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Abstract: There is a saying that Africa is the festival continent. Throughout the year in towns and villages across the continent, colorful and vibrant religious, harvest, fertility, and cultural festivals are held. Bare-hand fishing competition among thousands of fishermen, equipped with a hand net and large gourd, is the main event of the cultural extravaganza at Argungu in Kebbi State in northwestern Nigeria. The competitors splash into the stream, scouring the water for huge freshwater fish. The Argungu fishing festival (Fashin Ruwa) is a celebration of life. It is a tool of conserving natural resources, maintaining and promoting traditional life. It is the precursor of today's fishery management measure. The local people believe they have been fishermen for all time. The effective conservation of natural resources is closely linked to the use of the local knowledge and hence the life of the community. It is also part of an ancient fertility ritual which, from the point of view of the local Kebbawa people, is the most important aspect of the occasion. The festival takes place usually in February after all agricultural work is finished. It marks the end of the growing season, and it opens the fishing season with a bang.
ORIGIN
Argungu town and traditional emirate is on the Sokoto River at the intersection of roads from Birni Kebbi, Gwandu, Sokoto town, Augi, and Kaingiwa.1 Argungu is famous for its annual fishing festival as well as its Kanta museum, which houses sixteenth-century artifacts. Most inhabitants are Kebbawas (a subgroup of the Hausa).2
The origin of the Argungu fishing festival is shrouded in some confusion. The popular view is that it began in 1934 and was used to mark peace between the former Sokoto Caliphate and the Kebbi kingdom. The two empires had fought for centuries, and hostilities only ceased with the arrival of the British. According to this account, it originated in August 1934, when the Sultan of Sokoto, Hassan Dan Mu'azu, made an historic visit to Argungu. In appreciation of his visit, the first by a sultan of Sokoto, a grand fishing festival was organized; and since then it has become a yearly event held between February and March. According to this account, the festival thus has an historical significance for the...