The Deep

A compact yet powerful speculative novella, The Deep imagines a submerged society of wajinru, water-breathing descendants of pregnant African women thrown overboard from slave ships. Only one person, Yetu, serves as Historian and bears the weight of her people’s traumatic memories each year in a collective ritual. When the burden becomes unbearable, Yetu flees to the surface, forming an unexpected connection with a surface dweller named Oori and discovering that reclaiming one’s history is as vital as survival itself. This haunting story pulses with themes of identity, trauma, memory, and redemption.

~  Included for its bold Afrofuturist reimagining of cultural memory and inherited trauma and for giving voice to the silenced through speculative lyricism. A luminous, emotionally resonant work that challenges us to remember, heal, and rebuild.  ~