Wagenia, Kisangani, DRC

Photographer

Jan Grodza

Category

Editorial Photography - Travel

Company

Submission Group

Amateur

Year

2025

Country / Region:

Czech Republic

The fishing practice of Wagenia fishermen is unique, original and constitutes a world reference for this people. These scaffoldings on which the traps are suspended resist strong water currents and can be built in different places depending on the water level of the Congo River. Arrived in Kisangani around the 1400s , they were warmly welcomed in these terms "Karibu Wageni", words in Swahili which mean in English "Welcome Guests". And this is where the name “wagenia” comes from. They then built the first scaffolding around 1482 on the falls currently known as "wagenia falls".