The Legend Behind The Original Black Mermaid Everyone Should Know
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This “Little Mermaid” has been around for thousands of years — and we’re not talking about Halle Bailey or Disney’s whitewashed Ariel! SHE is the true Queen of the Sea, proving mermaids have ALWAYS been Black!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This little mermaid has been around for thousands of years and we're not talking about Halle |
| 0:08.8 | Bailey or Disney's whitewashed Ariel. |
| 0:13.0 | She is the true queen of the sea, proving mermaids have always been black. |
| 0:20.0 | This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school. |
| 0:29.8 | Recently, Disney's live-action, The Little Mermaid, trailer dropped. |
| 0:35.6 | There was Halle Bailey playing Ariel a black princess. |
| 0:40.8 | But while we celebrated, a whole new level of white jealousy showed itself. |
| 0:56.6 | Within hours, the trailer had 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube. |
| 1:03.5 | Across social media was the hashtag, Not My Ariel, with white supremacists claiming Disney |
| 1:09.6 | was causing white erasure. |
| 1:13.0 | Disney's original Little Mermaid is based on a Danish fairy tale by Hans Anderson. |
| 1:18.6 | So white supremacists stated white Ariel is historically accurate. |
| 1:24.2 | Ironically, the mermaid in Anderson's version is green. |
| 1:29.0 | But the original mermaids were black. |
| 1:33.9 | Centres before Anderson's publication, African folklore depicted the real queen of the sea, |
| 1:41.4 | Mamiwata. |
| 1:42.7 | A West African legend, Mamiwata is a water-spirit, shape-shifter, and mermaid. |
| 1:50.0 | She's worshipped and feared as protector of all water bodies. |
| 1:55.8 | And sends roughly 1.8 million enslaved Africans were thrown overboard during the middle passage. |
| 2:04.5 | It's likely Mamiwata guided them on their spirit journey. |
| 2:09.3 | Black ancestral energy can be felt within ocean currents. |
| 2:14.8 | Valley Bailey stated, I wanted the little girl in me and the little girls just like me |
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