Bozo Specialty · Smoked Fish
Poisson Fumé (Smoked Fish)
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Edithobayaa1 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
About 90% of the fish caught in the Mopti region, mostly tilapia and catfish, is dried or smoked rather than sold fresh, making Mopti one of West Africa's largest smoked-fish processing centers.
Whole fish are smoked for hours over wood fires on racks at Mopti's riverside Marché aux Poissons, turning a deep amber color and picking up a dense, smoky flavor. Vendors sell it whole or flaked apart to be added straight into stews.
Why it's made this way: Mopti sits where the Niger and Bani rivers meet in the Inner Niger Delta, making it the natural hub of Mali's fishing industry, and its smoking racks, tended largely by Bozo women, turn the daily catch into a shelf-stable product traded across the region.
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