MULHERES NA ATIVIDADE PESQUEIRA: UM ESTUDO NA COMUNIDADE DE NZETO-ANGOLA

Henrique Júnior Bernadeth Gonçalves,Flávia Cristina Sossae,Vera Lúcia Silveira Botta Ferrante,Oriowaldo Queda,Maria Lúcia Ribeiro

doi:10.25061/2527-2675/rebram/2020.v23i3.1126

Henrique Júnior Bernadeth Gonçalves, Flávia Cristina Sossae + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.25061/2527-2675/rebram/2020.v23i3.1126

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Abstract

The fishing activity is considered as a fundamentally male practice. In fishing communities, there is a social division of labor by gender and many women survive from other fishing modalities. This study concerns the fishing community of Nzeto (Zaire province, Angola), where artisanal fishing is traditionally a subsistence activity and aims to discuss the sociopolitical framing of gender in fishing activities, searching the relationship between fisherwomen and the environment. In order understand the fishing community and the observed co-op, as well as its workers, we asked 18 fisherwomen to answer the survey, 12 of them being from the co-op plus 6 who were not. We intended to divide them categorically aiming to establish a comparative study between fisherwomen who are integrated into an organization that defends their varied interests and those who exercise their profession without any support of institutional recognition. We verify that the integration of women in artisanal fishing is only accomplished thanks to their own initiative and efforts. Women take on the responsibility of transporting, stocking, and drying the fish, plus the selling. Besides, they also demand the construction of a facility where they can take shelter from direct exposure to sunlight and rain.They work under poor sanitary conditions, and handling the catch lacks better hygiene conditions. There are no choices but increasing the family income, even under hard and painful work conditions. From the cultural perspective, women taking control of the fishing process results in stigma´ rupture that attempts to exclude them from the productive circuit.

Highlights

Angola, a country located in the west part of Africa, in the southern area, borders the Atlantic Ocean and has a lengthy 1,6 thousand-kilometer-long shore from North to South
77% of the women believe that the participation of their gender in fishing is complete; 70% of women associated with the co-op do other business to complement their income
It’s important to highlight that the fisherwomen of the community are restricted to performing post-fishing activities, i.e., they work when men disembark on the coast bringing the catch — which is completely different from other fishing communities, where women directly participate on catching the fish in mangroves, rivers, lakes, etc

Summary

Introduction

A country located in the west part of Africa, in the southern area, borders the Atlantic Ocean and has a lengthy 1,6 thousand-kilometer-long shore from North to South. In Sub-Saharan Africa, in countries like Angola and Namibia, fishing constitutes the subsistence source of a great part of the coastal population, but attention is rarely paid to the women who participate and dedicate to such activity. Women are the family and domestic life providers, being responsible for educating the children, providing for the family members, and, in general, managing the domestic work. Their existence is marked by great social invisibility, especially when they are not invited to participate or intervene in decisive matters of community life (COSTA, 2017)

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