Aquatic Arts in Africa and the Diaspora

Kevin Dawson
History & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
UC Merced

“Aquatic Arts in Africa and the Diaspora” seeks to create an online digital archive/museum. The aim of the project is to digitalize approximately 400 published historical images that document the aquatic traditions of Africans and members of the diaspora. These were printed in books, newspapers, and pamphlets published between about 1600 and 1880. The term “Aquatic” expresses Africans’ perceptions of and connections to the water. African maritime practices inspired people to get wet through swimming, underwater diving, surfing, canoe-making, canoeing, and fishing. Women in Africa and the Americas also engaged with water by marketing seafood and other goods in seaports and riverports. The digital archive documents these traditions and aims to include photographs from the PI’s private collection of original African artwork from Atlantic Africa (the region extending from Senegal to Angola, from which most enslaved Africans were taken) that expresses Africans’ continuing cultural and spiritual relationships with the ocean and rivers.