Halimatu

The book is the result of a series of workshops carried out by Clara Dublanc as a creative response to the research undertaken by LIMINAL between 2023 and 2025 in The Gambia, exploring the links between predatory fishing practices and the displacement of West African coastal communities.

It centres the experiences of women fish retailers1, who have been most severely hit by the ecological and social crisis endangered by the establishment of three fishmeal and fish oil factories in The Gambia since 20152. As these factories plunder local fish3 to fuel the global animal farming industry4, women are often the ones having to deal with fast rising cost of fish, the destruction of the ocean environment and the haunting absence of those lost at sea while seeking a better future along the “back way5”, the migration paths made more and more dangerous by militarised border control.

By addressing a young audience living in the aftermath of these ongoing predatory practices, the book acknowledges the intergenerational effects of extraction, foregrounding personal and collective struggles through social and environmental hardship, as well as human resilience and creative strategies for survival.