Category Archives: Week 12: The Ocean as Archive

The Water Will Carry Us Home

Posted on by
1

In the short film “The Water Will Carry Us Home” The imagery has portrayed a slave ship the video shows. The short film shows us how do people that are depicted in the times of the Atlantic slave trade and the idea of a mermaid as a outside force and people had a belief in them to be their savor from their misery they faced even if it may not be real. The Insights of Tesafayes is the human consciousness is the sole focus of the video.

As the story concluded the interpretation is how people are always being remembered for just being imprisoned on a ship. The religious aspect of the video is a wake up call to let people know that there are people who are forgotten by name or anything they have done in their lives but only to be remembered for that one thing and nothing and the ending shows that pieces of the past physical or mental lives through us as a reminderof that particular historical event.

week 12

Posted on by
2

In the short film The Water Will Carry Us Home , slaves are thrown off a slave ship and their sprints are saved by mermaids. Something that I noticed before the story began was the hand drawn on a woman’s hand approaching the camera before the screen goes blank. The spiritual eye could mean a transition to higher consciousness and insight. Tesfayes inclusion of the hand with the eye right before the story begins is like a point of relaxation and focus.

After the story is over, after everything is revealed through the journey that the slaves went through and the meeting with the mermaid, there is a blank screen again at the end of the video with the sound of the rooster. What do we know about the sound of the rooster? That it usually means it is time to wake up. This is an awakening! An awakening for the slaves that were left to be forgotten, their lives and stories that were almost forgotten through the concealment of others. Not only was the video a video of awareness of history that has been attempted to be hidden but it’s a transition of the progression towards a different life.

Week 12: The Water Will Carry Us Home—The Ocean as a Preservation of History

Posted on by
3

Gabrielle Tesfaye’s short film “The Water Will Carry Us Home” establishes that this is not the white-washed, Christian version of history that we are told in high school about the transatlantic slave trade. Tesfaye doesn’t set out to give us a realistic explanation; however, she sets out to tell a story, which is neglected by the education system as a whole. We are told that the transatlantic slave trade was tragic, but that’s about all we learn. We learn nothing of what happened to these lost souls who died during the journey from the continent of Africa to the “New World.” We don’t even know the stories of those enslaved people before they became enslaved people. What Tesfaye sets out to do is offer a story for these souls, almost as if she were granting them a final resting wish to tell their stories.

The transitions between watching real-life Tesfaye holding a ritual to the painted stop motion illustrating the slave trade back to real-life Tesfaye demonstrate not just the past and present day, but also represent what stories can be told. Tesfaye, in the “real world,” is able to tell her story because she can create something that communicates her story. She creates this art that punctuates her existence to the world. But for the lost souls of the slave trade, they cannot. What Tesfaye does is create a story for them so that they may not be forgotten. Tesfaye offers them a story that does not lead to a watery, unmarked death. Instead, she offers them new life in the underwater, being reborn and returned to the water—the water from which we all came.

When we go back to real-life Tesfaye, we see her plugging her headphones into the sand. Yes, she physically connects herself to the land, but she also listens to the voices of the ancestors whose lives were lost. She honors them by hearing them, then creating something to tell their story. The land and the ocean both act as an archive in these instances, preserving the history that has been lost to, ironically, an ocean. Their souls might have been lost to the ocean, but the ocean gave them a home. It gave them a second life, as Tesfaye aims to communicate in her film.

Week 12: The Sea is History

Posted on by
5

In “The Sea is History,” Derek Walcott reframes the ocean as an archive that resists the neat documentation associated with Western historiography. Walcott suggests that the sea functions as both a repository and ruin, one where it is a space where traditional historial “records” dissolve, yet the collective memory endures in non-material ways.

This tension emerges in the passage “the sea had locked them up. The sea is History.” Walcott’s choice in using the verb “locked” implies both safekeeping and imprisonment. The drowned bodies of enslaved Africans, unnamed and unarchived, are not lost; rather they are held in a space where history often overlooks. Walcott also elevates the ocean from backdrop to narrator and the sea becomes a historical text written by its currents, storms, and absences. He deepens this idea in the lines describing “the rusting cannons and broken statues.” These symbols of empire are not glorified; they decay underwater, stripped of authority. Their ruin exposes the fragility of colonial narratives that once claimed permanence.

Ultimately, the poem argues that history cannot only be found written in documents, but also what they gloss over: the trauma, silence, and memories embedded in places often ignored. Walcott’s ocean demands that we listen to the history that has been submerged for centuries.

The Sea Is History

Posted on by
3

I really liked this poem because in last week’s post, I mentioned something similar about how the Ocean contains its own history. I liked the imagery in it as well, but my favorite line was “bone soldered by coral to bone” because I feel that it reminds us that our past bodies and lives are still beneath the surface of the Ocean. I love the way it implies that not only does the Ocean carry a symbolic history of life, but a physical one as well. All the archives that have been preserved at the bottom of the ocean, or even in the shallow ends. There are aspects of life that, if we one day can venture down and capture, we can see into the history of so many lives.

The idea that the ocean holds history is something I love to think about. The amount of space the Ocean covers gives it the opportunity to hold so much history. There is also this connection this poem had to the film “The Water Will Carry Us Home”. It’s an extension of the idea that the water tells a story, a story of life that once was. The water acts as a preservative for life, the one thing in our world that over decades and centuries never truly changes. At least, it doesn’t change completely by itself, so not only is it its own history, but it is also the history of humans. The impact that human lives have on the Ocean is also the kind of history that it holds onto.

I love the way this poem guides us to acknowledging that the water holds stories of suffering, identity, and survival. Showing us the importance of seeing the Ocean as a form of history and not just a body of water. Taking care of us as if it were a museum of relics rather than a big puddle. It takes the life of the Ocean and compares it to the life of humans, showing the similarities between life in the water and life on land.

Song of the Week: Oceans Breath by Software (I like the way this song starts and then how jazzy it gets. Even with the jazz, this song has a background of “sea-like” siren sounds/music.

The War of the Water

Posted on by
1

Derek Walcott’s poem The Sea is History rounds out a really beautiful image that was begun by the first short film we saw, Sirenomelia. They both utilize the ocean in such an intricate way to point out human emphasis on violence as something of value, rather than destruction.

His opening of the poem, asking the sea, “Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?” (Walcott, line 1) reflects so much more than just his question as to why the ocean isn’t appreciated. The questions feel somewhat rhetorical, that there’s nothing to memorialize the ocean when it does so for itself. It stretches on for miles and miles; so much of this never ending mass existed long before human record, or humans themselves, did. It is his choice of wording though, that seems to trigger this idea of more than just being about the sea’s need to be recognized for its totality. He asks about monuments, these statues and physical representations of what once was in order to be faced by every following generation for its bravery; he asks about battles and martyrs, these incredibly discussed and revered objects of discussion because of their sacrifice. All of it though ties together when analyzing all of the terms base themselves in violence, in war-like imagery.

Monuments of the modern day often depict leaders of military, or political figures who incited some sort of change that often resulted in violence because of the overwhelming resorting measures to it in our culture. Battles are the most obvious, with the heavy denotation towards wartime activity, with martyrs often being seen as those involved in these battles. Relating these images, of what society often describes as frightening and gory when looked at in the present tense, to something as gentle and peaceful as the sea creates this greater comparison of how society views appreciation. It ties itself to violence; we crave it to prove our superiority and simultaneously, our appreciation for it. In order to truly be seen as an object of affection or of worth, we must prove we’re worthy through our ritualistic behavior.

This emphasis we place on it additionally seems to prove the reason that Walcott must ask the question at all: the way we view the ocean is the main reason we do not consider it an incredible source of life. In describing it as this peaceful and beautiful place, in the phrases we use of its gentle ebbing and flowing, it becomes associated with this antithesis of our culture demand for aggression. It cannot be fathomed that the ocean is a valuable part of day-to-day life and habit if it does not revolve around these primal needs to prove dominance over the rest of the beings on our territory. In order to ever have a place, it must be a part of this torturous ideal; it must carve out its name in death.

Historical Records vs. What It Silences

Posted on by
1

In the poem “The Sea is History” by Derek Walcott, he transforms the sea into a living paradoxical archive, as a space that both conceals and preserves the suppressed histories outside of Western civilization. The poem begins with a question challenging a Westernized idea of historical thinking, “where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?” and answers that they live “in that gray vault, The sea”. Walcott redefines what counts as history itself, rejecting the colonial notion that historical legitimacy is based on written records or physical monuments. 

The poem begins as an interrogation towards a Eurocentric audience, those who measure civilization by visible signs of achievement and memorialization, such as monuments, wars, and heroes. The line “where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?” creates both an ironic and defiant tone, as the speaker exposes the colonial logic that quotes “history” with documentation, or tangible symbols of empire. The question implies that the Caribbean-descended peoples’ historical legitimacy is denied because their past does not conform to those material standards. By asking and answering the question himself, he asserts his authority and establishes that he will define what and where “History” is.

The word “Sirs” contains Irony; it showcases formality, but its placement in the middle of the stanza sharpens the poem’s oppositional stance. The placement of the word implies that the speaker is responding to a condescending inquiry, to the people who believe in a one-sided westernized “history”, those who demand evidence. Walcott capitalizing the ‘S’ in “Sirs” gives the word additional weight, standing for a collective historical gaze of authority and condescension. By addressing the “Sirs” directly, he positions himself and his culture as subjects who have been questioned, but now have the voice to answer back.   

The image of the “grey vault. The sea” is the first major image depicted within this poem. The “vault” can be both a burial chamber and a secure box, illustrating the sea as a tomb and an archive, a place that both conceals and preserves. The description of the color “grey” evokes neutrality and obscurity, being neither light nor dark, illustrating that what lies within the sea is unknown or unrecorded. Here within this line, the rhythm of the poem comes to a full stop after “vault” and then in short fragments declaring “The sea. The sea” creating an echo with weight and finality. This repetition enacts the sea’s vastness and the inescapable truth of its claim over history.

The metaphor of “The sea is History” collapses the distinction between history and nature, between written record and lived experience. The sea becomes both a lateral and symbolic archive, where the sea literally holds the bodies of the enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage, and symbolically represents memory, trauma, and the erasure of people’s past by colonial forces. Walcott, calling the sea “History,” overturns Western epistemology; history is no longer the narrative written by victors but the silent depths that remember what was suppressed. 

At the end of the line “The sea. The sea. / has locked them up.” the rhythm mimics waves, each phrase crashing, receding, and returning. The repetition of “sea” once again reenfoces the vastness of the image. The sound of the s gives the lines a hushed, whispering quality as though the sea itself is speaking. The rhythm mirrors the poem’s larger movement between silence and speech, between historical records and what it silences.

The Ocean as Home, the Ocean as Roots

Posted on by
1

The short film “The Water will carry us home,” reveals the life cycles and evolution of enslaved humans in their return to the sea and their relationship with the Ocean itself. 

One particular moment at the end of the film shows a woman with seashells, which she then places over her ears. This moment relates to the earlier images shown throughout the film .The film itself, a beautiful piece combining watercolor artwork and visual effects, poses a stark contrast to the topic involved and the imagery created. Enslaved humans being taken from their native land across the sea. Then, their transformation from known history into myth and storytelling reveals to us that those thrown overboard are accepted by the ocean to be transformed into beings of the sea. The Goddess of the sea takes upon her struggling children and provides for them a new life, in a home we have always known. The people’s return to water – a life cycle forgotten. 

Or so we thought. 

The imagery of the woman placing the shells over her ears, experiencing connection with the Ocean, demonstrated the relationship has been present and continues to remain so. Using elements that come from the sea, listening to the sound they capture, she is expressing her roots as that of being evolved from water. Even in modern day, years that have passed since the story’s events, she remains in tune and enveloped in the ocean’s gifts.  As is expressed in the culture that the film visualizes for us, this African native community itself evolved to be one with water, a creature separate from humanity, instead enveloped in the rushing waters provided by the Goddess. Their race combined and evolved to live life in the very environment we all once began our cycles in. The very origins of human kind. The film and the woman display the connection with the Ocean as not a beginning bond of a relationship, but a sacred advancement involving one’s roots and the connection between human spirit and the Sea. The Sea is Home, and as the film displays, some of us have been able to find their way back.

The Sea Records

Posted on by
1

In the poem, “The sea is history” by Derek Walcott as the title says is about how the ocean carries a rich history. Specifically of the slave trade, of those who were carried over the sea to a new land by force. Of those who did not make it. From the very first few lines, Walcott empathizes the identity of those people. Those who suffered making it across and from those who couldn’t.

Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?
Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,
in that grey vault. The sea. The sea
has locked them up. The sea is History.

This first passages in a way speaks more on their culture and identity than any historical account could. Setting the tone of the poem that this isn’t simply a tragedy because slavery was awful. Or even why it happened. It laments the true tragedy that the culture, identity, and memory of those who suffered during the slave trade have been ignored in historical accounts. In the way people learning/reading about them only see it was tragic. Not of who they were. As written in these lines below.

and that was Lamentations—
that was just Lamentations,
it was not History

What these lines mean is the historical accounts are focused not on the slaves themselves. Which is why in the poem’s beginning lines Walcott wrote how the sea recorded their true history. Keeping it in locked for those who wish to dig deeper.

The Sea as a Living Memory

Posted on by
2

In Derek Walcott’s poem ,The Sea Is History, the poet begins with a question, “Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?” and then answers, “The sea is History.” This made me think about how the sea can keep memories that people have forgotten. I thought that it suggests that history is not always something we can see in books or buildings, it can also live in nature, especially in the sea.

Walcott’s poem starts with using the word Genesis, and then shows how human actions, pain, and destruction followed. For example, he writes, “First, there was the heaving oil, heavy as chaos; then, like a light at the end of a tunnel, the lantern of a caravel, and that was Genesis.” I thought this image was interesting because I thought that normally, Genesis is about beginnings and creation, but here, it feels heavy and dark, not holy. I thought that it shows how something that looks like a beginning can also bring harm.

Another line that stood out to me was “Bone soldered by coral to bone.” It made me imagine bones lying on the bottom of the sea, slowly becoming part of the coral and rocks. I thought it shows how the sea keeps traces of people’s lives, even after they disappear. The sea becomes a kind of memory, it doesn’t speak, but it remembers. Also, later in the poem, Walcott writes, “Emancipation—jubilation, O jubilation—vanishing swiftly as the sea’s lace dries in the sun.” I thought that the word jubilation means joy, but it disappears quickly, like water drying under the sun. It shows that happiness or freedom can be fragile. Even moments of celebration fade away, just like waves that come and go.

Overall, this poem made me think that the sea in this poem is not just water, it’s like a living archive of human emotions, pain, and time. It holds stories that people no longer tell. For me, this poem reminds that nature itself can be a keeper of history, quietly carrying memories that the world has forgotten.