Whispers from the Water
Community Lecture by Kamau Sadiki
Whispers from the Water: Reconnecting Ancestral Memory Through the History and Archeology of the São José Paquete de Africa and the Clotilda "Slave" Shipwrecks by DWP lead diver, Kamau Sadiki, will be a community lecture held on Thursday, February 27 @ 5:30 pm in the reception hall prior to the open reception for our current Into the Depths and Diving with a Purpose exhibitions. This event will be free and open to the community.
Description: On December 3, 1794, the São José Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese ship transporting over 500 captured Africans, mostly Makua people from Mozambique, departed the northern coast of Mozambique for what was to be a 7,000-mile voyage to Maranhao, Brazil and the sugar plantations that awaited its human cargo.Tragedy struck after twenty-four days into the voyage. On December 27th, the São José Paquete de Africa crashed into the rocks off Clifton Beach in Cape Town, South Africa. After attempts to salvage the “cargo” from the wreckage, 212 African lost their lives. In June 2015, after more than five years of research and underwater archaeology work, the Slave Wrecks Project, a partnership between the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American Culture (NMAAHC), Izeko Museums of South Africa, George WashingtonUniversity, and Diving With a Purpose (DWP), announced the discovery of the São Jos Paquete de Africa shipwreck. It represented the first ““slave”” shipwreck ever discovered that sunk with captured Africans on board. On July 9, 1860, the Clotilda sailed into Alabama’s Mobile Bay, ending an illegal mission as the last “slave” ship to bring captured Africans into the USA to be en”slave”d. There were 110 imprisoned human souls in its cargo hold. In June 2018, the wreckage of the Clotilda was located in the Mobile River. Kamau Sadiki participated in the underwater archaeological work on the wrecks of the São José Paquete de Africa and the Clotilda as a DWP strategic partner with the “slave” Wrecks Project, SEARCH Inc., and NMAAHC. Kamau is featured in the documentary film Descendant that tells the story of the Clotilda descendants community called Africatown near Mobile, AL. This presentation will highlight the work of Diving With a Purpose, a non-profit organization of primarily African American SCUBA divers whose primary mission is to bring back into memory and document the stories of shipwrecks involved in the commodification and enslavement of Black bodies during the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement (TEAE). The intersectionality of transoceanic “slave” trade systems and the making of the modern world through the histories and wrecking events of the São José Paquete de Africa and the Clotilda shipwrecks, two critically important ships of the 18th and 19th centuries, will be explored. Additionally, the meaning of memory and cultural heritage in the context of the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement will be discussed. A few other significant “slave” shipwrecks of importance during this period will be highlighted as well.
Whispers from the Water: Reconnecting Ancestral Memory Through the History and Archeology of the São José Paquete de Africa and the Clotilda "Slave" Shipwrecks by DWP lead diver, Kamau Sadiki, will be a community lecture held on Thursday, February 27 @ 5:30 pm in the reception hall prior to the open reception for our current Into the Depths and Diving with a Purpose exhibitions. This event will be free and open to the community.
Description: On December 3, 1794, the São José Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese ship transporting over 500 captured Africans, mostly Makua people from Mozambique, departed the northern coast of Mozambique for what was to be a 7,000-mile voyage to Maranhao, Brazil and the sugar plantations that awaited its human cargo.Tragedy struck after twenty-four days into the voyage. On December 27th, the São José Paquete de Africa crashed into the rocks off Clifton Beach in Cape Town, South Africa. After attempts to salvage the “cargo” from the wreckage, 212 African lost their lives. In June 2015, after more than five years of research and underwater archaeology work, the Slave Wrecks Project, a partnership between the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American Culture (NMAAHC), Izeko Museums of South Africa, George WashingtonUniversity, and Diving With a Purpose (DWP), announced the discovery of the São Jos Paquete de Africa shipwreck. It represented the first ““slave”” shipwreck ever discovered that sunk with captured Africans on board. On July 9, 1860, the Clotilda sailed into Alabama’s Mobile Bay, ending an illegal mission as the last “slave” ship to bring captured Africans into the USA to be en”slave”d. There were 110 imprisoned human souls in its cargo hold. In June 2018, the wreckage of the Clotilda was located in the Mobile River. Kamau Sadiki participated in the underwater archaeological work on the wrecks of the São José Paquete de Africa and the Clotilda as a DWP strategic partner with the “slave” Wrecks Project, SEARCH Inc., and NMAAHC. Kamau is featured in the documentary film Descendant that tells the story of the Clotilda descendants community called Africatown near Mobile, AL. This presentation will highlight the work of Diving With a Purpose, a non-profit organization of primarily African American SCUBA divers whose primary mission is to bring back into memory and document the stories of shipwrecks involved in the commodification and enslavement of Black bodies during the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement (TEAE). The intersectionality of transoceanic “slave” trade systems and the making of the modern world through the histories and wrecking events of the São José Paquete de Africa and the Clotilda shipwrecks, two critically important ships of the 18th and 19th centuries, will be explored. Additionally, the meaning of memory and cultural heritage in the context of the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement will be discussed. A few other significant “slave” shipwrecks of importance during this period will be highlighted as well.
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Kamau Sadiki
Kamau Sadiki was born and raised in Greenwood, SC USA. He received a degree in Engineering Technology from Piedmont Technical College and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Howard University. He spent 40 years with the US Army Corps of Engineers, retiring in 2017 as the Chief Executive Officer of the Corps of Engineers Hydropower Business Line. He is a Board of Directors member and Lead Instructor with Diving With A Purpose (DWP), an organization committed to resurrecting the stories of shipwrecks involved in the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement (TEAE) through underwater archaeology documentation. He is a certified Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) Divemaster with more than 1,600 open water SCUBA dives. He was featured in the cover story of the March 2022 National Geographic magazine and companion podcast entitled “Into the Depths” that explores the work of DWP and the exceptional journey of National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts as she follows Black scuba divers across the globe in search of shipwrecks involved in the TEAE. Kamau has actively worked on the search and underwater documentation of five TEAE shipwrecks including the pirated ship Guerrero in southern Florida. He was a member of the field team that confirmed the location of the TEAE shipwreck Clotilda in the Mobile River in Alabama, the last ship to bring captured Africans into the USA with the intent to enslave them. He is one of only three African American divers that have entered an actual cargo hold of a TEAE shipwreck, the space in which captured Africans experienced the horror and trauma of the Atlantic Middle Passage crossing. He is featured in the October 2022 release of the documentary film Descendant that tells the story of the Clotilda descendant community of Africatown near Mobile, Alabama USA. Kamau has conducted numerous lectures and presentations on TEAE shipwrecks, memory reclamation and resistance. He has worked on multiple shipwreck sites around Mozambique Island, Mozambique, South Africa, and shipwrecks in the NOAA Thunder Bay and Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuaries and Biscayne National Marine Park off the southern Florida coast, Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica and in St. John, US Virgin Islands. |
He is a co-author of a chapter in the recently published book, Citizen Scientist in Maritime Archaeology: The Power of Public Engagement, by University Press of Florida. Kamau has presented at the Humanity Summit in Lisbon, Portugal (2023) and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2024), a summit that addressed the global challenges faced by the human species and their impact on the planet. He also delivered a major presentation at the National Museum of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture while attending the Rio summit. Kamau Sadiki is a certified NOAA and NABS Foundation Scientific Research Diver and a Blue Card Diver for the National Park Service. He holds numerous PADI specialty certifications including Deep Diver, Archeology Survey Diver and Coral Reef Conservation. In November 2023, Kamau was inducted into the National Association of Black Scuba Divers Hall of Fame. He was recognized as the 2016 National Association of Black Scuba Divers Diver of the Year and received the Underwater Adventure Seekers 2016 Founder’s Award, awarded by NABS co-founder and International Diving Hall of Fame inductee, Dr. Albert Jose’ Jones. Kamau is a retired Civil Engineer and a certified 200-Hour Jivana Yoga Instructor. He is a licensed general aviation pilot with over 400 hours of flying experience. He also enjoys river kayaking, playing djembe drums and acoustic guitar. Kamau is the proud father of two children and a recent first-time grandfather. He resides in the State of Maryland USA.