Regional/Cultural Day
Agoodjé Gbe
In the fishing villages along Togo's coast, women smoke fish over smoldering mangrove wood in tall smoking ovens built from clay and straw. The Agoodjé women have perfected this craft over generations: the fish is cleaned, salted, arranged on mesh racks, and smoked for hours until the flesh turns golden and firm and the smoke flavor penetrates every fiber. The smoked fish travels far from the coast, reaching markets deep in the interior where ocean fish would otherwise never appear. This is preservation as art, and the Agoodjé women are the artists.