By the time the sun has fully risen, the fishermen of the villages along Lake Tanganyika are already wrapping up the day’s work. Today’s catch was hauled in before twilight could bleed into the morning, and most fish vendor stalls set up by the beach have already been shuttered.
Under the scorching sun, women are among the few with a job yet to finish.
Around mid-morning in Kibirizi, a town on the lake’s Tanzanian side, Jaqueline Raphael monitors a batch of perch being smoked over a hearth. The fish, known locally as mikebuka, are wrapped like rings around a stick balanced on its ends above the kiln. Raphael tends to the hearth, switching out firewood and batches of fish. She explains the process through occasional sneezes and coughing bouts before excusing herself. After two consecutive days of this work, stooping over the fumes rising from smoldering charcoal, her chest is congested, and her mind has grown foggy from a headache.
“It feels like I have the flu,” she said.
Along Zambia’s Lake Tanganyika, fish is more than food—it is a lifeline.
Women living along Zambia’s Lake Tanganyika play a massive role in the local fishing and trade economy, yet they face severe economic hardship, systemic vulnerability, and gender-based exploitation.
Economic Roles and Livelihoods
Low Earnings: Despite performing the bulk of post-harvest labor, many of these women earn an average of only around USD $200 per year due to unequal market control and deep-seated poverty
Processing and Trading: Women make up the majority of fish processors and traders in the region, handling post-harvest tasks like processing small pelagics such as kapenta (sardines).
Water-Based Commerce: Some resourceful women demonstrate incredible resilience by swimming or floating alongside passing boats in the lake to sell goods directly to passengers.
