RIPPLES IN THE ATLANTIC: REVISITING THE ROLE OF WATER IN AFRICANS’ VISION OF REALITY AND SURVIVAL ________________________________________________________________ A Thesis Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board ________________________________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ________________________________________________________________________ by Angira S. Pettit-Pickens May 2017 Thesis Approvals: Dr. Ama Mazama, TU Department of Africology and African American Studies All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was… Toni Morrison, Rita Dove’s Grace Notes ABSTRACT This research aims to connect Africans from the continent to Africans dwelling in the diaspora through ripples of retention. This thesis examines the role of water and African water divinities as markers of cultural and spiritual retention in African communities abroad and on the continent of Africa. Drawing mostly from secondary sources for the investigation, this work revisits texts already documented to uncover the role of water in the survival and lived reality of Africans. The investigation starts by the Nile in Kemet (Egypt in antiquity) and travels through time and space. By beginning at the source of African civilization, this study solidifies the role of water in the ontology and cosmology of African people that is found in antiquity, in a number of ethnic groups along the west coast of Africa, and in the diaspora. Analysis of figures like Oshun, Yemaya, and Mami Wata reveals that external factors, one’s lived reality, and one’s social and physical environment is reflected in the characteristics and attributes of the water divinity abroad. For water spirits must reflect the African people; thus, the tremendous social and geographical changes African people undergo throughout the centuries can be noted as variations in a collective African culture. While this work is conducted in three chapters, future investigation is needed to explore the emancipatory features of water to Africans that are still burdened by the effects of colonialism, assimilation, imperialism, and slavery. Yet, this research in its present state adds to the collection of works in the field of Africana Studies and Africology by reestablishing the strong link among Africans from around the world. Keywords and Terms: ripple, ripple effect, reality, survival, Africanity, Afrocentric iii DEDICATIONS This thesis is dedicated to the late scholar, artist, and friend, Michael Wickliffe, whose body left this earth too soon. His spirit resounds in this work and within the realm of the living dead. May he be proud of this thesis that I’ve completed in honor of his name. I would also like to dedicate this thesis to my ancestors, family, loved ones, and friends who have supported me from day one and continue to be my foundation and source of encouragement as I follow my dreams and continue on this path to enlightenment. May they be proud of the work I have completed thus far. Lastly, I dedicate this work to the sixty million and counting who were affected by the involuntary mass exodus, the MAAFA. May we inch closer to emancipation by returning to our source like the Atlantic waves return to the shore of Africa. Asé iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the Department of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University that has been an intellectual home for me. I am indebted to the magnificent scholars and professors that have played a critical role in molding me into an afrocentric scholar. Thank you to my advisor, Dr. Ama Mazama. Thank you to Ms. Tammy Abner for constantly checking up on me and keeping me in the know. And thank you to the many professors and intellects I’ve had the honor of learning from these last two years: Dr. Molefi Asante, Dr. Amari Johnson, Dr. Nilgun Okur, and Dr. Kimani Nehusi. I would also like to acknowledge Odhiambo Siangla who has always been so patient, encouraging, and willing to meet with me. Without him, I would not have had the will or the drive to produce this solid piece of work. Lastly I would like to acknowledge every person who checked in on my daily progress and the following who took time out of their busy schedules to read my work and offer suggestions and critique: Asia Hightower, Cokie Nanka, Claudius Purcell, and Verna Pickens. I appreciate you all! v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………iii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………….iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………..……………………………. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………………………………….. vi LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………..vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: REFLECTIONS ON WATER…………..….…1 METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………..3 KEYWORDS AND TERMS……………………….………………………. 5 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE…………………………………………..9 ORDER OF ANALYSIS……………………………………………………15 CHAPTER 2: NAVIGATING THE WATERS OF OUR AFRICA IN ANTIQUITY…………………………………………………………………16 COSMOLOGY IN KEMET………… …………………………… ..18 WATER, REALITY, AND SURVIVAL OF KEMET….…………….20 CHAPTER 3: EXPANDING THE WAVE- HOW THE RIPPLE EFFECT UNITES AFRICANS AT THE EAST AND WEST OF THE ATLANTIC……………….27 WATER IS STILL DIVINE: WATER DIVINITIES OF THE EAST..…………. ……………………………………….. 27 MOTHER, TEACH US WHAT IS REAL AND TRUE……….……35 SURVIVAL IN THE WEST…………………………..…………… 39 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION RIPPLES NEVER CEASE TO EXIST, THEY MOVE ENDLESSLY…..………49 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………..……52 Photo Source: Artstories.md. GitHub, Inc.com, “Mami Wata’s Origins” This is an image of the German depiction of a Samoan snake charmer who traveled to Germany in the1880s and instantly became a sensation. In due time, this image of Maladamatjaute began to circulate as propaganda to entice an audience that was willing to watch exotic entertainers. This image soon finds it way to Africa where Maladamatjaute is instantly regarded as Mami Wata. Now closely associated with African water divinities, this image spans generations and locations and plays a part in the survival of African water divinities around the globe. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATION PAGE 1.1 The Ennead According to the Doctrine of Heliopolis…………………………….19 1.2 NWN, The Primal Waters…………………………………………………………23 1.3 Seed of Time of the Cosmos………………………………………………………23 2.2 Plate 47……………………………………………………………………………41 2.3 Plate 48……………………………………………………………………………41 2.4 The Shrine of Our Lady of Regla in Miami, Fl………………………………….. 44 2.5 The Lady of Regla in a Monastery on the Paseo de Costa de la Luz in Region Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain………………………….. 45 3. Artist’s Depictions of Yemoja…………………………………………………….. 56 vi LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1.1 Kemetic Symbols, Transliteration, Sources…………………………………….24 2.1 A Survey of Water Divinities Explored in the East…………………………….34 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION REFLECTIONS ON WATER The great Atlantic ocean is one-fifth of the Earth’s surface and connects Europe, Africa, North America, South America and the oceanic islands resting in the peripheral of the S-shaped abyss. The narrow Atlantic is approximately 41,100,000 square miles and its maximum depth is about 27, 493 feet (Ericson, Flemming et.al, 2017). Its first seafaring explorers ventured out on its surface as early as AD 545 and later Egyptians of Africa set sail in the Atlantic (Ericson, Flemming et.al, 2017). It comes to no surprise that explorers had a magnificent fascination with the sea, as it presents both a reflection of the present and endless possibilities for the future. It connects one land mass to another and allows one’s people, culture, and economy to flourish and travel beyond homelands. Beneath the surface of that reflective entity rests aspects of African culture and life that not only resides in the core of our brown bodies, but also in the mundanity of the African’s lived experiences–our realities. The water transcends time, space, and imperialist European notions that subscribe to dichotomies, oppression, and systematic division. The toxicity of such notions have led many to believe in, and sometimes regard as fact, the illogical myth that the brown- skinned peoples of the West are not related to the browned-skinned people of the East and that those living in the West are not a part of Africa and all her glorious facets. This myth allows those who look out at the Atlantic to forget what is on the other side of the horizon or how the brown-skinned person even arrived in the Americas and the Caribbean in the first place. Water, from the perspective of the ignorant and from the toxic mind of the conqueror, is seen as a tool of major division. 1 But water does not operate that way. Making up ninety percent of the Earth’s surface and creating coasts that act as entries into land masses, water does not aim to create vestiges out of ethnic groups and their ontologies. Water is not a site of separation. Instead, the ripples in the Atlantic ocean are a great unifier and preserver of culture for African people residing at the east of its stretch and at the west of its stretch. Each ripple carries along the surface of the water a cultural aspect of Africa that is retained in the diaspora. We are not separate entities but instead one force linked together by what has been retained and practiced in our inhabited spaces. These cultural retentions or ripples of retention are expressed in our language1, our dance2, and our spirituality3. Ripples in the Atlantic: Revisiting the Role of Water in the Africans’ Vision of Reality and Survival, is interested in studying the role of water and its spiritual divinities as ripples of Africanity that links African communities from the West to the East. By investigating the role of water in the Africans’ vision of reality abroad and on the continent, one should see that indigenous, brown-skinned Africans share a common culture and worldview despite slight variations due to external forces (Kambon, 1999). Thus, these ripples that bind Africans are really symbols of cultural legacy and survival. As discussed later in this thesis, the role of water 1 There are a great number of linguists who have used language and root words as a tool to unify all of Africa.