"The Waters" is a cinematic meditation on Black Freedom
From the very beginning, "The Waters" grabs viewers by the throat. Before you know it, you have traveled. Standing on the sandy shores of Ghana, West Africa and swimming neck-deep in the Atlantic. Shot and directed by ELIKEM AKPALU and narrated by RIA BOSS (May 2020 La Ceiba Festival Artist-in-Residence), the film takes viewers on a meditative exploration of Black freedom.
“We have to truly be accountable for our Black Liberation worldwide. Our Black brothers and sisters in the Americas must become united with us here in Africa. But the journey is not an easy one. It requires us all to unlearn harmful ways of coexisting with one another. Because we are connected by spirit. Only the water separates us.”
The film was created for "Juneteenth 2020: A Freedom Celebration" hosted by Elegba Folklore Society and part of June's La Ceiba Festival. The intent was to document how the pandemic of anti-Black violence seeps outside the Americas and connects to West Africa, the starting point for the African diaspora. “The Waters” journeys through key sites in Ghana of the transatlantic enslaved trade (Cape Coast Castle and James Town) and panAfrican nation building (Adomi Bridge, Lake Volta) against centuries of European imperialism and colonization. The film suggests that liberation will only be fully realized when freedom movements in the Americas against racism and state-sponsored violence are connected to the people and land of the African continent.
“Freedom is not granted. Freedom is. Together they will not extinguish our fire...How long? How long has it been since you’ve been here? The separation becomes the great reunion.”
We share “The Waters” on July 1st, Republic Day in Ghana. Sixty years ago today, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first postcolonial president in Ghana and South-of-Saharan Africa, commemorated July 1st as a new beginning for the republic, independently able to govern its own constitution.
Elikem Akpalu, the director and cinematographer of “The Waters,” also shares these special high-resolution images from the film. You may share, download and print for free!
