Lina Rau
ECL 305
Prof. Pressman
14. April 2024
Resilience in The Water Will Carry Us Home
The Middle Passage is part of one of the most brutal chapters in human history and is marked by the transatlantic slave trade, which resulted in the forced migration of millions of Africans to the Americas. During the video, the viewers are faced with the African diaspora through the lens of African rituals, sculptures and drawings in clash with the slave ship “Brooks”. In the video it is depicted, that the Water Spirit Omambala has brought the people there and that the Water Spirit will also bring them home (cf. 1:23 min). The depiction of the Middle Passage that is facilitated by the above-mentioned Water Spirit Omambala, demonstrates the strength the Africans had, to be able to endure and go through it. By highlighting that, the video serves as a testament of the resilience of the human spirit of African people, and it raises questions on which particular histories are being told in today’s time.
During the 16th and 19th century, almost 13 million African people were kidnapped from their homelands and forced onto American and European slave ships. The Atlantic Ocean is famously known as the Middle Passage and is known for greed, exploitation and dehumanization of the African people who often faced unspeakable horrors on their journey across the ocean. It is believed that on the journey, nearly two million people lost their lives, as many starved, got sick or endured violence in the form of throwing humans over sea. The number of unreported cases is nevertheless, presumedly, higher. Those people who have survived the slave ships were denied basic human rights and had to live under white supremacy (cf. Equal Justice Initiative, 2022). The Middle Passage moreover makes the ocean look like something that can easily be crossed over like a road and lets oneself forget that it holds history and voices.
The film opens with a powerful quotation of the Water Spirit Omambala (cf. 1:23 min). Omambala, who has brought the African people here and who can also bring them back home, can be seen as the liminal figure of both suffering and also salvation. In general, Omambala brings a different perspective on culture and the ocean to the surface. Different groups of people have different perspectives on the ocean: it needs to be stressed that there is no singular relationship to the ocean, as it is based on history, culture and on storytelling. Needless to say, those perspectives change the way oneself treats the ocean. In this particular case, the Water Spirit’s dual ability to bring both salvation and suffering, lets the Middle Passage symbolically look like as if it is a journey of trauma and transcendence. Even though African people were faced with the unbearable on the slave ships, a slight spirit of resilience shines through: the African people were still showing endurance and strength during hard times.
Additionally, Tesfaye introduces her video with a portrayal of realism through a human character that engages in a ritual ceremony with colorful and bright painted art and painted skin (in particular her hands) (cf. 0:00 – 1:17 min). In the latter, an artistic world is shown through a paper world with stop motion animation that is painted with watercolors. The viewer sees a man that opens the lock of a door with a key he has in his hands (cf. 1:26 – 2:15 min). The importance of that aspect is, that it lets the viewers dive into a particular history that is often “locked” away. It is a history that is uncomfortable to be told and is thus hidden away by Westerners who do not want to face reality. But by unlocking that door into the history, a sense of faith and pride towards continuing the traditions is underscored. It is resilience that pushes African people to engage with the history that is formerly hidden: it is makes the people be even stronger.
Another recurring figure is the eye that is painted onto the hands of the human character and the artistic character of the man. Eyes supposedly see everything and are believed to know everything. Therefore, the eye also knows everything about that particular history that is being told. But if the eyes are believed to know everything, it can be assumed that there are even more histories that are not told yet and still need to be recounted, existing deep in the ocean. That point is directly linked to the second part of the debatable claim presented in the beginning of the essay. If in that video only a singular history is documented, one can pick-and-choose which history is being told and which in particular is not. This pick-and-choose mentality has, one can assume, a severe impact on what archives are being built. It is thus an active decision on what to erase in the history and what to put out in order to built an archive. The archive that existed prior to this video has therefore erased the history and stories of the people that are presented now, leading to the assumption that a lot of other archives exist and are possibly lost in the ocean.
Another interesting aspect is the scene where enslaved people are pushed into the water (cf. 3:37f.). The Water Spirit turns the pregnant women that are thrown overboard into mermaids that are nurtured by fish (cf. 3:37- 5:06). By turning those who have tragically lost their lives into mermaids, the Water Spirit is giving them immortal qualities. It makes the impression that the voices and stories of those people are preserved and are not forgotten. It is those people Tesfaye endows extra values. Those people might be forgotten on land but are never in the sea; they are now resilient characters whose legacy continues on and whose voices can be heard through echoes through the waves.
At the end of the video, the perspective is shifted back to the real world and the character starts listening to something through shell headphones that are connected to the sand (cf. 5:07- 5:54). The shift serves as a bridge between the past and present and somehow connects back to live and to the spirits. By listening through shell headphones, a special tribute is given to the voices and stories of the past that have preserved now and will preserve in the future, which ultimately highlights strength and resilience once again.
To put that into a nutshell, Tesfaye has masterfully created a thought-provoking piece of art. The switch between art and reality invites viewers to unlock hidden truths and tribute those who have tragically lost their lives. Besides that, the Water Spirit Omambala stresses the resilience of African people up until today. By embracing traditions and performing rituals, the collective memory is honored and stories are told which are tried to be hidden up until today.
Works Cited:
Equal Justice Initiative. “The Transatlantic Slave Trade”, 2022.
Tesfaye, Gabrielle. “The Water Will Carry Us Home.” Vimeo, 10 May 2018, vimeo.com/269045173.