Bearing Witness to Sites of Memory
Written on Thursday, May 23rd, 2024 @ 2:19 p.m.
“All water has a perfect memory & is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to out original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our ‘flooding’.” — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self Regard, “God’s Language,” p. 243
The thesis in which I coined the specific use of the word assemblage as it pertains to Black subjectivity, was ignited with a sojourn to a river. Growing up, as a little Southern Black girl, I learned that everything I touched an ancestor did too. Places & sites hold memories & it ripples out to be felt today.
On March 15th, 2023 I took a trip to visit the site that empowered many before me. Let us begin with Minty. You all may know her from the name she chose to honor her mother…Harriett Tubamn. In 1863, Minty traveled to & led the Combahee River Raid freeing over 700 labeled property by law on neighboring rice plantations. This historic raid went on to inspire Babara Smith to found a collective named after the historic river…The Combahee River Collective (CRC).
The river knows our names from this life, our past ones, & conjures new ones for the future. 114 years later, the same river that knew Minty already knew the names of the folk who created the collective. The river bed’s pebbled mouth carried their names: Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Demita Fraizer, & more. Water doesn’t always erode stone to dust but carries them downstream & through time. If, the river bed grinds its pebbled teeth to dust we know the daughters of the dust continue to thrive.
Combahee knew Minty first, then Barbara, & now Black Feminists all over the world sing Combahee through their smooth pebbled teeth. These folk sing to the praises of the CRC statement published in 1977.
“If Black women were free it would mean that everybody else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression.”
Yes, “I’ve known rivers” & the rivers know me too.
Through this body of water, soil, and tree, I also know all that have come to know them. Standing on the Combahee River ferry dock & bank I felt those folk labeled contraband cross the river to claim the freedom that was already theirs. I felt Minty as she helped them gain their rooted footing. Those people who desperately try to make me believe the South is a wasteland & one must leave to be anything did not (do not) know this fertile land straighten my spine when I want to curl inwards.
The “rush of imagination” that Minty had to lead a successful military raid & the CRC’s imagination to dare scribe a world into being swells the estuary my mangrove heart now calls home. My mangrove heart swells immensely with powerful affirmations.
No, the water in my body didn’t use to be brackish but I have adapted to emerge despite the environmental harm. This world is obsessed with preserving the nostalgia of time. A preserved mummified heart was the result this often cruel world desired but water, even with salt, gives me room to glide buoyantly through life—my pebbled smile gleaming against turmeric rays of sunlight. This enabled assemblage to come earthside in May 2023.
Now a new river, whom I know & knows me, has encouraged the beating of my heart to go on. This river is called Stono—the site of the 1739 Stono Rebellion.
The folks who gathered at this river experienced such “a rush of imagination” that they planned one of the largest rebellions by labeled property in the colonies at the time. Furthermore, this resistance caused white people (who believed they owned people as property) to be terrified that this “rush of imagination” would spread. In other words, they were beyond terrified that the rush would f l o o d. As a result, the white elite passed increasingly more restricted legislation that increased surveillance, discipline, & punishment.
Stono knew Jemmy (leader of the Stono rebellion) & 83 years later Stono knew Denmark Vessy. Denmark would go on to plan & execute a rebellion with plans to sail to free Haiti. It all stemmed from the mouth of a river that a city & state attempted to clamp shut.
There is a plaque, in the same fashion as the Combahee River one, on the U.S. highway 17. However, there is no riverfront access, space to pull over, or a place to linger with the past folks whom the river knows. The only way I gained riverfront access to this monumental site was through a wealthy neighborhood on the road where my Air BNB was located. Even then, there is but a semi-circle & two park benches to rest on & no sign in sight. You can, however, see lavish homes with private patios & docks for their boats. You can spot folks enjoying their private access to water via their personal property (water & land they originally wanted nothing to do with).
When the only direct access to a natural site that holds the memory of history is limited due to private ownership—how do folk without financial means get to tap into the “rush of imagination” without planting feet on soil? What happens when the soil that the “rush of imagination” occurred is no longer recognizable?
beautifully invited the most loving cohort of healers to sit with the heartbreak of these sites of memories being destroyed by mining (the Congo), bombing (Palestine), & other horrendous methods throughout the world. How do you share a record of a gathered site of memory that is newly embodied?There are risks to wondering & wandering around these sites in an effort to gather their stories. Even walking around the neighborhood that had access to the Stono River felt uneasy at times. At times, my feet were planted but my legs were shaking with caution. There were white people who drove by & locked their car doors with puzzled looks & brows arched as high as the Cooper River Bridge. There were homes we quickly walked past with Trump signs in them.
In my mind, I began to recall the instances that always stay in my mind. It was just in 2020 when Ahmaud Arbery was murdered on a run & just in 2015 when Walter Scott was murdered by North Charleston Police. As freeing as nature is, the outside natural world still forces me to contend with thoughts of the end of life.
Yet, I surprised myself by still being able to have affirmative beliefs as I stood overlooking the Stono River:
💙 I trust this river reinvigorates the capacity to disturb the peace that I have within myself
💙 Private ownership of now profitable land does not dilute the ringing of liberty’s freedom drums my ancestors loudly beat with life
💙 The river races through me & knows the gifts I have coursing through my veins
💙 The rivers, their names & events, that flow through you are your inheritance
Yes, “I’ve known rivers,” & the rivers know me too. Furthermore, I know the oceans the rivers run to in plain sight.
The first anniversary of the International African American Museum (IAAM) is approaching in June 2024. The IAAM is built on the site of Gadsden's Wharf, overlooking the port where approximately “40% of African captives entered this country [the U.S.].” Between “starshine & clay,” sky & water, land & air my ancestors came through. I can not fear the water when I know how to ride the tide.
“I trust this river to carry me home.” — WILLOW
Thank you for engaging with this site of memory writing with me 💙. Please remember if you choose to share this piece or any piece on this publication to always CITE BLACK WOMEN. Please always include the name and link to the Assemblage: Baby’s Breath substack publication in your sharing practice.
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1.) Check out the Philadelphia Printworks x Black Women Radicals Combahee River Collective Collection. This would make a great gift for any Black Feminist in your life ✨.
2.) Black Women Radicals recently hosted Barbara Smith & Demita Frazier (two founding members of the Combahee River Collective) to celebrate 50 years of Combahee!
3.) Lastly, you can find an intentionally curated playlist inspired by rivers & this piece of writing below.
