“WATER ACKNOWLEDGMENT”

BY LELA AISHA JONES

Water was often present during key moments in the Black experience. People rarely consider how black folks engaged during enslavement with water for purposes of labor and recreation. Atlantic African societies resided near oceans, lakes, and rivers that allowed them to weave terrestrial and aquatic experiences into amphibious lives. Black folks of African descent taken during enslavement periods were intimately familiar with water and their maritime skills allowed them to command moving water. They were and were used as divers, swimmers, fishermen, and sailors in various parts of the Americas.

Black folks for lineages have engaged with water spirits that are known to connect the living with the dead. Some practitioners through song and dance cross the kalunga,…an entire cosmological system that understood bodies of water to be bridges connecting the lands of the living and the realm of the dead.

We are always crossing and synthesizing and fertilizing our next moves. Water was a practical part of escaping enslavement to villages and locations of our own. We braved rivers, lakes and rainfall to evade the sensory power of the bloodhounds. The most effectual means in evading the dogs was to saturate footprints in water, or diving into swamps or streams to conceal their scent. We are potent and vibrant and only the water can embrace us and engulf us. Submerging into what can hold their full humanity and embodiment… floating vibrantly no being owns we are all with in exchange with what is alive, dead, and what is in between and all around seen unseen heard unheard tasted untasted touched untouched sensed felt infinitely

Wisdom Credits: ancestors, laj, M. Jaqui Alexander, grand/mothers, Oyelola Elebuibon, elders, Nzinga Metzger, iyas, Tyler Parry, seasoned folks, Sobonfu Somé, Ras Michael Brown, Dr. Kariamu Welsh, priestesses, T.J. Desch-Obi, grandfathers, uncles, oshun/ochun/osun, olokun