Imagining the Middle Passage: A Visual, Literary and Theoretical Mapping of the Black Atlantic (prezi) – Stella Koudouma

As my cultural map, I formulated a Prezi presentation of different theoretical, literary and visual approaches to imagining the Middle Passage. While the representation of the passage in-between is difficult to visualize, we are invited by thinkers, writers and artists to envision the journey from different perspectives. I aimed at focusing on various conceptions, from the ones that conceive the Middle Passage as a process of movement, interconnection, hybridity to those that emphasize the split, loss and violence it effected. The mapping of different materials is intended to enrich an understanding of the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on transatlantic imagination.

First, I used Paul Gilroy’s concept of the “Black Atlantic”, along with the painting Middle Passage#1 by Kara Walker and J.M.W Turner’s Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying Typhoon Coming on. Kara Walker has a collection of paintings called the Midlde Passages. This is followed by Wilson E. Harris’ conception of the Middle Passage through the perspective of “limbo”, accompanied by a photograph of limbo dancing and the painting Spider Queen by Prefete Duffaut. These are the two main theoretical aspects of my map. As my literary material, Kamau Brathwaite’s The Arrivants, and specifically a poem from his collection “II Limbo”, was utilized. An excerpt by Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which is the monologue by Beloved about the Middle Passage, is also included. Lastly, a poem from Zong! As told to the author by Setaey Adamu Boateng, by M. Nourbese Phillip, is thought and presented as a visual representation of the slave ship. Paintings are used as an aid throughout the presentation to visualize the Middle Passage.