NPR
The Dark Secret Of Lake Malawi:
Trading Sex For Fish
Boats slowly make their way across Lake Chilwa towards Chisi Island, Malawi, 2018.
Fisherman, Makawa beach, Mangochi, Lake Malawi, 2018.
A group of fishermen prepare their nets on a beach, before heading out for a night on the water, Masaka, Malawi, 2018.
Fisherman, Elephant Marsh, Malawi, 2018.
A fisherman smoothes over a night’s catch of usipa, a small sardine-like fish that his crew will sell on the beach at Masaka, Lake Malawi, 2018.
Fisherman Dominic, Makawa beach, Mangochi, Lake Malawi, 2018.
Shortly after dawn, fishermen untangle and lay out their nets, Makawa beach, Mangochi, Lake Malawi, Malawi, 2018.
Female Fishtrader stands in front of a reed hut with her son, Elephant Marsh, Malawi, 2018
Fish traders crowd around boats which have just landed after the previous night’s fishing, Makawa beach, Mangochi, Lake Malawi, Malawi, 2018.
Former fish trader Cathrine sits in front of a building, holding her one-year-old son, Kachulu, Lake Chilwa, Malawi, 2018.
Chambo, Nkopola, Mangochi, Malawi, 2018.
Chrissy stands in her hair salon, Mpyupyu, Malawi, 2018.
written by Marc Silver
"Sex for fish."
That unlikely phrase is used in some lakefront communities in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world where men catch the fish and women sell the catch to local customers.
In Malawi, for instance, a woman may take a fisherman's catch and promise to pay him once she's made her sales. Only she might have trouble selling all the fish. So she might pay off what she owes for the fish by engaging in a sexual encounter.
Either the man or the woman "just suggests, let's have sex as a way of compensating," says Benjamin Kachikho, a project officer with the Malawi office of the Timotheos Foundation, which focuses on social issues such as education about HIV.
This project was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF)