Peggy Arthur

By Peggy Arthur

Greetings!

When I began exploring Negro spirituals for my novel, The Pretender’s Game, one song pulled me deeper than the rest:

“Wade in the water, wade in the water, children. Wade in the water—God’s gonna trouble the water.”

There’s something about those words that feels like a warning and an invitation all at once.

What Lies Beneath

Water has always made me uneasy. Every time I walk into the ocean, I feel that ancient push and pull, that hypnotic sway—and sometimes, I get dizzy. Nauseous, even. It’s as if my body remembers something my mind cannot.

My grandmother once said,

“Sometimes I feel like I can feel the bodies of our ancestors in the water.”

And maybe… just maybe… that’s what I’m feeling too.

I’ll admit it:

I can’t swim.

And I’m not alone. Many Black folks can’t. Which is always strange when you remember—we’re from Africa. From rivers, lakes, coasts.

So how did we become disconnected from the very element that once carried us, healed us, baptized us?

 The Spiritual as Survival Code

“Wade in the Water” wasn’t just a song of hope. It was a coded call to freedom. Enslaved people were instructed to move through rivers to throw off scent-tracking dogs. Water was used as both shield and map.

It was deliverance.

But it was also grief.

Because water took things from us, too. Everything. Everyone.

Yet still, we sang.

In My Story—and in Ours

In The Pretender’s Game, water is not just an element.

It’s a mirror. A witness. A keeper of secrets.

A place where memory, magic, and mourning meet.

“Wade in the Water” is not just a song. It’s a summoning.

“Wade in the water. God’s gonna trouble the water.”

— Negro Spiritual

Comment Prompts & Engaging Closing:

I’d love to hear your thoughts:

Do you feel something sacred or unsettling in the water?

Can you swim? And if not—why do you think that is?

What spiritual or ancestral memories do you think live in your body?

Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Because some things can only be healed when they’re brought to the surface.

#ThePretendersGame #NegroSpirituals #AncestralMemory #WadeInTheWater #BlackGothic #AfroMythology #SouthernGothic #BlackSpirituality #GriefAndWater #ReclaimTheWater #BlackStoriesMatter

Stay Close to the Water

Some stories rise like steam from the land. Others come up through the water.

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