- Argungu Fishing Festival
The Argungu Fishing Festival is an annual four day festival in north-western
Nigerian state of Kebbi. The 2008 Argungu Fishing Festival is planned for March 12-15.History
The festival began in the year 1934, as a mark of the end of the centuries old hostility between the
Sokoto Caliphate and theKebbi Kingdom .In 2005, the winning fish weighed 75kg, and needed four men to hoist it onto the scales. In 2006 the festival banned fishing due to safely concerns relating to the low water levels. [cite news |title=Nigeria fish festival bans fish |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6216640.stm |work= |publisher=
BBC News |date=2006-11-07 |accessdate=2008-02-11 ]Competition
On the final day of the festival, a competition is held in which thousands of men and women line up along the river and at the sound of a gun shot, all of them jump into the river and have an hour to catch the largest fish. The winner can take home as much as 7,500 US dollars. Competitors are only allowed to use traditional fishing tools and many prefer to catch fish entirely by hand (a practice also popular elsewhere and known as "
noodling " in theUnited States ) to demonstrate their prowess.References
External links
* [http://www.ArgunguFishingFestival.com Festival website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/africa_fishing_festival/html/1.stm BBC Gallery]
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