Atmos on the Black maritime archeologists seeking ancestral truth in the deep blue sea

For Atmos, Omnia Saed explored the Atlantic Ocean through the eyes of Black maritime archeologists such as Gabrielle Miller:

In June, Miller helped lead the second session of the Slave Wrecks Project Academy in Senegal, where students dove off the coast of Gorée Island, once the largest slave-trading hub on the African coast. 

“People were tossed overboard like refuse. Many died on the voyage and became a permanent part of the sea. So, when we excavate, visit, and monitor these shipwrecks, I don’t think many people realize that we’re standing in a graveyard,” she said. 

Part of Miller’s practice, as she describes it, is tending to these graveyards—preserving the sense of space. The ships and the artifacts are important, but her divers are urged to ask themselves: How was this space used? How do we memorialize it? And what do you see?

Sadly climate change has made this kind of historical work much harder due to water temperatures, harsher weather conditions, and pollution:

“These fabrics, discarded as trash by European markets and ending up in the ocean, are literally wrapping themselves around the shipwrecks,” said Miller. “Part of caring for the site is cleaning it up.”