Youpwe Fish Market: A World of its Own

Thousands of traders, fishermen, retailers and buyers flock here daily for business.

Youpwe is now a household name in Douala and beyond. It has become popular because customers can find variety of fishes. There are fishes of all sizes. The Youpwe fish market offers bar, bossu, tilapia, marchiron, among others. Some fishermen even succeed to return from the sea with hippopotamus flesh. This is also sold in Youpwe.
Youpwe is a teeming market of one or two products only. The fish is fresh unlike what obtains in some markets. They are not stale or kept long in the fridges and sold in cold stores. Traders here do not need cold stores because they sell regularly and one could find fish at all times. Traders however use ice blocks to conserve the fishes for short periods.
Those who are interested in smoked fish can also be served. In the market in Youpwe both fresh and smoked fish are sold. As early as 5:00am the market is already booming and cars are lined up by people who want to buy fish. At this moment or a little earlier, the fishermen will be returning from the sea. People who want to buy and hawk in the Youpwe market are also lined up as well as individuals from Douala and around. Some hotels in Cameroon also buy from the Youpwe market as well as some other big restaurants and their agents get there by 3:00am queuing and waiting to start buying as the fishermen return from the sea .Some of the hawkers buy and go right to town around offices at about 7:00am to seek customers.
The market in Youpwe can be compared to a village market which has a special day which nobody can afford to be absent. This is because of the crowd that comes in to either sell or to buy. The busiest day is Saturday which gives workers the opportunity to go to the market since they can not make it within the week.
There are so many people that it is difficult to walk around in the market. As the crowd gets larger, thieves also sneak in. There are other activities which take place in the market. But in the early hours it is the fresh fish and smoked fish market which is on and the other market activities like selling of second hand clothes, cosmetics, call box, fish roasting begin by 7:00am.
The history of the Youpwe fish market dates back to about more than thirty years. The market was divided into many sectors. Fresh fish, smoked fish, shops, ice sector, maritime transport, scaling sector, fishermen sector which all have leaders controlling the sector. The icing sector produces ice which is sold to fishermen and fish sellers. The fisher men buy ice and put in old refrigerators and take their canoes into the sea.
When they get there, they meet fishermen from Nigeria who have already gone into the high sea and fished. They buy and store in their old refrigerators in which they have packed ice and they make their way back to the shores. The fish sellers too buy ice and parcel fish for the buyer in order to preserve it until his destination.
As regards maritime transport, there are people who have canoes or boats using engines. A place like Manouka can be reached only by water, CAP Cameroon, Poka, can only be reached by sea.
Some people hang around the area to carry out this transportation activity. In the scaling sector, there are people who do the job of removing scales from the fish of customers who may not want to go through that task at home. Fish loaders also have their sector. They unload the canoes of fisher men when they return from the sea. This is the same with the smoked fish market which is also active at 5:00 am. Clients come from all parts of the country. In a chat with the president of all the markets in Youpwe, M.Nkembe Pozell Andre, he said they are facing a grave problem. He predicted that in five years the market would be none existent as a result of the fishing methods. This as is due to the presence of large boats of business man who has invaded the fishing sector. He said they have also employed only Chinese to do the fishing. It is alleged they catch even the young fishes. When they discover that they are too young they throw them back into the water. Unfortunately, he added, they are usually dead. This frightens the rest of the fishes and causes them to escape far into the deep seas. He also complained that fishing is done by Nigerians, Ghanaians, and three quarter of the smoked fish market is controlled by these nationals. Cameroonian fisher men he said are not skillful and do not have the means; reason why he said they only do the buying to come back and sell here. The bulk of the fish he said is sent to Nigeria and Ghana and only a small part is sold in Cameroon though the fishing is done in Cameroonian waters.
EFFA TAMBENKONGHO