No one ever asked the free Africans if they wanted to leave their homeland. They were stolen, shackled, crammed head-to-toe in European slave ships, traded for goods or sold outright. Such was the intended fate for Africans aboard Portugal’s São José Paquete de Africa when it sailed from Mozambique in 1794 destined for Brazil. When the ship became wedged between two coral reefs off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa it broke in half, and turbulent waves killed 212 of the 512 African captives on board.

“Before I even got to it, I began to sort of get goosebumps getting a sense of the tragedy.” says Kamau Sadiki, a lead instructor for Diving With a Purpose, the maritime