Omi: Water in Comparison to the Black Female Body

Abstract

The Black female body as a retrospective site of ecology holds an intimate connection to nurturing kinship of water to the Earth. Black women are the cornerstone of existence in relation to humanity. For hundreds of years, Black women in the United States of America were enslaved, raped, humiliated, dehumanized, and breastfed the babies of white slave masters. Becoming the pillars of community, the innate intellect, intuitive knowledge, and wisdom of Black women has saved countless lives, liberated souls, and filled spaces with joy. This chapter explores, expands, and examines the ecological, spiritual, and social relationships of the African American female body to water as nurturer, giver, and sustainer of life. The Black female body is transcendent, exploring the unique philosophical inquiry of American history with ancestral memory, spirituality, and extraordinary physical manifestation. This chapter provokes, invokes, and radicalizes our precious gift of the African American Black female body and water as fugitive, giver, and sustainer. Life is connected to the water. For centuries, Black women have recognized the value, importance, and relevance of water as spiritual, intellectual, social, ecological, and emotional contextualization of life force. Water is a basic human need.