The AfroAtlantic Theologies & Treaties Institute [ATI] in collaboration with the Drammeh Institute submits a voluntary commitment to the UN SDG 2030, Goal #14, reflective of its eco-theological approach to social justice and sustainable development. The ATI will convene practitioners of indigenous African religions along the Atlantic Ocean perimeter, with environmental activists, educators and local government. Together we plan to explore how indigenous spiritual practices and expertise of the oceans, lakes and other blue carbon life sources contribute, to water and food security, marine conservation, ocean literacy, and heritage tourism per the, Our Ocean, Our Future: Call for Action, by calling for a voluntary treatise process.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade in Captive Africans, created circumstances that forced African descendants to spread the depths of our spiritual practices across, an ocean, to lesser known, or unknown lands. For five centuries African faith practices have been stigmatized, and in some cases criminalized in the terrains across the Basin Bleu (Big Blue Basin). By working with the leaders, healers, and artists of these communities, the ATI projects highlighting and enshrining the eco-theological and cultural patrimonies of some 200 million people. As we encourage practitioners to apply our ethical principles and sacerdotal duties, into environmentally best practices, we facilitate our collective agency towards both greater ecological balance and reparatory justice.

In fulfillment of SDG, Goal #14, and addressing the implicit mandate to eliminate Afrophobia embedded in the themes of the, International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024, Recognition, Justice, Development, we foresee the adoption and/or designation of sacred waterways of the global African (and indigenous) communities as a means of addressing intersectional and related issues, the SDGs and racism. With a mind towards protecting these aquatic sites through the mitigation and filtering of organic waste used for spiritual offering, and the removal of inorganic waste contaminates such as plastics, industrial debris and chemicals, a public education campaign, accompanied by a K to 12 curriculum (translated both linguistically and culturally) shall culminate, inter alia, into an agreement among the adherents of indigenous African faiths, namely the, Sacred Waters of the AfroAtlantic Treaty [SWAT].

We have already created a series of alliances with African faith-based organizations in the Diaspora, municipal governments, and/or local environmental activists, initially in the countries of Haiti, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and the United States of America. Within these UN member states, bodies of sacred water are identified with partners in their spiritual communities who shall serve as the extra-judicial, and eventual legal guardians of these watersheds. Discussion with organizations in Brazil and the United States is being pursued. While the level of work varies from site to site, ATI is partnering with faith-based and secular NGOs such as, The Drammeh Institute, and the Peoples Movement for Human Rights Learning [PDHRE] to explore the potential for funding, resource mobilization, and implementation of said objectives. A documentary film accompanies this process that began in June 2017, at ATIs parallel event for, The Ocean Conference, Black Guardians of the Sea: The Eco-theology of Our Waters.