The Deep

The Deep (2019) is an Afrofuturist novella by Rivers Solomon. Solomon is an award-winning author of speculative and literary fiction that focuses on queer experiences of the African diaspora in science fiction or fantastical settings. The novella participates in the literary traditions of Afrofuturist and Black science fiction writing representing African diasporic culture. Solomon was commissioned to write the novella by senior editor Navah Wolfe at Saga Press, who heard a song called “The Deep,” produced by the hip-hop collective Clipping, on the podcast This American Life in 2017. Clipping’s song is a science fiction narrative about a fantastical society of merfolk who are the descendants of the pregnant enslaved women thrown overboard by enslavers. The song was nominated for a Hugo award, and Solomon’s literary adaptation has since been awarded the Lambda Award for LGBTQ+ fiction. It was also shortlisted for several science fiction awards, including the Hugo.

In Solomon’s adaptation, the main narrator and protagonist, Yetu, carries the burden of her people’s history in an official capacity as the society’s historian, but she struggles to articulate an independent identity under these constraints. The novella turns on the conflict between Yetu’s sense of self and sense of duty to her people. The narrative takes readers backward and forward in time, traveling between Yetu’s consciousness and the collective consciousness of the wajinru, illustrating how remembering history shapes what’s possible in the present—and what might be imagined in the future.

This guide refers to Saga Press’s 2019 eBook edition of the novella.

Content Warning: This guide discusses themes of enslavement and historical trauma, racism, and mental health stressors.

Plot Summary

The Deep begins 20 years into Yetu’s role as the historian, a duty that she took on at the age of 14. Lost in remembering, Yetu is on the brink of sacrificing herself to a group of sharks when her mother, or amaba, finds her and awakens her to the present. Yetu was so lost in the past that she missed the annual Remembrance, a ritualistic ceremony that is necessary for the survival and nourishment of her people, the wajinru. The ceremony is rescheduled, but Yetu is physically weak, mentally brittle, and overwhelmed by the impending task, which requires so much from her energetically.

The role of historian is sacred, and it is an honor that Yetu takes seriously. Yet, occupying the role and carrying the heavy burden of a history of suffering has made her embittered and resentful toward her people. She is filled with animosity toward even her amaba, who enjoys a life of blissful ignorance. The wajinru people are biologically predisposed to forgetfulness and therefore enjoy lives grounded in the present moment. However, if they maintain this forgetfulness for too long, it inspires an existential crisis, an intense craving to know who they are and where they come from. The annual Remembrance provides them with this nourishment and sustains them for the entire year. It is the only time when the historian shares the pain of memory with the collective and feels physiologically connected to her people.

The novella begins with preparations for the Remembrance, which involve both feeding and strengthening Yetu and building a structure to protect the wajinru from outside harm as they undergo the ritual: the womb. Once the ceremony begins, Yetu and the wajinru see and experience the History as one. She begins by providing them with context, reminding them that they are the descendants of the pregnant enslaved women discarded by slave ships crossing the Atlantic. Yetu wants to ensure that the wajinru do not merely listen to the History but experience it, and she curates a sequence of events for them to witness. These include the deaths of children and their ancestors’ suffering. This scares the wajinru, who begin to lose themselves to the past. As the memories leave her body, Yetu is overcome with an urgent desire to abandon the wajinru. She does not believe that she will survive another reimplantation of the History into her body. She flees.

After her break with her people, the novella’s chapters move back and forth from Yetu’s present-day experience and the Remembrance that the wajinru continue to witness without her guidance. The Remembrance takes them back over 600 years from when the wajinru were first conceived. They began as a small creature without self-knowledge or awareness that tagged along with a pod of whales to survive. One day, they saw what appeared to be a dead body floating on the surface of the water and investigate. They realized that it was alive and dragged it to shore. The body was a “two-leg” named Waj, who formed a relationship with the creature, teaching it language. Waj named the creature Zoti Aleyu, which translates to “strange fish” in her language. Zoti Aleyu recognized themselves in Waj and felt that they once knew someone like her. Eventually, Waj left to return to her homeland and recommended that Zoti Aleyu, or Zoti, do the same.

Zoti was devastated by the loss of Waj. They searched the ocean for other zoti aleyu, determined to protect all of their kind from the abandonment that they experienced with Waj. Zoti began to build a society with other zoti aleyu that she found in the ocean. She taught them language and their history and assembled a world for them near the ocean floor: “the deep.” Zoti discovered the truth—that they were the descendants of the enslaved—by listening to those at the bottom of ships and, eventually, by ripping a zoti aleyu from the pregnant belly of an enslaved woman thrown overboard to die. The pup was called Aj, who eventually became a historian who held the memory of the zoti aleyu to protect them from the pain of history.

As her people experience this remembering of their origin, Yetu washes ashore somewhere above the surface and confronts two-legs for the first time in her life. She develops a relationship with Suka and Oori, two-leg women who provide her with food and comfort. Yetu is surprised by her ability to breathe and speak their language. She spends some time washed ashore in a small pool of water, reckoning with the guilt that she feels for abandoning her people and the righteousness she feels in doing so. During this time, she begins to remember who she was before the History robbed her of an autonomous identity. She begins to recall her own memories, needs, and desires. Much of this is achieved through self-reflection, but it is also realized in her relationship with Oori. Like Yetu, Oori has a strained relationship with her homeland and people, but unlike Yetu, she has developed a thick skin and a hard exterior that makes intimacy or connection difficult. Yetu is drawn to Oori, and the two slowly build a relationship. Yetu teaches Oori things about the ocean that improve her fishing practice, and Oori continues to provide Yetu with food and company. They get into a sharp conflict when Yetu admits that she abandoned her people and her history, as Oori thinks this an unconscionable choice.

Oori does not speak to Yetu for days, and Yetu uses this time to recall earlier instances in her life when she felt isolated and pained by her duty. When Oori returns, the two slowly rebuild their connection and soon admit their feelings for one another. Intimacy is a major milestone for both and signals a real transformation has taken place in Yetu, who was previously disconnected from her sense of self, needs, and desires. However, Oori announces that she is leaving Yetu to return to her homeland before an impending storm destroys what is left of it. Yetu is devastated, but losing Oori makes her realize that she must return home and prevent the impending destruction.

The Remembrance continues to show the wajinru’s past, focusing on Basha, the historian who preceded Yetu. Whereas Yetu was depressed and filled with despair by the History, Basha was enraged and filled with a passionate drive toward vengeance. In his rememberings and his life, he witnessed atrocities committed by the two-legs, killing children, obliterating innocent wajinru, and burning his lover, Ephras. At this point, the wajinru population had been decimated, as nearly half were lost to the violence. Basha was determined to assert the dominance of the wajinru and correct this injustice. However, Omju, a self-appointed leader among the wajinru, disagreed with this course of action, which could potentially expose the wajinru to more pain and death. Basha challenged Omju to fight for the role of leader and swiftly killed him. He led the wajinru into battle, waging the Tidal Wars against the two-legs. Their collective electric energy created tides that covered the world with the ocean’s water.

When Yetu finds the wajinru, they are weak and malnourished, suffering under the weight of the History. Initially, she insists on taking it back to save them. The wajinru, however, recognize that the rememberings are too heavy a burden for any one person to carry. Even Yetu’s amaba is changed by the experience of holding the memories. They devise a new plan: The History will be divided between them all, and they will be responsible for communicating and sharing their memories. This distribution allows Yetu and the wajinru to realize that it is their work to interpret History, and the events do not necessarily have a meaning for the present or the future. The events must be assembled and interpreted, and the feelings that they inspire must be acknowledged, processed, and let go.

Finally, the relationship among the wajinru is healed, and Yetu feels called to reconnect with Oori. When she finds her, Oori is vulnerable, devastated by the loss of her homeland, and relieved to be reconnected with Yetu. They embrace, and Yetu asks Oori to come to the deep. She transfers a remembrance to Oori: the memory of what it was like to breathe in the womb. Through this process, Oori is able to breathe underwater and descend toward the deep with Yetu.