“Slavery at Sea”: A Musical Performance and Discussion with Prof. Sowande’ Mustakeem and Amalghemy

For the second installment of Kinder Postdoctoral Fellow in History Billy Coleman’s Spring 2017 “Playing the Past” community seminar, held on April 20 in Jesse Hall 410, Washington University Associate Professor of History Sowande’ Mustakeem and her percussion band Amalghemy performed and discussed selections from their recent collaboration, a first-of-a-kind musical soundtrack for Prof. Mustakeem’s critically acclaimed book, Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage (University of Illinois Press, 2016).

Sowande’ Mustakeem received her B.A. from Elon University, her M.A. from Ohio State University, and her Ph.D. from Michigan State University, and she currently serves as Associate Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Her first book, Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage, was released in 2016 on University of Illinois Press, and her chapter “Blood Stained Mirrors: Decoding the American Slave Trading Past” appeared in the edited volume, Understanding and Teaching American Slavery (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016). She has published scholarship in numerous journals, including North Carolina Historical Review, Atlantic Studies, and Journal of African American History, and she serves as Director for Washington University’s Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society.