Why read Undercurrents of Power?

Book cover of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora

Book description

Long before the rise of New World slavery, West Africans were adept swimmers, divers, canoe makers, and canoeists. They lived along riverbanks, near lakes, or close to the ocean. In those waterways, they became proficient in diverse maritime skills, while incorporating water and aquatics into spiritual understandings of the world.…

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Black history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Undercurrents of Power as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Helen M. Rozwadowski

Author

This important and revealing book conveys the untold history of West Africans and their relationship with the ocean, including the underwater realm, from before New World slavery and extending around the Atlantic as enslaved African swimmers and divers carried their skills and the culture associated with them in the African diaspora. Kevin Dawson’s story is not only fascinating but also firmly discredits the false and insidious belief that Blacks are naturally poor swimmers and demonstrates instead the long and proud traditions of West African knowledge and use of the undersea.

From Helen's list on human's relationships with the underwater world.