Africa/ Senegal
The tireless one
A poem prepared for the West African Fair for Artisanally Processed Fish
By Ibrahima Lakil Diakite, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Guinea Conakry
You are the tireless one
Who feeds our people and doesn’t count the cost
You are the woman
Who comes home late in the joy-filled evenings;
Listen, woman of the landing site
Listen, you crafter of our hopes
Woman from the muddy ground
Struggling in the bad weather
Offer me a basket filled with bonga1
Give me those pelagic fish
that give sweat flavours
to the peanut sauce
and to the palm oil.
Amazon from the jetties
Your breast is filled with hope
Like a sailing-boat at sea
Woman who comes home late in the evening
and watches all night
over the smoking grills
Woman smoker with fiery hair
Woman of the poto-potos2
You carry within you
Lakes with the names of Princesses and Queens
Your body exudes the sweet smell
Of the fish smoked by your sweat
Woman smoker,
I’ll write your name in red-letters, make you a knot of joy.
Woman,
How many mouths have you fed
With the milk from your breasts
And with the beads of sweat from your brow?
What joy for the town
and village folk of this beautiful country.
What joy for the fishermen
And for the consumers!
Listen,
Piroguier3 hoping for a better tomorrow,
Do you know how fond this great people are
Of the konkoé4 from the improved banda5 ?
Pray for the woman smoker
Who labours on the jetties
Watching the horizon
in search of the fishermen’s arrival
Listen to the flouf flouf of the pelagics
Joy is dawning
On the ocean of hope.
Listen
Listen, piroguier
The smoke reddened grills
The banda engulfed in smoke
is the precious creation
Of this woman, the author of our life
whose body exhales
All the perfumes of the earth.
1 Bonga shad (Ethmalosa)
2 Coastal marshes
3 Canoe-man
4 Sea catfish (Arius)
5 Oven for smoking fish
