OF USANGU
Martin T. Walsh
Natural Resources Institute, Chatham, and School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex, U.K. corrected version of a paper originally published in
East Africa Natural History Society Bulletin 
, 26 (3/4): 42-47 December 1996
{NB: the page numbers in this version do not follow those of the published text, from which a number of paragraphs are missing}
current address:
kisutu@hotmail.com
 
EANHS Bulletin 26 (3/4), December 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ 1
FISH AND FISHING IN THE RIVERS AND WETLANDS OF USANGU
This paper, based upon information collected in 1980-82, provides a preliminary description of indigenous knowledge of fish and fishing practices in the rivers and wetlands of the Usangu Plains of southern Tanzania. It focuses upon the knowledge, practices, and perceptions of the Sangu, the original inhabitants of Usangu, and reflects their concern over the alleged overexploitation of aquatic resources by more recent immigrants into the plains. Borrowing from more recent research reports, it also draws attention to the wider and more serious threat to the unique fish fauna of this area which is posed by other human activities in Usangu.
The Usangu Plains
The Usangu Plains comprise part of the eastern Rift Valley. They take the form of a shallow alluvial basin, which lies around 1,000 metres above sea-level and covers an estimated area of more than 15,500 km
2
. Ruaha National Park borders the plains to the north and the hills of Iringa district to the east. To the south and west they are hemmed in by the Southern Highlands and the mountain ranges which rise up from the northern shores of Lake Malawi. The streams and rivers which flow down from these mountains join in Usangu to form the Great Ruaha River, which meanders out of the plains to the north-east after passing through the Utengule Swamp. The annual rains generally fall between December and May and bring substantial flooding. As the dry season progresses the floodwaters recede and the many seasonal rivers dry up. Water remains, however, in a number of permanent rivers, deep river pools, and the perennial Utengule Swamp.
Fish Fauna
The Great Ruaha and its tributaries support a unique fish fauna. Until the formation of the Rift Valley, the Ruaha flowed westwards into what is now Zaire. Following faulting, however, the river formed its own basin and was redirected eastwards, where it joined up with the Rufiji. The Ruaha evidently took with it a number of Zairean fish species, and some of these have since speciated further to produce endemics with a Zairean rather than East African affiliation. The fish fauna of the Ruaha Basin is still imperfectly known, and the upper reaches and tributaries, including the Utengule Swamp, have yet to be investigated. Unfortunately the aquatic resources of the basin are now threatened by human activity: over the last three dry seasons the Great Ruaha between Usangu and the confluence with the Little Ruaha River has stopped flowing, and proposals have been drawn up to bypass the Utengule Swamp with an artificial channel.
The Human Population
The Usangu Plains are the home of the Sangu (
avasango
), speakers of an Eastern Bantu language (
ishisango
) whose immediate affiliation is with other languages of the Southern Highlands group (Hehe, Bena, Wanji, Kinga, Kisi, Pangwa and Manda). The Sangu are mixed farmers who, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, had large holdings of cattle. Oral traditions suggest that hunting and fishing also played an important role in their subsistence in the past, and the Sangu derive their name from a kind of basket (
ulusango
) which they say was used to carry game meat and fish up into the Southern Highlands where they were exchanged for agricultural produce. These baskets are still used in Usangu to transport fish. Since the colonial period the Sangu have had to share the plains with growing numbers of immigrants from outside of Usangu. Most of these immigrants fall into two broad categories: farmers who
 
EANHS Bulletin 26 (3/4), December 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ 2
have moved into southern Usangu from the south and south-east, attracted by the potential for irrigated rice cultivation; and (agro)pastoralists from the north, attracted by the rich pastures and permanent water resources of central Usangu. The rice farmers include large numbers of Nyakyusa and Ndali from the south-west, and a polyethnic mix of people living on and around Usangu’s large irrigation schemes. The (agro)pastoralists include Il-Parakuyu Maasai, who first entered Usangu in the 1950s, and large numbers of Sukuma, who began settling on the plains with their large herds of cattle in the 1970s. The indigenous Sangu now comprise less than half of the total human population of Usangu.
Sangu Knowledge of Fish
Fish comprised an important supplement to the diet in Utengule, the former capital of the Sangu chiefdom and village in which I lived and conducted anthropological research in 1980-82. Some of the fish eaten in Utengule were obtained from the River Mambi, which runs through the village, as well as from local irrigation channels, but larger quantities were brought in by fishermen from the rivers and wetlands to the north and north-east. The general term for fish in
ishisango
 is
inswi
 (noun class singular/plural 9/10). Most of the body parts of fish are referred to using terms which are also applied to other creatures (e.g.
umutwe
, 3/6, ‘head’,
umufupa
, 3/6, ‘bone’,
umwimfwa
, 3/6, ‘sharp spine’, ‘thorn’). Special terms are used, however, for the tail end of a fish (
umupepe
, 3/6) and the mid-section between the head and the tail (
ishiviligati
, 7/8, literally ‘mid-body’). All of the Sangu names for fish which I heard in Utengule are listed below. This list is no doubt incomplete, because I only noted names as I came across them. It is also possible that Sangu in eastern Usangu know of species which do not appear in and around Utengule, or have different names for some of the fish which do. The majority of the Sangu living in the eastern plains speak dialects which are more closely related to Hehe (spoken especially around Madibira) and Bena (in Rujewa and the south-east) than to the
ishisango
 of Utengule and its environs. Some phonological and lexical variation in local fish taxonomies should therefore be expected, though to what extent remains to be established. I have added to the list probable linguistic cognates from the
Preliminary Guide to the Commoner Fish of the Ruaha  National Park and Upper Ruaha Basin
 compiled by Ian Payne, Vicki Cowan, and Philip Townsley (hereafter PCT). Their ‘local names’ were mostly recorded to the east of Ruaha National Park along the Great Ruaha, Little Ruaha and Tungamalenga Rivers, and in the vicinity of Mtera Dam. Hehe-speakers dominate the polyethnic population of this area, and were the source of many of the names they give. It should be noted that linguistic equivalence (or similarity) does not entail equivalence of zoological reference: this can only be established by identification in the field. It is also possible that some of the Sangu terms refer to more than one species, or fish in different colour phases or stages of growth. Nonetheless, the comparison with PCT forms a potentially useful starting-point for further research.
axansululansi
, plural
utunsululansi
 (12/13), described as a small fish, also called
inxamlepa
. PCT ‘sulu-sulu’,
 Marcusenius macrolepidotus
 (Mormyridae, Elephant Trunk Fish).
ilipandepande
, pl.
amapandepande
 (5/6), described as ‘white’ (probably silver) in colour, with a head the size of a frog’s and spines which are painful if trodden upon. Cf. the root of
imende
 (q.v.).
ilipongo
, pl.
amapongo
 (5/6), described as having spines which are painful if trodden upon.

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