Waters of the Diaspora is a short lyrical meditation and imagining of the enduring legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in African people. Water was central to that trade. It was the means used to ship human beings–treated as cargo/free labour– to the New World to create wealth. A poetic text on screen overlays a montage of moving images of water and waves. A soundscape of a griot’s voice and mournful echoes of distant keening and the scritch of a ship’s tackle conveys present to past, and a return to present. This reflective film lays bare the lingering emotional impact of the willful theft and ill-treatment of African people.
Waters of the Diaspora is a short lyrical meditation and imagining of the enduring legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in African people. Water was central to that trade. It was the means used to ship human beings–treated as cargo/free labour– to the New World to create wealth. A poetic text on screen overlays a montage of moving images of water and waves. A soundscape of a griot’s voice and mournful echoes of distant keening and the scritch of a ship’s tackle conveys present to past, and a return to present. This reflective film lays bare the lingering emotional impact of the willful theft and ill-treatment of African people.
Sylvia Hamilton
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