There’s something so profound about how the themes of creation and motherhood work within Rivers Solomon’s The Deep. We can see how important motherhood is held through the creation of the womb that protects the wajinru from being preyed on while remembering, the relationship between Yetu and her amaba, and the wanjiru’s origins as the babies of pregnant African women who were thrown overboard during the Atlantic slave trade. Most importantly, we can see it in how the ocean is portrayed as an entity that first taught the wajinru to breathe underwater.

In the last chapter of The Deep, Yetu tells her amaba that she is trying to remember what it was like to be in the womb that carried the very first wajinru, to have a two-legged mother, and to be born to breathe air instead of water. Amaba then tells Yetu that there is little to no difference between the waters of the womb and the ocean water that surrounds them all. In a way, they are all still in the womb, always in a state of growth, change, and potential. They were carried in water and born into water. “It is all waters.” (149)

The centering of motherhood and creation in The Deep centers the stories and experiences of women through the reframing of the ocean as the creator and holder of all life on land and in the sea, more than a womb and more than a home. The ocean serves as a protector for those who seek refuge in its depths and as a teacher for those who are willing to learn. The story allows its female characters–and the ocean itself–to define themselves as more than just mothers or warriors, but as explorers, teachers, and historians as well.