In the Footsteps of the AncestorsGuardian of memories in places full of the drama of the Maafa of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade in Captive Africans, I travel the world following the footsteps of humanities' first Ancestors who had been hunted into oblivion from the African continent. This site honours over 30 million silent stories that wait to be told. I hope my photographs provide insight to what their experiences teach us about ourselves and further our sense of humanity.
My photographs are proprietary and ask if you use them, do so only for educational purposes, and kindly credit me as the photographer. They will be changing every quarter, so please return to the website periodically. I thank all those known and unknown who led me to the venues I capture. Know that all images and text connect to my work at the AfroAtlantic Theologies & Treaties Institute and my scholarship on public policy, reparations, and spatial justice. Click below for more information. Thank you: 
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 Close up of Alison Saar's, Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman, Harlem, New York, United States of America
Short woman with a gun
Leading me through the woods Footprints left besides rivers Freedom is a powerful thing Sometimes you have to hold it In your hands and listen For the click E. Ethelbert Miller, Tubman, 2002 |
A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY THROUGH THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
From Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas
The Maafa is the KiSwahili word for, "The Great Suffering," which is how Africans and their descendants qualify this crime against humanity, generally known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Captive Africans. My journeys through-out the African Diaspora are as much a spiritual pilgrimage as opportunities to discuss international human rights policies with fellow activists and scholars. I see many of these sites as altars. They are and occupy the sacred space on the terrains of our imaginations, our collective esprit de corps, as well as, the topographies of the lands we inhabit physically and spiritually.
Interrogating the past isn't suffice, as securing social justice is a critical task of the 21st Century to maintain our dignity and sovereignty. The devoir and droit de mémorie, that is, the duty and the right to memory, entails reclaiming spaces: cartographic, intellectual, linguistic, spiritual, political, social, creative, and economic, is what the Ancestors whose paths I traveled have taught me is my responsibility. I invite you to tell me what they've taught you on your journeys. Please write me at: dowodesir@me.com
The Maafa is the KiSwahili word for, "The Great Suffering," which is how Africans and their descendants qualify this crime against humanity, generally known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Captive Africans. My journeys through-out the African Diaspora are as much a spiritual pilgrimage as opportunities to discuss international human rights policies with fellow activists and scholars. I see many of these sites as altars. They are and occupy the sacred space on the terrains of our imaginations, our collective esprit de corps, as well as, the topographies of the lands we inhabit physically and spiritually.
Interrogating the past isn't suffice, as securing social justice is a critical task of the 21st Century to maintain our dignity and sovereignty. The devoir and droit de mémorie, that is, the duty and the right to memory, entails reclaiming spaces: cartographic, intellectual, linguistic, spiritual, political, social, creative, and economic, is what the Ancestors whose paths I traveled have taught me is my responsibility. I invite you to tell me what they've taught you on your journeys. Please write me at: dowodesir@me.com
CONJURING MEMORY IN SPACES OF THE AFROATLANTIC
"The travail, reclamation, and liberation of spaces: personal, social and geographic during the 400 years of enslaving Africans has sustained impact in the 21st century with policies of containment; incarceration; educational disparities and chronic unemployment. By sharing through photographs the legacy of the victims of historic slavery in a manner that redirects our gaze towards their visibility, the contemporary person may be more viligant against injustice. I want those viewing my photographs to read more closely the cues and messages left in the world around us -- to see what warrants change and know collectively -- we have the power to reimagine and rebuild it." Dòwòti Désir, Goud kase goud: Conjuring Memory in Spaces of the AfroAtlantic