ThinkSmarter: Blessed planet Earth is a self sustaining system. With beautiful and nice smelling flowers, foods, meats, herbs, diamond, gold, iron, aluminium, spring water, air, sun etc Show me a paradise better than planet Earth.
True! There is enough to satisfy everyone's need but not enough to satisfy the greed of some.
iLegendd: Here is my real life story and everything you need to know about the fish.
The place the fish was caught is an oi-rich community that hosts different companies like AGIP and others. It's a 6-minute drive from my town, which is another oil-rich community.
This is how the pond works. Every community close to rivers in the Niger Delta has it. We have Orashi River with different kinds of fish every year.
Everyone in every community has a personal pond or inherited one. I have mine too. You can never touch another person's pond. If you dare and and you get caught, you'll be disgraced by the youth and you'll pay fine with yam, goat or fowl with some communities work.
Someone told me to accompany him to go bail his father's pond. When got there, he saw a small pond making lots of noise and when he checked, it had LOTS of giant fish.
We embarked on bailing it sharp sharp, but unfortunately, the owner caught us an hour later—come see temple run. It looks like he monitors it everyday.
Luckily for me and my friend, instead of reporting, he only took our bucket and boxers.
We carry nakēdness go back house for night. We had to wait until midnight before using cocoyam leaf to cover our nà kedness. Peer pressure been wan kill me those teenage years.
The funny part was the constant light in the community, all thanks to those oil companies. We were praying for darkness, for the light to go, but no way. To thief no good o.
Also, some extended families, which usually start with the prefix "umu" + whatever name they bear will also have a big family pond. It doesn't end there.
The entire community will also have. But, these family ponds and community ponds always have voodoo by the side.
Whether you believe in juju or not, don't EVER fish there, else, rest in peace. They put lots of hollow woods inside the pond to get an enclave so that the fish will see it as their home and won't leave that vicinity.
Two to five years later, some communities even leave theirs for 10 years, they harvest it together, but it's only shared by married men in the family and the unmarried ones who came to help them bail the pond.
How does fish enter?
In raining reason, water flows from Orashi River to those ponds with different kinds of fish. Unfortunately, catfish and West African lungfish (which loves mud), see image below, eat most of the other species of fish that followed them to the pond.
This doesn't mean there aren't other kinds of fish, but only the strong ones from those species survive the torturous 2-10 years battle.
Do the community people feed them?
No, nobody feeds them, except you want to go watch fish, then go with your bread. They feed on frogs, their SIMP siblings and other weak species that couldn't stand the heat, especially those transgender and gay fish in the pond that act so fragile and girly. It's like a prison. If you don't man up, you go down as feed for the alphas.
For the private or inherited ponds, you can bail it yourself with your pumping machine or bucket every dry season. No rules—it's yours.
Talking about the man that took our bucket and boxers, after I arriveed at night, 9PM, my family was already looking for me.
I sneaked into the bathroom and luckily there was a towel, but my mom still caught me at last and started querying me of my whereabout and asking of her iron pocket.
In the end, I confessed and told her who come convinced and how the man seized our buckets and clothes.
Long story short, After two days, she successfully got them back from the man (older than my parents) with lots of apologies while on her knees.
She later told me when I'm going to school, I should top in the man's house to tell him sorry for what happened.
That man was among the top 10 most wicked men in the community—he has never smiled ever since I knew him and he never looks for trouble either, but if you enter his trap, you're on your own. I didn't know it was his pond, else I wouldn't dare no matter how my guy would've persuaded me.
I was even thinking he'll use juju to kill us, but praise God, I'm alive today. Passing his house every day to school was one of the most difficult thing I did in my life. It's the main road I take everyday, so I had to change to a longer road. Criminals don't have peace of mind.
He had some beautiful children and they were my junior in school. I always pray for their father not to tell them the story before they'll cast it in school and everybody will start making fun of me.
Moral lesson:
Chai! Stealing is not good. People should desist from taking what isn't theirs—the trauma when you get caught is too much. I have learned a lot as a kid and that's why other people's things don't move me, except the thing is a woman I like but I don't know who her unserious boyfriend is. Anything apart from that, I can't steal it.
Oh, don't forget, this native dish is WAY sweeter and more expensive then the agric one trains in ponds and fed with feeds.
The end...
Oh,
One last thing, even though oil and gas leave our community every single minute, we still refill our gas cylinder at the highest price in the whole of Nigeria and the fish are also more expensive to buy here, than when taken to other states. So, it's better to go to the bush to get fish yourself than to buy from anyone here.
I known no whether them curse us for this Niger Delta. Na we dey produce, Na we still dey suffer am pass. Most of the tombo and alcohol in Nigeria are produced in the Niger Delta. Na only this one cheap for here so that we go drink and forget that we're being marginalized. This is why the region that marginalized us love calling us alcoholic.
Are they going to throw the fish away? It all looks so terrible and non-sanitary. TheyvShould have had refrigerated trucks or smokers ready to go. Now they ll rot. People are even walking on the fish and I see somebody in his underwear.
I didn't know they wear Agbada and Senator to bail pond in your place. That's interesting
iLegendd: In most cases, one large family usually owns it. Other large families own theirs too. In few cases, it's the general one.
No, there is no cementing. The place has two to three different types of clay soil (red, milky, and one other one). The type used for building ceramic items.
Those types of soils are more water resistant than cement. Digging your own pond is not easy because of that soil, but our forefathers dug them anyways. Those men are strong.
Marking your pond? They're just like women. Every man can identify their wives or girlfriends in a crowd of 1 million women.
There are actually 10-20 other kinds of fish there (electric fish, tilapia, crab, etc.) but they mostly put them in buckets and that's the ones they cook to eat before they go home.
Also, they mostly do the sharing in the bush there 90% of the time. They'll probably close at 11 PM. If you're married and in the city, you'll send someone to go take yours and dry it for you, package it, and send to the city or you just tell them to have it for themselves.
If you're so broke, you tell them to sell it and send you the money.
I hope this helps. I have given you more answer than you requested.
That definitely helped.
Sounds like something interesting to observe in person.
Why are they putting the fish on the ground? Isn't that another burden since catfish don't have scales?
Very awesome thread. Really informative. I am wondering if some of the catfish in the pictures can be used as Breeders for people running catfish farms in Lagos and other cities in the southwest . Very big catfish in the pictures.
This is not right though, half of those fishes would get spoilt and rotten as they don’t have storage for them. Why can’t they catch what they need and leave the rest?
ThinkSmarter: Blessed planet Earth is a self sustaining system. With beautiful and nice smelling flowers, foods, meats, herbs, diamond, gold, iron, aluminium, spring water, air, sun etc Show me a paradise better than planet Earth.
How many paradise this wehrey Dan go sef wey dey make u ask us this kind question
Sorry for asking but what do you do with your pond?
Do you bail and eat the fish or sell them?
It's been more than 15 years I entered bush. I really miss it. Other people will harvest it behind your back, but everyone knows the owner of every pond. Most people have ran to the city during Rivers cult crisis, so homebase players will have no choice than to enjoy them till the owners come back.
Our culture is not about making money, but happiness and producing your own natural food.
We farm for home consumption only. Though, you can sell if your produce is more than you can consume.
Gadafii: There is nothing Nigeria and Nigerians need to survive that God has not provided, Good weather, fertile lands, rivers of fishes, forests of animals for our satisfaction,abundant natural resources but guess what??
We are cursed with bad leaders
The "bad leaders" are not from Mars... They are shaped from amongst us . We are the leaders and the leaders are what we are. Bad citizens make bad leaders. Nigerians are bad,in fact terrible citizens.... So pls lets look inwards
Please oO, all those things he's speaking are not related to Igbo. They don't sound like ohaji dialect in Imo. Please, for the sake of peace, be informed that they're speaking Kryptonian stream language from the land of Pegasus.
Are they going to throw the fish away? It all looks so terrible and non-sanitary. TheyvShould have had refrigerated trucks or smokers ready to go. Now they ll rot. People are even walking on the fish and I see somebody in his underwear.
It's that underwear that'll kee you and your pervert mind. Two comments so far solely concerned about a man in undergarments. I had to go back to confirm because it wasn't even a noticeable thing amidst all on galore. Go and hustle in life then come back and tell us if he should be wearing raincoat to swim or dive. Arrant nunzens
This is not right though, half of those fishes would get spoilt and rotten as they don’t have storage for them. Why can’t they catch what they need and leave the rest?
Are you the one to spoil them? Have you ever succeeded in spoiling them before?
MoneyPlotter: Idu, ONELGA, Rivers State, Nigeria - The tranquil waters of Idu, nestled within the heart of ONELGA in Rivers State, recently bore witness to an extraordinary spectacle during the annual fishing festival. Enthusiastic participants and local fishermen were left awe-struck as several massive fish were hauled in, underscoring the bountiful blessings of Ogba Land.
The Fishing Festival, a cherished tradition in the region, turned into an unforgettable affair as nets were cast into the glistening waters, yielding a remarkable harvest.
It's that underwear that'll kee you and your pervert mind. Two comments so far solely concerned about a man in undergarments. I had to go back to confirm because it wasn't even a noticeable thing amidst all on galore. Go and hustle in life then come back and tell us if he should be wearing raincoat to swim or dive. Arrant nunzens
You are the ignorant Bushman/ pervert here. I refuse to eat anything from anyone who is not fully clothed. This would never fly if we had food standards. And here you are. Very stupidly defending crap. Honestly , I wonder how you chew your food. Your IQ sounds too low for intelligent life.
Whatever mehn. Take your road garri and bounce. I won't be donating to your go fund me. What's my own
Lol...90% of the garri sold in Nigeria is road dried. Do unless you buy garri direct from a factory, be my guest with the road garri. Buy "point-and-kll" from a joint? Chances are high that they also have been through a fisherman dressed in panties. My point is that food handling in Nigeria is subpar. As long as we buy from the open market, we have all consumed food handled by fishermen and other farmers in near unclothedness
