Reclaiming Water: Navigating the Black Star Line Back to Yemoja

• In Event: African Spiritualities across waters

Description for Program

This paper explores the reclamation of African spiritual practices, particularly those rooted in water-based deities such as Yemoja. The cultural dislocation experienced by African peoples through enslavement, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade has caused an inherent disconnect. Yemoja is a central figure in the Yoruba spiritual tradition, embodiment of water, motherhood, healing, and represents an enduring connection to African cosmologies that have been fragmented by colonialism, and forced migration.
The metaphor of the "Black Star Line," referencing Marcus Garvey's Pan-African vision, serves as a navigational framework to chart a spiritual journey back to Yemoja and the healing waters of ancestral wisdom. This presentation considers how African spirituality- often demonized or suppressed in the Americas-has been transformed and preserved in various forms like Santería, Candomblé, and Vodou. These cultural artifacts remain disconnected from many African descendants due to (1)intentional erasure of cultural memory, and (2)the imposition of Western religious ideologies.
Drawing on oral histories, Diasporic studies, and African spiritual traditions, this presentation examines the significance of water as a symbol of resistance, renewal, and reconnection. It highlights how contemporary movements within the African Diaspora are reclaiming these practices as acts of cultural survival and empowerment. From rituals honoring Yemoja to the resurgence of African Centered healing practices, these spiritual reconnections provide tools for healing intergenerational trauma, and igniting diasporic identities.
Dr. Auburn Ellis is from Missouri, and will bring a unique local perspective to the research. The session will conclude by inviting attendees to reflect on how the recovery of African spiritual practices can serve as a pathway for community-building, resistance to cultural erasure, and re-establishing a sacred connection to water as a life-giving force within the Diaspora. By "navigating back to Yemoja," we envision a collective journey toward spiritual reclamation and cultural healing.

Author

• Auburn Ellis, Vine Street Studio Kansas City