Summary
Ocean creatures, plants, ecosystems, and even the rain from the sky can teach us about our history, as poet and independent scholar Alexis Pauline Gumbs proposes. In Dub: Finding Ceremony, Gumbs gives insight into how colonization has affected natives and nature alike and how they are the same in many ways. She recently sat down with students from Baruch College’s Department of Black and Latinx Studies and Black Futures Student Scholars to further discuss nature and its connection to Indigenous and Black history.
Afro-Indigenous Lives, Water, and the Histories of Colonization
By Emily Pacheco
Nature was there to witness the tragedies that came along with colonization. Ocean creatures, plants, ecosystems, and even the rain from the sky can teach us about our history, as poet and independent scholar Alexis Pauline Gumbs proposes. In Dub: Finding Ceremony, Gumbs gives insight into how colonization has affected natives and nature alike and how they are the same in many ways. She recently sat down with students from Baruch College’s Department of Black and Latinx Studies and Black Futures Student Scholars to further discuss nature and its connection to Indigenous and Black history.
In that same vein, in this reflection, I argue that the Afro-diasporic perspectives of water relate to the Indigenous people of Bolivia. A similar example to those presented by Gumbs from the Caribbean is the Bolivian “Water Wars” of the early 2000s. The “wars” shows how valuable water is to these Indigenous communities. Dedicated to bringing an account of the “wars,” the film Even the Rain (Iciar Bollaín, 2010) demonstrates how the rain was taken from Indigenous people in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was put under the control of the Bolivian government and multinational corporations. The “water wars” exemplify how privatization and neoliberalism affect Indigenous communities. Influenced by Afro-Indigenous thought and spiritual lenses, the film, and Gumbs’ work can explain how and why water holds so much power. To have water is to protect animals, plants, ecosystems, and future generations.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs calls attention to the idea that nature and the human species are not different. In her discussion with Baruch students, she points out that dolphins are our kin, and we are not separate from nature. Gumbs stated to students: “We’re not separate, and we’re not separate from marine mammals, we’re not separate from the ocean. It laughs in the face of separation.” To believe that the ocean is not separate from us is to believe that the sea shares a history with humanity. In other words, nature has been affected by colonization alongside the natives. The ocean and rivers have witnessed the abuse and suffering of Afro-Indigenous communities. Gumbs makes an interesting point that whaling existed in the same period as the Middle Passage. She looks at how Europeans exploited both humans and sea animals. Gumbs explained: “The enslaving ships and the whaling ships are in many cases literally the actual same ships used for both of those purposes … the most intense period of wailing was at the same time the same period as the Middle Passage.” She further expands this concept that the oil from marine animals, specifically blubber oil taken from whales, represents a predatory relationship consistent throughout history.
As we analyzed in Professor Robles’ class LTS 3110 Debates in Latin American Social Theory, in Dub, Gumbs offers ideas of nature being witness to what enslaved people and natives had to endure. She does this, for example, by thinking about sea turtles. “Turtles could teach you about colonialism. Turtles know centuries of leaving and coming back and about how when you come back, and nothing is the same, you wonder whether it’s worth it to lay eggs or love anything. What turtles learned to do under colonialism was to die” (62). She’s arguing that sea turtles witnessed the torture and abuse of natives and their own species. When Gumbs references turtles discovering the tragic changes under colonialism, she makes them wonder whether it’s worth it to lay eggs. This reluctance can also apply to the Indigenous people of Cochabamba and how they think their children will be affected by neoliberalism in the future. Colonizers capture people, land, nature, and animals. They set power dynamics that justify owning and controlling what shouldn’t be owned.
The Bolivian “Water Wars” was the fight of Indigenous communities in Cochabamba to have the right to own and use rainwater. As the film’s title indicates, the government privatized even the rainwater. The price of water was too high for many. Therefore, they created their water systems to collect rainwater in their communities. In “Reflections from Bolivia: Water Wars, Climate Wars and Change From Below,” David Solnit interviews Oscar Olivera, the organizer, and strategist for the Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (The Coalition in Defense of Water and Life). Olivera gives insight into the “Water Wars” and the unjust policies affecting Indigenous people: “Law 2029 demanded that the autonomous water systems be handed over without reimbursement to the people who had invested their own time and money to build their systems. The law went so far as to include wells established in people’s houses. It required people to ask permission of the superintendent of water to collect rainwater.” He continues to say that he and the Indigenous communities of Cochabamba believed water is a right and not a product to be sold.
The film Even the Rain highlights the importance of water to the Indigenous people of Cochabamba. It gives an insight into the exploitation of Indigenous communities during the colonization of the Caribbean and South America. Through its film within the film, Even the Rain also shows how the crew and the government treat Indigenous people with the same disdain. The film shows many instances where the Bolivian government failed to assist Cochabamba and its people to the point where Indigenous communities made their water system to collect rainwater. In the film, there’s a scene where the community’s mothers got into a brawl with government workers trying to disassemble their water well. The mothers are fighting and screaming that this water was for their children. This scene emphasizes how privatizing natural resources such as rainwater affects Indigenous communities and their way of life. If we go back to Gumbs’ arguments on the importance of nature, we can note that it applies to Cochabamba. The indigenous people in Bolivia also believe that protecting water is a way to protect animals, plants, and ecosystems.
Indigenous people value water, and it’s demonstrated throughout Even the Rain. A specific scene at the end shows how Daniel, an Indigenous leader, conceived of water as a gift from nature. Daniel gifts the film’s producer a small bottle of water. This scene’s symbolism demonstrates that Indigenous people, in this case, specifically those of Cochabamba, view water as life, as their most significant treasure. I believe this tie back to Gumbs’ beliefs that nature and humankind aren’t separate. Their radical activism demonstrates how Indigenous people in Latin America continue to struggle with and resist the adverse effects of colonialism, neoliberalism, and joint exploitation. In the film, the protests and abuse Indigenous people suffered while fighting for their right to access to water were accurate. It is what happened in Bolivia during the “Water Wars.” In the film, Daniel gets beaten repeatedly by soldiers. And when the movie producer offers him $500 to stay away from the protests, he doesn’t follow his demands. Daniel explains that survival was never easy for the Indigenous communities, and there is no other way except active resistance. For Daniel to go through so much physical violence and to reject payments shows how water signifies life for him and other natives. The Bolivian “Water Wars” and Even the Rain show how they stood up for their right to water. It shows they weren’t going to allow cycles of destruction to continue. They want to see equity.
In her discussion with Baruch students and in her book, Dub: Finding Ceremony, Alexis Pauline Gumbs elaborates on the concept of nature being a witness and victim to the tragedies of colonization. Ocean animals, plants, and rain from the sky can teach us about the history of colonization. She argues that nature and humankind are alike and are connected through shared accounts in many ways. The Bolivian “Water Wars” highlights how critical natural resources are to Indigenous communities. The film Even the Rain shows how neoliberalism affects Indigenous communities and emphasizes the relationship between nature and natives. What water represents to Indigenous communities connects to Gumbs’s idea of animals and ecosystems being valued and learning companions. Nature, including rainwater, tells the history of colonialism, neoliberalism, and the many facets of Afro-Indigenous resistance.
Works Cited
“Even the Rain.” Icíar Bollaín.
Gumbs, Alexis Pauline. Dub: Finding Ceremony. Duke University Press, 2020.
“In Conversation with Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Author of ‘Undrowned.’” YouTube, 7 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu2DH7_5zE0&feature=youtu.be.
Solnit, David. “Reflections from Bolivia: Water Wars, Climate Wars and Change from Below.” Upside Down World, 7 July 2010, https://upsidedownworld.org/archives/bolivia/reflections-from-bolivia-water-wars-climate-wars-and-change-from-below/.
Emily Pacheco (Baruch College, 2023) is a US Latinx student of Peruvian and Bolivian descent living in Queens. She’s doing a major in Political Science. Her research explores Indigenous communities in South America that have been affected by neocolonialism.
Conversation with Alexis Pauline Gumbs Author of UNDROWNED: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals April 14
Event Date: April 14, 2022 at 1:00 PM EST via Zoom
“Undrowned is a book-length meditation for social movements and our whole species based on the subversive and transformative guidance of marine mammals. Our aquatic cousins are queer, fierce, protective of each other, complex, shaped by conflict, and struggling to survive the extractive and militarized conditions our species has imposed on the ocean. Gumbs employs a brilliant mix of poetic sensibility and naturalist observation to show what they might teach us, producing not a specific agenda but an unfolding space for wondering and questioning. From the relationship between the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and Gumbs’s Shinnecock and enslaved ancestors to the ways echolocation changes our understandings of “vision” and visionary action, this is a masterful use of metaphor and natural models in the service of social justice” (from Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Website)