Fishmeal Production and the Dispossession of Women in The Gambia

Abstract

This paper examines how large-scale fshmeal processing impacts women’s work in The Gambia. Fishmeal factories use bonga  (Ethmalosa fmbriata), a staple fsh in The Gambia, to produce fshmeal for the global aquaculture industry. The Gambian government  yearns for FDI in fshmeal factories to industrialise the fsheries sector, increase fsheries contribution to GDP and ultimately achieve sustainable development through South-South Cooperation with Chinese and Mauritanian capital. However, coastal communities,  especially women who live and work within the vicinity of three relatively new Chinese-Mauritanian factories, have been protesting the  operations of the factories since 2017. Communities complain about livelihood dispossessions such as the displacement and disruption of  women’s work, food insecurity, as well as environmental and health concerns engendered by the factories. Using ethnographic  methods and ecofeminist as well as feminist political ecology approaches, I argue that the operations of the fishmeal factories, which are  underpinned by capitalist, patriarchal logic, disrupt women’s work as gardeners and fsh vendors. Consequently, instead of promoting    sustainable development, fshmeal processing undermines it.