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The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is one of few days that honors the memory of the millions whose lives were interrupted and disrupted by the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This service will create space for the honoring of many whose names are unknown, individuals who were not funeralized or ritualized. The service is designed as a time for lament as we remember the resilience, courage, resistance, ingenuity and rebellion of Africans who were brought forcefully into the Americas. Through song, dance, poetry and prayers – we will remember.

In recalling the memories of those who have passed on, there is the acknowledgement that the atrocities of 400 years of movement of Africans into the Americas abroad ships designed to move people as chattel. These memories compel us to ensure that we eradicate the legacies of the enslavement of Africans that continues to manifest as racism, Afrophobia and other forms of discrimination.

The service gathers the international and interfaith communities to honor the dead, to pray for healing, to celebrate the joy of African descendant people, and to affirm the commitment to eliminate the legacy of injustices that linger.

The waters are healing. The waters are an essential part of human life. The waters hold the bodies and memory of the dead. We journey to the waters to remember and to heal.