Drexciya: how Afrofuturism is inspiring a memorial to slavery at sea

The alternative Black history of a deep-sea civilisation has planted the seed for proposals to memorialise the 1.8 million Africans who died in the Atlantic

Somewhere in the dark, vast abyss of the Atlantic Ocean, deep beneath the waves, lies a civilisation. For centuries the Drexciyans have lived in peaceful isolation on the seabed, occupying their bubble metropolis, unaware of the land-based realm their ancestors were forced to leave behind.

The Drexciyans trace their lineage back to the pregnant African women - considered by their captors to be sick or disruptive - who were thrown off slave ships to drown. Baby Drexciyans swam from their mothers' wombs, never needing to breathe air, and gave rise to a subaqueous empire.