African Rivers and Fish Dishes
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
Here is another in our series on rivers through the lens of food. Scottish explorer Mungo Park (1771-1806) traveled through Mandingo country in Gambia, West Africa. During “the dry season, the people who live in the vicinity of the large rivers employ themselves chiefly in fishing,” he writes. The fish they caught “are prepared for sale in different ways. The most common is by pounding them entire as they come from the stream in a wooden mortar, and exposing them to dry in the sun . . . . this preparation is esteemed as a luxury, and sold to considerable advantage.”