Yetu swims with a heavy burden. She is the Historian for her people, the Wajinru, the water-dwelling descendants of the pregnant African women who died in the ocean during the transatlantic slave trade. Generations of Wajinru have had all of their memories held by their Historians, but Yetu responds to the responsibility with a different kind of courage than those who came before her. Yetu is the central figure in Rivers Solomon’s short novel, THE DEEP, which is based on a song by the experimental rap group clipping. So influential is this tune (also titled “The Deep”) that the band’s members --- Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes --- are credited as authors as well and have penned a thoughtful afterword.

"THE DEEP is a challenging read, unique in its telling and provocative in its themes. Solomon’s prose is powerful and delicate --- a poetic and insightful examination of violence, racism, pain, memory and identity."

Always sensitive, both physically and emotionally, Yetu often wishes she could leave the memories and her role as Historian behind. But to do so would be to lose her own identity and leave the Wajinru without the memories they need to survive in the depths of the ocean. Despite the support of her mother and friends, and the hopes and needs of her people, Yetu does venture away from her community during the perilous time called the Remembering. Leaving the Wajinru vulnerable in their ecstatic yet often difficult memories, Yetu swims away. Of course, she cannot swim away from the memories she carries and the trauma they recall.

Yetu holds within her brutal truths about the savagery with which the kidnapped Africans were treated in the slave trade --- in particular the pregnant women who, being thrown overboard so as not to drain the ship’s resources, delivered their babies into the ocean as they died. These babies, never having breathed air, were adopted by whales and eventually evolved into the Wajinru. Solomon’s fantasy is more evocative than descriptive, so a suspension of disbelief is requisite. These mermaid-like creatures symbolize the inherited trauma and long-standing damage done to the individuals and entire communities harmed by the slave trade. Even while exploring the historical and the collective, Solomon manages to render Yetu and her experiences singular and specific.

Character- and not plot-driven, THE DEEP focuses mainly on Yetu’s interior life and her role within the Wajinru culture, as well as how her individual thoughts come into conflict with that of her people, and finally the eventual tenuous resolution of that conflict. Still, Yetu’s journey is as physical as it is emotional. She finds herself washed ashore on an island, stranded in a tide pool and cared for by a woman named Oori. It is from Oori that Yetu gains perspective on the past, the origins of the Wajinru, and a possible future of love, healing and companionship.

THE DEEP is a challenging read, unique in its telling and provocative in its themes. Solomon’s prose is powerful and delicate --- a poetic and insightful examination of violence, racism, pain, memory and identity. There is a hopefulness here, and the book is not without beauty. Occasionally the passage of time and Yetu’s space in the story become muddled, so readers need to concentrate. Solomon evokes Yetu’s world with a stark honesty held tightly by a compelling lyrical style. Dreamy and still confrontational, THE DEEP is a moving tale of transformation.