Legacy Re-echoes History of Stockfish Trade in Nigeria

Emma Okonji

Legacy, the historical and environmental interest group of Nigeria, which seeks to promote Nigeria’s rich culture and heritage, recently organised a webinar in collaboration with some officials from Norway, where the memories of the history of stockfish trade in Nigeria were re-echoed.

Themed: ‘Stockfish and the Norwegian-Nigerian Connection’, the webinar recalled the history of stockfish trade in Nigeria and the passion of Nigerian early traders and importers of stockfish.

Popularly known as ‘kpanla’ among the Yorubas and ‘Okporoko’ among the Igbos in Nigeria, stockfish has become a popular source of protein in Nigerian foods. The history of stock fish trade in Nigeria, dates back to 1950, when the first Nigerian trader in stockfish business, late Adele Kasumu started the importation of stockfish into Nigeria, to compliment protein in Nigerian food.

Although history has it that stockfish first came into Nigeria in 1880 through the Lagos coast from Norway, but the actual importation of Norwegian stockfish into Nigeria for business, started in 1950, after Kasumu travelled to Norway to see how stockfish was produced and processed. By 1960, other traders from Nigeria had joined Kasumu in the importation of stockfish from Norway, and between 1974 and 1982, over 70 per cent of Norwegian stockfish was exported into Nigeria.

Mr. Abdul Kasumu, one of the sons of late Adele Kasumu, in a documentary, narrated how his late father who worked and retired from the Nigerian Railway Corporation, started the stockfish trade in Nigeria in 1950.

According to him, while his late Adele Kasumu, was working with the Nigerian Railway Corporation in Ido Terminal  of Lagos, he was exposed to so many things, and by reading the newspapers, he learnt about the global trade of stockfish, and later travelled to Norway to under-study stockfish production and processing, and later commenced stockfish trade by importing stockfish from Norway and selling them in Nigerian markets.

“Through the stockfish business, he was able to train his children in schools,” the son said.

Giving the history of Norwegian stockfish and the Nigerian connection, Mr. Andreas Liebe Delsett from Norway, said the history of stockfish in |Nigeria was a bit shrouded in mystery still when it comes to Nigerian export.
“There are lots of uncertainties about what took place and when. But I’ve tried to sum up a little bit of what we know from Norwegian sources. “When the Norwegian Danish crown started to engage in the transatlantic slave trade, there was definitely stockfish on the boats. We also have a few sources suggesting that stockfish was at some point used as a means of acquisition to pay for the enslaved people, and not necessarily in Nigeria,” Delsett said.

According to him, in 1927, there were two major markets for stockfish in the world. It was Italy and British West Africa. That year, for the first time, British West Africa surpassed Italy as well. From 1919 to 1931, 32.9% of Norwegian stockfish went to African markets, but Nigerian importers started coming to Norway in the 1950s. By 1966, almost 70% of all Norwegian stockfish went to Nigeria.

According to Delsett, the stockfish export market to Nigeria became so large at a time that there were fake newspaper campaigns against stockfish importation from Norway.

“Our biggest market, Nigeria, was in danger after accusations that our stockish were entirely without nutritional value. It was alleged that Norwegians were squeezing all the oil and vitamins out of the stockfish before sending them to Nigeria. There were also allegations that the reason why stockfish from Norway was without heads was because they are born with human heads,” Delsett said.

Speaking about the processing and preservation of stockfish, Delsett said: “Fresh stockfish are salted and allowed to dry naturally in an open space, under very cold atmosphere and nothing more is added to preserve it. So it is just the climate conditions, the combination of the climate conditions and the cold environment in Norway that enable the processing. But today it is processed industrially.”