RECOLLECT - Episode #3

Kevin Dawson is Associate Professor of History at the University of California at Merced, and the author of Undercurrents of Power/Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora. Published by Penn Press, it is the definitive study of traditional West African relationships with water, oceans, rivers, and lakes. As Dawson reveals, long before the dawn of transatlantic slavery, West Africans were excellent swimmers, divers, canoeists, and yes…surfers. Dawson is the winner of the prestigious Harriet Tubman prize, given by The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. This book is eye-opening, it is corrective, it is seminal, and I am certain you will enjoy this conversation… To purchase Undercurrents of Power, and to support independent booksellers, please visit our collection at bookshop.org, or visit Penn Press here. To read more articles by Professor Kevin Dawson, please visit UC Merced here.