Gone Fishing: From West Africa to Scandinavia and Back
Selecting dried fish in Bergen, Norway, probably around the time of Nigerian Independence, 1960. Photo Atelier KK, Bergen. Many thanks to the picture collection of Bergen University Library for permission to use this image.
OK. Here goes with a post that is nerdy beyond belief. I love nerdy.
Drying fish so that it lasts and lasts instead of going bad is one of the great accomplishments in food history. From no later than the Middle Ages on, and perhaps much before, Norsemen gutted cod and dried it in the wind. It dwindled to one fifth of its original weight and was hard as a board. Now the fish could be stored, traded and transported. At the end of the chain, the consumer could soak the fish, reconstituting it into something tasty and something that avoided many of the bad associations of fish.
In her excellent book, The Taste of Empire, Lizzie Collingham argues that it was the skills that Europeans acquired navigating to the Banks of North America and creating trade in dried fish that laid the foundations for the maritime spice trade. It has also impacted food customs in many parts of the world, including Mexico.
The lovely image of a Nigerian inspecting dried fish in a warehouse in Norway, probably in the 1960s I found when searching for an illustration for the last chapter of Cuisine and Empire that went beyond the the usual clichés of McDonaldization, supermarkets, and Anglo everything. Besides linking back to earlier chapters, it smuggled in a bit of my own life as I had eaten dried fish myself in Nigeria in the 1960s.
Then last week to my delight, Ozoz Sokoh, who blogs as Kitchen Butterfly, posted an infographic detailing the ups and downs of the modern trade in dried fish between Nigeria and Norway. (If you don’t know Kitchen Butterfly, check it out. It’s engaging, multi-faceted, and always eye-opening. I’ve quoted it before on horchata in Nigeria).
She’s kindly given me permission to reblog the infographic here. Check out her other posts on The Nordic Connection and Eight Things I Learned About Stockfish. Thank you so much Ozoz.
Even if the details of trade in dried fish between Nigeria and Norway seem a bit esoteric, this is worth storing away in your head as an example of the complexities of global food trade and the importance of foods relatively unknown in the US to the diets and economies of other countries.
Infographic: A Brief History of Stockfish in Nigeria
Mapping Nigerian-Norwegian Relations through the ages and there is a lot of information on the interwebs with some digging. I’ve put it all together in a timeline because specific events were time-bound and mapped key events. This is one of my favourite research pieces because it connects so much – from the state of nations – both Nigeria and Norway, inter dependencies, how certain ingredients become mainstream and much more. Anyway, here’s what I discovered.
Wind-dried herring, known as stockfish, is a prized delicacy in Norway but with its small population (4 million) and massive fish stocks, the country produced far too much for its own consumption. Oddly enough, the only other people partial to stockfish were Nigerians (population 63 million). Because it was relatively cheap and the dried fish did not rot in West Africa’s hot, humid climate, there was a brisk trade between the two nations; Source – The Independent, Ireland
The connection began with the British…
And took root.
In the early 1900s, there were associations which governed trade and managed relations between Nigeria and Norway.
This was abandoned years later.1951 Abandonment of trade agreement between National Association of Norwegian Stockfish Exporters and Nigerian import merchants
In the ’80s, as part of austerity/ trade policy measures by General Ibrahim Babangida, the then Nigerian head of state, stockfish imports were banned.
Between 1980 and 1991, at least three countries lodged formal complaints against Nigeria with respect to import prohibitions: Norway submitted a complaint on Nigeria’s import ban on stockfish, Côte d’Ivoire on the import ban on textiles, and the United States on the import ban on wheat and rice. While both Norway and the United States cited violation of GATT rules in their complaints; Source
The ban led to many cases of middle men trying to bring stockfish into Nigeria, anywhere but from Norway, like the case of James “Danger” Beirne.
He must have executed one of the earliest 419 deals – Advance Fee Fraud in which he and a consortium agreed to buy ‘$21m worth of stockfish in three shipments. Essentially there would be no cash payment from the Irish until after the second consignment was at sea. But the commission, the 15 per cent of the value of the cargo, would be paid “up front” before each consignment left Tromso.’
A Brief HISTORY of Stockfish in NigeriaVenngage Infographics
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As usual, provocative. I went down the Mekong River in Vietnam and went to the local markets that the villagers patronize. The variety of dried fish and shrimp, as well as shellfish, was astonishing.
Yes, it’s not something we think much about, but so important.
Thank you, Rachel, this is fascinating. In Mexico I have come to relish the Christmas bacalao pie… an acquired taste…I am really intrigued to learn about this trade nexus.
PS Also fascinated to read about dried foods. Until I started researching this-and-that for a work-in-progress on Far West Texas, as one who uses a refrigerator/ freezer for most everything, I had not appreciated the importance of drying meat and other foods for medium to long term storage. Pemmican, that’s my fave.
I have been interested in dried and salted fish for decades.
The particularity of stockfish is that cod is dried without salting! Something that can only be achieved in cold area’s with low damp pressure, such as the far North, but also the Alps (Graubundenfleish/viande des grisons) or the Anatolian highlands (Kayseri pastirma). Salt, as you know, was heavily taxed throughout history and salt fish was unsurprisingly taxed as a source of salt, not as a source of fish. Hence the early popularity of stockfish.
The problem with stockfish though, is that it is very difficult to rehydrate, it floats like a cork on water. So much that Scandinevians turned to lye, alkaline, to make the fish tissue swell and absorb water. “Lutefisk” (lye fish) is still a national dish in Norway and Sweden. It is frowned upon by most tourists.
When cheap salt from Setubal or Aruba was brought to Norway by the Scotch and Dutch traders, the Norwegians turned to making “klipfish” salt dried cod instead of stockfish. The king of Norway had not imposed a monopoly on salt, which was very interesting for the traders.
Klipfish is now known worldwide as bacala/bacalao. Stockfish became an expensive specialty in the Veneto in Italy (stoccafisso) or among some religious groups in the Netherlands. In Brussels, you cannot even find stockfish! Bacalao, on the contrary is everywhere, it spread to the America’s as part of the slave trade triangle.
Parallel to the stockfish to Africa link, you might also consider the “red herring”. British and Dutch fishing companies still send shiploads of heavily smoked bokking/buckling to Egypt and Western Africa.
In Kristinasund’s graveyard, there are many Iberic sounding names on the headstones, remembering tradesmen and mariners who came to there for the bacalao and stockfish but were died there. Among the graves, some southern flowers grow, the graveyard was filled with Spanish and Portugese soil that was brought over as ballast in the ships .
Nick, this is great. Will post as blog with your permission in the next day or two.
In retrospect, the Nigerian-Norwegian stockfish trade relations taught Nigerians a valuable lesson. These days most Nigerian catfish, tilapia and pangasius fish farmers prefer to add value to their fishes by using kilns to smoke their fishes.
By adding drying value to one’s fishes, the farmer places him/herself in an advantageous position to dictate the price. If a fish farmer is selling fresh fish, the buyers dictate the price, because if the farmer doesn’t sell, the fish will begin to rot.
Thanks so much for posting this. I have spent a happy hour browsing your web site and hope to post about it soon. Plus your interesting comment about the importance of having a preserved product.
Thanks Rachael for your kind words and for taking time to browse my fish farming website. I’m humbled!