Gullah Geechee, Descendants Of Enslaved, Fight To Protect US Island

St. Helena, United States, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jul, 2023 ) :Ed Atkins holds a basket filled with small, wriggling shrimp, fresh examples of the catch that the African-American fisherman has drawn from the waters off South Carolina's Saint Helena Island for more than 60 years.

But because of climate change -- and against the steady creep of housing developments -- his way of life on this outlying edge of the Atlantic seaboard is at risk.

"Before, you could go and catch fish anywhere. But now you gotta go to a special place to catch it," the septuagenarian told AFP, standing outside his bait shop's faded blue storefront.

In the past he would haul in around $100 worth of fish on a good day at sea -- now he considers himself lucky if his catch is worth $35.

The situation is made all the worse by the fact that fishing is an essential part of his culture -- Atkins belongs to the Gullah Geechee, descendants of African people enslaved on the coastal plantations of the southeastern United States.

Isolated on islands scattered along the coast, their ancestors relied on the land and sea. They created their own culture, fed by their African heritage, and even developed their own Creole language.