> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: [[Emmanuel Solate]] > Reference:: Solate, E. (2025). The river and the gun: Craft knowledge at the Argungu Fishing Festival. _Garland Magazine_. https://garlandmag.com/article/argungu/ > Date:: 2025 > Tags:: #warp/article #Nigeria > WeftLinks:: [[Cultural value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft strengthens relationships between members of a cultural group]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > The Argungu Fishing Festival in Nigeria is more than a celebration—it is a living tradition of deep environmental knowledge and skill passed down through generations. Fishermen use careful techniques and rituals to connect with the river, while farmers show their understanding of the land. Despite modern changes, the festival keeps teaching communities how to live with nature. ### Highlights Within the festival grounds lies a graveyard containing the tombs of Argungu's past kings. Each grave marks a reign, and beside them is a space already prepared for the current ruler, His Royal Highness Sama'ila Muhammadu Mera, who is said to sometimes visit the site, not for ceremony but simply to sit there. Most fishermen carry only a gourd, a hollow calabash called *"Goran Kamun kifi"* — literally, "bowl for catching" — which serves as both a flotation device and a storage container. The tool appears simple, but the skill it demands is anything but. Hands move beneath the water not blindly but with trained sensitivity, searching along riverbeds where fish hide among submerged vegetation and mud — physical knowledge learned through years of practice rather than formal instruction. The most significant ceremony of the day is the crowning of the *Seriki Noma*, the King of Farming. Tuareg riders from Niger appear in deep indigo robes that ripple like shadows against the dust — the dye itself a craft tradition centuries old, achieved through techniques as precise as any fisherman's grip. When a fish is located, the motion is sudden and precise: the fisherman traps it against the riverbed with his forearm or chest before securing it with both hands.