Overview
At Argungu in Kebbi State, thousands of men enter a stretch of the Matan Fada river at the same signal, armed only with hand nets and gourds, and have around an hour to catch the largest fish. It is the best-known cultural event in north western Nigeria.
History and origin
The festival is generally dated to 1934, when it was held to mark a visit by the Sultan of Sokoto to the Emir of Argungu and to mark peace between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Kebbi Kingdom, which had long been rivals. It grew into an annual event and then into a national showcase. It was suspended for a long stretch after 2009 because of insecurity and a fish-stock collapse, and was revived in 2020, though it has not run every year since.
What happens
Competitors wade in en masse at a starting signal, using traditional hand nets and calabash gourds rather than lines or rods. The river surface disappears under people. The winner is the one who lands the largest fish, which is weighed publicly and can exceed fifty kilograms, and prizes have included cash and vehicles. Around the main event there are canoe races, diving competitions, wrestling, archery, agricultural displays and a durbar.
When it takes place
Usually February or March, in the dry season, when the river is low.
Where a date is set by a traditional council, a lunar calendar or the harvest, it changes from year to year. Confirm locally before making plans around it.
Where to see it
Argungu, Kebbi State, Kebbi State
The people behind it
HausaThe Hausa are the dominant people of north western Nigeria and of southern Niger Republic, centred on old walled cities such as Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Daura and Gobir. These city states, the Hausa Bakwai of tradition, grew wealthy from trans-Saharan trade in leather, cloth, kola, grain and salt, and from craft industries — the Kano dye pits have been worked for more than five hundred years. Islam arrived through that trade from around the fourteenth century and is now near universal among the Hausa. The Sokoto Caliphate, established after Usman dan Fodio's jihad of 1804, reorganised Hausaland under a single Islamic administration and produced the emirate system that still carries real social weight alongside the modern state. Hausa is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Nigeria and functions as a lingua franca across the Sahel, written both in the Latin boko script and in Arabic-based ajami. Hausa social life places heavy emphasis on greeting at length, on modesty, and on kirki, a word for uprightness that covers honesty, generosity and self-restraint together.Spotted something wrong? Tell us.