Archaeological discoveries all over the world reveal evidence of early men eating fish. They satisfied this need for protein from the waters by using their hands or crude methods. This could have spread to other parts of Africa and possibly developed extensively in the continent’s east.
However, it was discovered that 90,000 years ago, prehistoric men in Central Africa were the first to invent modern tools such as harpoons for their fishing expedition. Researchers linked this evidence to catfish bones excavated from the Semliki River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Nile River Valley, which were caught with the world’s oldest fishing tool, the Semliki or Katanda harpoon.
Earlier research suggested the fishing tool was 88,000 years old. Though the archaeological community questioned the findings, similar excavations of other harpoons and artifacts have established that early men in Central Africa used advanced fishing tools, according to African Maritime History.
The harpoon assisted early men in catching catfish weighing up to 68 kg, enough to feed a community for two days. According to African History, harpoons were later used to kill large and fast marine mammals. The Semliki harpoon is part of a family of barbed harpoon heads carved from bones excavated by archaeologists in their quest to understand the valley’s fishing culture.
This summarizes the evidence of prehistoric men conducting fishing expeditions with well-crafted daggers and harpoon points that are well-designed and barbed to aid in their bumpy catch. The discovery suggests that an ancient fishing culture existed in Central Africa. The discovery site is one of five territories that comprise the current Congolese province of Kasai-Oriental, along with the city of Mbuji-Mayi.
Despite the archeological concerns raised previously, the climatic conditions of the Katanda territory have confirmed the existence of a fishing culture in eastern and northern Africa.
Following additional archaeological excavations in the area, there has been an influx of catfish bones. According to the researchers, prehistoric fishermen visited the Katanda territory on a yearly basis to catch the giant catfish. A cursory examination of the ancient harpoons reveals that they are not dissimilar to those used by fishermen today.
Records and data on pre-maritime activities in East Central Africa indicate that sites such as Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, East and West Turkana in Kenya, and Senge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have evidence of fishing activities dating back 2 million years. The disconnect is due to the fishing tools used by these early men in large bodies of water.
Researchers believe that in the absence of those tools, early men relied on their hands or sticks, which led to the development of methods to make fishing expeditions easier.