These Divers Search For Slave Shipwrecks and Discover Their Ancestors | National Geographic

I am a light in the bottom of the ocean [Music] buried in the silence of years I am the lights of the spirits [Music] I often think of the middle passage as the origin story for Africans in the Americas during that transatlantic slave trade period we know there were tens of thousands of ships that traverse the Atlantic we estimate that there are 12.5 million people who were taken from Africa the intent was to make as much money or profit as possible often as many as 600 people would be chained together and put in the bottom of a cargo holds of a ship people suffered from starvation and illness there were sharks that followed the ships because of blood that was in the water from people they threw overboard when you're trying to engage in this subject of slavery there are no easy conversations the work is in the attempt to to tell the truth to confront to help people reckon with this history Africans live in various countries in Africa don't think of themselves as black that's an outside observation before people boarded those ships they belong to this ethnic group or this tribe that's when this thing called black was born where do we put our sorrow where do we reconcile our history and where do we reconnect with our heritage all of us look for a touchstone generations later there are people who are descended from the continent and they can go back and touch these historic sites even underwater I was living in DC and the Museum of african-american history and culture that opened and at the very bottom of it it has artifacts from a ship they were part of the larger story that I was getting and then I make it to the second floor there was this picture and I go to read the plaque about it and it says it's this group called diving with a purpose and this is a part of the slave rexis project which is a larger collaboration of partners who are dedicated to finding these slave ships around the world when I see the name of this guide can Stewart so I used to go diving we would get on the boat and the folks on the boat wouldn't buddy up with me my assumption is is because I was black it happened several times and I didn't know really what to do then I found out about dr. Jones and the rest is history a lot of people consider me to be the Dean of african-american divers and I learned to dive in a military my first official died was 1951 dr. Jones is truly one of the greatest black men I have ever met when I came back from the military there were people who had heard about diving whether they didn't know how to do it one by one people started contacting me so I said well let's form a club these people were intent on telling their own story and I thought the human journey of Africans in the Americas has not been told from this lens anywhere now first some to archaeologists came in to give a talk on a henrietta maria slave ship well once we saw the shackles it really upset the people we decide we were going to put a plaque down on on the Henrietta Marie now I've made over 6000 dives that was one of the most memorable dives I had because it was like diving on a grave site you do feel like you're visiting the souls of your ancestors when you're dead and it's just difficult to explain the feeling sorrow anger disgust and you feel sort of feeling helplessness we said you know we need to go out and find in slay ships [Music] then we got lucky and I can Stewart met Brenda Lazar dog who was the archaeologist at Key Biscayne State Park she needed diamonds we had diver she said I will train you guys to do this work if you were to help me map this ship she says you know I'm the lone diver here in the park and you know as a diver we can't dive alone earning 10 were these visionaries for this program after a few years you know under her instruction tutelage she said okay now it's your turn I'm gonna sit back a little bit she said that we're not to keep this program to ourselves you have to train other people there's a rise in the interest and study of the African Diaspora of our past but there's not real space made for people who actually look like us this lens of people who are descendent from Africa is crucially important because these are stories that have not been told when presented with this opportunity to expand my impact create pathways for students it seems like a no-brainer it's like okay so how are we gonna get these kids in the water [Music] make sure that you close to them with your buddy we have an hour trip to the dive site you will be getting a briefing and before you get into the water I'll be recording your time in so what we're doing out here on this very beautiful day we have four because some underwater archaeology advocates what we teach here is the basic principles of how to document a shipwreck how to do measurements underwater basic mapping techniques we are training them to be able to go into a wrecked ship wreck landscape and began the initial process of gathering data so we do maritime archaeology which enabled us to uncover the sau Jose the Sal josée is a slave ship that starts in Lisbon travels to Mozambique picks up captive Africans to sell them into enslavement in Brazil the ship goes down just off the coast of South Africa what we're doing here is helping to tell a story on a human scale a story about a ship and the five hundred and twelve people who were enslaved aboard that ship and the search in all its levels for and around the ship creates deep connections I do recall very as think to blame when I first encountered the wreckage of the South Susanna being in the water for me it can become very very meditative and quiet and beautiful but when that Beauty sort of encapsulated a slave ship wreck you know there's another sort of feeling you get and I just remember seeing that that wretched stand and so I approached the wood and I'm resound and grabbed and tested and whatever you want to call it I could feel the vibration the energy and the pain and the suffering and the horror it's like I kind of closed my eyes and I could audibly hear the the agony and the scream if I close my eyes and all I could think was to say inside my head we never forgot about you we came looking for you and we found you when we encounter these labor excites we like to go back to those people that particularly ethnic group and tell them that we found their ancestors in Mozambique Island we met a gentleman he is a member of the Makua tribe and he gave to us a Cowrie shell in case basket inside that basket he had put soil and that soil came from the site that was the last footfall of people on the African continent before being ordered to ships he asked us to take the soil and to bring it as close as possible to the rack that was an opportunity for healing and that was an opportunity that was symbolic because it connects the Americas it connects South Africa it connects Mozambique and it connects it to the now and to the past [Music] now what happens when you take that sense of adventure and you pair it with social responsibility that's when sparks fly we're training young people in diving they're becoming certified divers and at the heart of that is heritage stewardship I love this idea of young black mind stepping into the sea and claiming it this has been a very successful field school so we thank you very much for all that you will continue to do as advocates of the ocean and cultural heritage management I think it was a great year did some outstanding work with that said we're gonna recognize our new advocates what we can do is gather knowledge and pass it on so then stop it one generation two people but it keeps on going what would it mean to tell those stories that we don't get in our history books and I think us asking questions of this history the ways that we do bringing these stories to life it makes them real these are the kind of stories that we can't let die that story of resilience of holding on to humanity that story of refusing to be dehumanized is such an important story for this world today I think the healing part of this work is the community that comes out of humanizing these experiences I didn't expect it to feel this way it feels [Music] we know that we're speaking for millions of people who are here we can't see them all but we know that all of us every ancestor we've ever had is alive and present within us today we are their blood their flesh their bone and every generation yet to come is alive and present in us today the Atlantic is one of the most turbulent of all the oceans [Music] and I've been thinking about the people who've never been honored they've never even been acknowledged their stories are just lost [Music] perhaps there's something spiritual that's happening in these oceans there's a need to lay the ancestors to rest [Music] and the search in fact never has [Music] the search for ourselves never adds so this whole question of identity and culture particularly for people of african-american descent is a huge struggle who do we call ourselves are we Negro are we black or african americans who are we I am a black girl from Atlanta but I'm also a nerd really in the sci-fi and when yoga enthusiast like there are all these parts of me that make up Who I am but that don't get seen because people just see the blackness and that's how I get to find my wish my dream for other black folks around the world is to be able to exist inside of their wholeness and to have people see that and recognize that that's the work that is happening here I am the sea light [Music] I have walked the waters [Music] and I have been in the memories lost only with the spark of the hope that someday some diver would look at the artifacts that are the traces left of the people and asked the questions that have not been asked what people must have come in those ships [Music] [Music]

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 1,188,925

Rating: 4.9059186 out of 5

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, documentary, scuba divers, ship wrecks, slavery, group of vibrant, ibrant scuba divers, divers, discover their ancestors, PLivjPDlt6ApRfQqtRw7JkGCLvezGeMBB2, PLivjPDlt6ApRiBHpsyXWG22G8RPNZ6jlb, PLivjPDlt6ApSV6IhEzPW2w60mwFVtXgNR, vibrant scuba divers, positively identify, slave shipwrecks, shipwrecks, Ancestors

Id: u2l_EugvRw8

Length: 18min 21sec (1101 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 18 2019