Waterscapes of Resistance in the African Diaspora and Africa -- Documentary film

• In Event: African Diaspora documentaries
  In Paper Session: African Diasporas documentaries

Description for Program

The maroon nations of Suriname are the Afrodescendent communities in the Americas that have made most obvious use of riverine ecologies to escape from European enslavers and create, in the interior of the country, independent societies that maintain distinctive lifestyles still reflecting their African origins. And in the United States, the watery environment of the Great Dismal Swamp between North Carolina and Virginia, like other similar east coast ecologies, also harbored generations of maroons, as recent research is bringing to light. Whereas the Underground Railroad of northward escape from U.S. colonial enslavement has generally been assumed to be terrestrial, current research is demonstrating that maritime and riverine routes were of greater significance for Atlantic coast freedom seekers.

But, for Africans and their descendants to use waterways to escape from or create physical barriers against potential enslavers did not begin in the Americas. It rather began in Africa in reaction to the system of enslavement created by Europeans and their African surrogates. Lobi people now in Burkina Faso crossed the Volta River and moved further inland to put the river between them and potential enslavers. They also created a defensive architectural style. And in the Republic of Benin, Tofinou people moved their communities from land to far from the shores of Lake Lokoué to protect themselves from African armies whose taboos prevented them from crossing bodies of water. The village of Ganvié, now part of Benin’s tourist circuit, in the lagoon region of Les Aguégués, is an obvious example.

Another ecological feature enslaved Africans and Afrodescendants used to reclaim their freedom in the Americas was hills such as Jamaica’s Accompong and Brazil’s Palmares, and in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius’ Le Morne and Reunion Island’s Mafat.

Author

• Sheila S. Walker, Afrodiaspora, Inc.