The Deep
Written by Rivers Solomon
with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes
Yetu is her people’s historian, but she doesn’t deal in books. She holds memories, so no one else has to. Yetu is a wajinru, descendants of drowned pregnant African women thrown from slave ships. The babies of those women were birthed breathing water like they did in the womb and have the appearance of “strange fish” or in my imagination, mer-people. Yetu is the latest in a long line of historians and was chosen by the historian before her. It is her job to hold the memories, the History, of all the wajinru before her, including one of the very first wajinru, Zoti. The memories she carries include both pleasures and pain, but to hold it all can be torturous. Yetu can hardly separate herself from the memories and she knows they are killing her. Now at the start of this year’s Remembrance, a ritual where the historian gives the memories back to the wajinru for three days before reclaiming them, Yetu decides that she cannot bear to hold the memories any longer and leaves.
"Remember how deep we go." (p. 29)
This book is a short read, yet months later I’m still thinking about it. The strange creatures, the memories that intercept Yetu’s story, and that one Shape-of-Water-moment. You might have noticed that this story of strange fish has three coauthors Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes. These men make up the musical group “clipping.” who wrote the experimental album The Deep which inspired this book. It’s worth a listen. The song has the uneasy, powerful, strangely optimistic, and rhythmic tones that the book shares.
What I appreciate most about this book was Yetu’s pull between her duty and love for her people and her duty and respect for herself. Though our communities might not destroy the world with tsunamis if we leave them alone and we probably won’t die if we help them, the struggle between self and selflessness is a balance that most of us can relate to. Yetu’s decision to leave is hard to fully condemn or applaud, and I congratulate Rivers Solomon for writing that so well.
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