Drexciya and Black Atlantic culture
With the abduction and commodification of millions of Africans in the slave trade, their descendents were severed from their ancestral roots, histories and mythologies. Can the creation of a Black Atlantic culture reimagine a stolen history? Let’s take a look at Drexciya, the music duo ánd the legendary underwater colony they imagined, founded by descendents of pregnant Africans thrown overboard slave ships on their way to the Americas.
All images (except the map) are from the graphic novel Book of Drexciya by Abu Qadim Haqq.
Image from the graphic novel Book of Drexciya by Abu Qadim Haqq
Drexciya was the Detroit electronic music duo James Stinson (1969 - 2002) and Gerald Donald (1980). They had been making aquatic inspired albums since 1992 with the album Deep Sea Dweller featuring tracks like Nautilus 12 and Depressurization, but the album The Quest (1997) established the alternate underwater universe that continues to fascinate fans worldwide to this day. The sleeve notes of The Quest tell the tale of Drexciya, an underwater colony founded by the children of pregnant African enslaved women thrown off ships, based on historic events such as the Zong massacre during the Middle Passage.
Digital artist Nettrice Gaskins describes the alternative universe as follows: “Drexciya exists as a sonic third space characterised by embedded myths, the construction of culture and the invention of tradition,” and “soundscape that situates listeners in a liminal space between these experiences and representations.”
Origin myths are important. They provide clues where we came from, give spiritual guidance and help us place ourselves in the world. But the descendents from enslaved African people have no history, they do not know where they came from.
Image from the graphic novel Book of Drexciya by Abu Qadim Haqq
Black Atlantic culture
In her article Deep Sea Dwellers: Drexciya and the Sonic Third Space Gaskin refers to Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness that inspired Drexciya and upholds the bicultural identity of descendents of survivors of the Middle Passage as a hybrid, new Black Atlantic culture, that connects the continents of Africa, the Americas and Europe. She writes: “The Black Atlantic is a modern political and cultural formation defined by a desire to transcend the structures of nation states.”
She goes on: “Drexciya’s album of The Quest included inner sleeve liner notes with a map that illustrates their origin mythology divided into four stages: The Slave Trade, Migration Route of Rural Blacks to Northern Cities, Techno Leaves Detroit, Spreads Worldwide, and The Journey Home (Future).
The four stages of the Drexciya origin mythology. Image from the inner sleeve of Drexciya’s album The Quest, from Deep Sea Dwellers by Nettrice Gaskins.
The map above visualises the concept of an intercultural, transnational network by showing the forced, intercontinental migration by sea, the scattering of people across the Americas as well as the newly established bonds that transform identities and cultures. The Quest, as a manifesto for a Black Atlantic transnational bicultural identity, shows the cultural relevance of sound as a vehicle for self-determination.”
The world and lives of the deep-sea dwelling Drexciyans that were not from the sea but had to adapt there against all odds, provide a metaphor for slave trade survivors and their offspring surviving in hostile land, celebrates cultural hybridity and provides a visual and sonic landscape to connect to.
The duo was very sparse with information about the meaning of their songs (as they where about themselves too, hardly ever showing their faces), claiming that a focus on the artist would distract from the music. Avid fans such as Drexciya Research Lab however have tirelessly tried to decode messages and meaning from the music.
Image from the graphic novel Book of Drexciya by Abu Qadim Haqq
Afrofuturism: alternative futures to heal a world
The cosmology has led to at least a book and a graphic novel series (that I know of, I’ve just starting to scratch the surface of this mythological underwater universe). The graphic novel Book of Drexciya was painted and written by Abu Qadim Haqq, an American visual artist from Detroit. He is considered by the ‘Drexciyan Empire’ one of their ‘agents on the surface’, ‘graduate of Doctor Blowfin’s Science Academy’.
The Drexcyia cosmology can be seen as Afrofuturism avant la lettre, before anyone called it that. Blending the African Diaspora with science, technology, and philosophy, Afrofuturism is a way for Black people to see and expand on new ideas and shape a future of their own. The power of Afrofuturism is evident by the immense success of the Afrofuturistic blockbuster Black Panther movies. It is the first time a black-centered universe made it on screen. As journalist Jamil Smith writes in TIME: “Those of us who are not white have considerably more trouble not only finding representation of ourselves in mass media and other arenas of public life, but also finding representation that indicates that our humanity is multifaceted.”
With the creation of a world of their own, Drexciya were able to let their imaginations run wild, embodying Drexciyans living under the water and making music to heal the planet. “I don’t just want to ride the image of a place, or an attitude or personality,” Stinson said. “I wanted to do something that involved a total concept and take people somewhere else instead of giving them the same thing they see every single day when they step outside their door.”
I invite you to submerge yourself in Drexcyia and feel your way into this dark chapter of history and the resilience of a community that may be scattered, but forever in two worlds.