“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” ~Herman Melville

As with most things in life fishing is a shared occupation. The success of one person is reliant on the hard work of many. Here one woman ends up with her bowl of fish ready for smoking and for sale but the labour taken to bring that food to her bowl has been put in by many.

Images taken in Tokeh, Sierra Leone.

Tell God tenki – Fishing is a shared activity. One man alone cannot bring in the catch.

Working together in silence the women sort the daily catch.

Finally each woman has her precious cargo and is ready to carry it away from the group for smoking and sale. She will return tomorrow to rely once again on the men at sea and her fellow women when the catch comes in.