“The most exciting moment of the festival is when the signal is given for the fisherman to start. The fisherman charge into the river, while music and songs play amid the chaos. The energy is contagious”
Chitre, 2019
The most interesting parts are the bare hand fishing and duck catching events. There are also arts and crafts exhibitions, agricultural shows, and traditional music and entertainments. To promote Nigeria’s tourism industry, the Kebbi government plans to leverage the festival to boost tourism. In former times the ceremony lasted only 1 day but is now expanded to 4 or 5 days (Borzello, Race to Fish). There were also plans to expand the stretch of river to make sure more fishermen can participate in the future (Okpanku, 2006).
(Asogwa, 2002)
Tourism provides incentive for residents to remain in rural areas rather than flock to congested towns and cities (Asogwa, 2002).
(Asogwa, 2002)
The advantages of expanding the festival is that it creates tourism jobs mainly in family-owned enterprises. Tourism provides local people with a source of income and alleviates poverty through the widespread popularity of the festival (Asogwa, 2002).
The commissioner (minister) for commerce and tourism of Kebbi state said that the promotion and expansion of tourism can attract investors to the state and enhance capacity building. He also said that accommodation facilities at the fishing village have been improved with the 1000 hotel rooms in the village brought up to international standard with air conditioners, television, new marble floors, and other facilities for tourist comfort (Welcome to Argungu, 1975).
The increased hotel capacity brings to mind the fate of the Mayungu fishing camp in Kenya’s Swahili coast. Tourism led to the destruction of the village. Fishermen were rendered jobless and homeless because of allocation of beach properties to private holdings in the name of progress. The Kenyan government aggressively expanded its tourist industry. Tourism provided short-run benefits from small investments and created jobs for a small duration of time (Kusimba, 1996). Development initiatives can be socially destructive and culturally alienating to the areas’ inhabitants. The political and administrative establishments in Nigeria should not repeat the experience of Kenya whereby the destruction of Swahili cultural heritage and identity led to culturally and economically disastrous results (Kusimba, 1996)
It must be remembered that festivals in the lives of Nigerians are unique occasions that serve as a symbolic base on which the rich culture and traditional heritage of the community are commemorated and preserved. It would be a tragedy if, under the guise of national development and job and foreign-exchange generation, the true essence of the Argungu Fishing Festival were diluted. The essence of the festival is the interaction of people with their natural environment. The core factor in the sustainability of this agricultural heritage over centuries is the perfection of the traditional protection and management mechanism (Rossler, 2016).
Bibliography
Rossler, Mechtild. “World Heritage-Linking Cultural and Biological Diversity.” In Art and Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy and Practice, edited by Barbara T. Hoffman, 201-5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Argungu Annual Fishing and Cultural Festival, “Welcome to festival village.” February 1975, Argungu
Argungu Annual Fishing and Cultural Festival, “Welcome to festival village.” February 1972, Argungu
Kusimba, C.M. “Kenya’s Destruction of the Swahili Cultural Heritage.” In Plundering Africa’s Past, edited by Peter R. Schmidt and Roderick J.McIntosh, 201-24, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Asogwa, B.C. (2002). Some Socio-economic and Socio-cultural Aspects of the Argungu Fishing Festival in Kebbi State. Unpublished B.A
Argungu Fishing Festival 