Observations in Local Subsistence Marketplaces

Background
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, hundreds of people, mostly the fishermen's wife's or the oldest daughters come from nearby rural fishing villages to Mpulungu port, on the shores of the Tanganyka Lake in Northern Zambia to sell their capenta, a delicacy sold as dried fish which is indigenous to the Lake. Many of them carry their babies on their backs. Men fish, women sell. This is an example of how a household organizes itself to generate income to support the family. 

The marketplace
The port is crowded and full of live. There the women, after an uncomfortable 2-3 hour trip on a boat taxi, are met by avid buyers. Among them are: Owners of local fish shops, food outlets and distributors/traders from other cities nationwide. The process of drying the fish prior to its sale is key for the success of sellers. The drying process takes place in the local villages for two days after fishermen bring the caught. 

Buyer-seller interaction
Negotiation starts. The buyers know very well what they are buying in terms of quality of capenta. Important elements are: size of the fish, silvery color, texture/ crunchiness and free of sand and other sea particles. They approach sellers, in some cases they take a few seconds to greet each other. I assumed that when greetings took longer was because there is an existing relationship. Tendency to go back to seller that provided good quality from previous transactions. The buyer then looks, touches and samples the dried capenta. When satisfied, the negotiation moves to the price component. There is not fixed price. Bargaining is the norm. With so many sellers at the port, the buyer is in a stronger position. Payment is made by cash as I much as I could see. The sellers seldom kept any written record of the transaction. Low literacy among fish sellers is the norm.

Buyer-seller, two sides of the same coin
The fish sellers are buyers for the street vendors of snacks, soft drinks, clothing and many other items. On day end at the port, they buy groceries and other items to bring back to their villages. Even at lunch time when they visit the food outlets that sell their staple food Nsima, beans and cooked capenta. On the other side, for instance, owners of food outlets buy capenta from the fish sellers. Small sellers of petrol that is used to fuel the boat taxis that transport fish sellers between the port and their fishing villages are buyers of the street vendors and food outlets around the port. The dynamism and pace at which transactions and interactions between buyers and sellers looked chaotic to me from the outside. It however showed me how expertly everyone at the port interacted in this subsistence marketplace.

As a note to the peers for evaluation, I made all these observations during my travels in Zambia last summer. I have a modest blog. One of the posts contains further details of my experience in Mpulungu, in case it may be of interest.