Folk Knowledge of Fish among the Songola and the Bwari: Title Comparative Ethnoichthyology of the Lualaba River and Lake Tanganyika Fishermen Author(s) ANKEI, Yuji African study monographs. Supplementary issue (1989), 9: 1- Citation 88 Issue Date 1989-03 URL http://dx.doi.org/10.14989/68349 Right Type Departmental Bulletin Paper Textversion publisher Kyoto University Afl'ican StudJ' Monographs, Stipp]. 9: I-BA, ~lal'ch 19B9 FOLK KNOWLEDGE OF FISH AMONG THE SONGOLA AND THE BWARJ: COMPARATIVE F.THNOICIITHYOLOGY OF THE LUALABA HIVER AND LAK 1': TAN G ANY IK A I" 1 S II E H MEN Yuji ANKEI FacultJ' of Liberal Arts, ramnguchi Uni.'ersity ABSTRACT A field sllrvey in collaboration wi th the Insli tilt de Recherche Scientifiqlle (presenlly Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles) was carried Ollt near Kindu and Baraka, Region du Kivu, Republique du Za'ire (Sept. 1979-Feb. 19BO and Sept.-Dec. 1983). The folk knowledge of fish is described in detail for the two areas. The author identified 100 species from the Lllalaba River and 97 species from Lake Tanganyika. Songola fishermen n:nya subgroup) along the Lualaba (upper reaches of the Z'lire, formerly the Congo) River have lOB vernacular names and 12 inclusive folk categories of fish, consisting of six levels of categorization. There are 18 series of "growth fishe" fish which have two to four di fferent vernacular names according to their life-cycle stages. All the "growth fishes" of the Enya are large-sized fishes and their names change by growth size. The thresholds for the different names seem to be related to the mesh sizes of traditional fishing nets. Bwari fishermen of northern Lake Tanganyika have a simpler system of folk classification than the Songola-Enya. They have 79 vernacular' fish names and -1 inclusive folk categories, consisting of three levels. There are A "growth fishes". They were diverse in body size and a small clupeid ndagaa, one of the most. abundant and important fishes for the l.ake Tanganyika fishermen, has as many as four life-cycle stages that determine its market price. The difference in the folk knowledge of t,he fish between these two peoples might be understood by t.he difference in the composition of the fish fauna of the two areas; in Lake Tanganyika whi Ie small-sized cichl id species (called inclusi>'ely as .LENDA by the Bwari) are abundant., it is the ndaga8 that prevails in today's catch. A comparison of the fish names among 15 peoplcs of Central Africa suggested that fish nomenclatures of Bantu societies have little similarity between independent water systems. I found only two stems havin~ a universal distrilJulrion in Central Africa: .nJ·ik. for electric catfish and .sembe for lung-fish. Fishermen of Central Africa have an accurate and rather objective knowledge of fish on which they are dependent. As l'el, some of the fishes are regarded as sJlecial. Some nre regarded as tahoo, ot.hers used as charm medicine. lIaving an intermediate character hetween fish lIud ot.her creatures (bird or tree) and hllving anomalous features are good reasons to r'egard t.hem as speciaL Where do all these differences come from? In order to consider the problems concerning the comparative ecology and epistemology of African peoples more properly, we must. he equipped with a better knowledge on the environment (fallna and flora), I inguistics, and ethnography. Key Words: Ethnosciences, Folk classification, Freshwater fish, Lualaba River, Lake Tanganl'ika, Bembe, Bwari, Enya, Songola, Vira. 2 Fish I\nowled!{'! of Songola'" Bwari (Y. ANKF.I) \. Introduction 1.1 The pu I'pose and the methods of study This paper aims to describc thc folk knowledge of African freshwater fish for two groups of fishing people. one living along the Lualaba River and the other on the coast of Lake Tanganyika (Fig. 1). Relatively few works ha\'c been puhl ishpd concerning t.he el.lllloichl.hyoJogy (or the st.udy of the folk knowledge uf rish) dpspite today's flourishing folk biological stndies (1'01' example, GOSSf' , 1961, 1962; Morrill, 1967; Anclen,on, 1969; Ilulmer el ai., 1975; Akimichi, 1978). This study also comparps the folk classification systems between the Lualaba and Lake Tanganyika, two of the great waleI' systems in tropical Africa. Such a compal'ison will shed light on the relationship between the fish fauna, the folk knowledge of it, and the ecollomy dependent on African freshwater fish. Specimens of fish were collected in the research villages or bought at near'hy markets. They were shown to I' i shermen, when fresh, to get i II formation on the folk knowledge of them. They are then stored in the Laborat.ory of Animal Ecology (Facult.y or Scipnces, Kyoto University) using lahels from the 1979 expedition. Fish specimclIs 1'1'011 t.he Lualaba River were identified IIsing Bollienger (1909-1916) and ot.her referencp works (Nicholas & Griscom, 1937; Poll, 1957, 1!l;J9, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1976; Poll f< Gosse 1963; Gilnter, 1973; Gery, 1977; Banister & Bai ley, 1979), and revised by CI.OFFA 1-3 (Daget et aJ. 1980-). Specimens from Lake Tanganyika were identified using Poll (1953 and 1956) Rnd Brichard (1978). Drs. Kenji TAKA~lJRA and Kosaku YAMAOKA helped to identfy the species and rev ise t.he scientific names. I" i g. I. Stlldy areas in the Republic of Za'ire Tanganyika F' i g. 2. Local iOIl of the Sonll0la and the i r subgroups F'i P;. 3. Location of the IJwari 11IId their neigbors N BUJUMBURA AMBWE RUNDI sub9roup of Songola KUKO RU/10NGE CIl o ::> ""o DINE ..."' :r LUBANA >: TONGOMACHO ., MULUMBILA FIZI '" ENYA o1u~g~~g~'~ MALONGA KUSU 01='===t:===t=;;;;;;;:3~0~m L. Tanganyika o 50km \;'======z:::=""""i:::!' w -1 Fish Knowledge of Soagola & Dwari (Y. ANKEI) 1.2 Study ar<'as The st.udy arca alon~ t.",. I.ualaba is situat.ed near Kindu, Sous-Region rlu Maniema, Re/{ion du Kivu. The field survey near Kindu was carried out for seven mont.hs in 1971l and 19110 among t.he Songola and was focused on the Enya. They are a fishln/{ sub~roup of the Songola, and are different from the famous Enya fisherml'n of Klsangani (Ankei, 1984). Supplementary information was obtained durin~ a four months' stay in 1983. For the purpose of comparison, i also collected vernacular fish names of two other sub~rollps of t.he Songola who live in areas remot.e from t.he Lualaba River: the Kuko and the Binja. The area on Lake Tan/{any i ka was on the northwestern shore of t.he lake. near Uv i ra and Baraka in the Sous-Region du Sud-Kivu. A field survey of the I.ake Tanganyika fishermen was carried out in 1979. [stayed 45 days alllong the Bwari who dwell the Ubwar i Pen i nsu la near Baraka, and among the Bembe and Vi ra (f i VI" and two rlay respectively) to get information on their vernacular names of fish. Rwari have t.he ICIU;I. ethnograph ic and 1ingui stic stud ied of the peoples living in the region. Table I Ilst.s t.he principal informants for this study. 1 chose one key informant in both areas. The results of interview is followed by an ab- breviation of the informant if there is some contradiction between informants. 1.3 I.nnguagcs Songola 11lngullge is given the Bantu classification number D.24 in Gut.hrie (1967) and is called also as "Binja nord" (namely North [lin.ia, coupled with Table 1. I,h<l. of informants Ahhr. Gender Born Interviewed at Mother tongue Evaluation (5-1) Yllf M 192'1 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 5: mu.kllngli Leo ~I cn 1925 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 3 Mal M 1937 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 5 : knows plant usa/(es Ber M 1939 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 5 : key informant Rnm M 1942 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 4 : lineage chief Ami M 19·13 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 2: sometimes erronous Mus M 19·15 Tongomacho Songola-Enya 3 Ger M cn 1945 EI iln Songola-Enya 4 Ham M cn 1915 Ngoli Songola-Kuko 5: mt/.kungu Ngo M 1930 Ngoli Songola-Kuko 5 : lineage chief Alf M 1957 Ngol i Songola-Kuko 3 Chr ~1 1950 Ambwe Songola-Binja not less than 3* Use M 1925 Some Bwari 5: key informant Kal M 19·19 Some Bwari -I: rei iable Mun M cn 1930 Uvira Bembe not less than 3* Mbi M en 19·10 Uvira Bembe not less than 3* Bill M Cll 1920 Luhanga Vira not less than 3* Kiz M C.1 1935 l.uhanga Vira not less than 3* See Fig". 2 and 3 for the location of the place of interview. Mu.kungu (Songola) means a senior who is capable of advising the v i I lagers. *Intervim. was t.oo short for a precise evaluation. Fish Knowledge of Songola & Bwari (Y. ANKEI) 5 Zimbn, or South ninja) by Meeussen (1951b manuscript; Bastin, 1975). Bcmbe (Meeussen, 1951n) is also in the same zone as Songola, and these two II/lYe seven vowels. Virn (Meeussen 1951c) is classified as one of the J-zone langugaes of Bastin (1975). Although there is no information extant for the B\~ari language, it is probable that it corresponds to so-called "kabwari" (J-56) of Guthrie (1967). My research showed that it has 5 vowels like other J-languages. All these are tone languages having principally a high tone and a low tone. Table 2 summarizes the I inguistic traits of Songola and Bwari languages.