Lines of negotiation: Rethinking agency across fish, fishers, and technologies in the Kariba waterscape, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper reconceptualises fishing as a dynamic, multispecies negotiation involving fish, fishers, and fishing technologies, using Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe as a case study to develop broader analytical insights. While prior research at Kariba has largely focused on human-centred perspectives, we show how both fish and technologies act as active participants in the fishing process. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, we argue that fishing entails two overlapping forms of negotiation: between fish and fishers, and directly between fish and technologies, as fish encounter, evade, or engage with fishing gear in ways that reflect their own agency. These interactions, shaped by water conditions, technological design, and human intention, produce a distributed choreography of relational encounters. Using examples from rod-and-line and gillnet practices – including passive, active, and illegal techniques – we highlight how fishing technologies mediate these encounters and how fish assert influence over capture outcomes. By foregrounding multispecies and technological agency, the study positions Lake Kariba as a lens through which to theorise relational, contested, and co-constituted waterscapes beyond a single locale.