Six years after taking a DNA test that opened questions about his family’s origins, GRAMMY Award winning artist Matt B has turned his search for answers into his most personal creative project yet. ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers, released on 21 August 2026, brings together an independent album, short film and feature documentary chronicling the artist’s journey from the United States to Ghana and Nigeria as he retraced his ancestry and reconnected with a history separated from his family for generations. The project follows Matt’s 2025 GRAMMY win for Best Global Music Album for ALKEBULAN II and represents the latest chapter in a trilogy exploring African identity, culture and global collaboration.
Matt’s search began with an AncestryDNA test and subsequent genealogical research that traced his lineage to the Igbo people of Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria. In June 2026, he and his wife, producer and manager Angela V. Benson, travelled through Ghana and Nigeria, documenting a journey that moved from the painful history of the transatlantic slave trade to an intensely personal homecoming. Their time in Ghana brought them face to face with some of the most significant sites associated with the slave trade. At Assin Manso Slave River, where captive Africans were held before the forced march towards the coast, the couple participated in a traditional blessing ceremony honouring those whose lives and identities were fractured by slavery. They later visited Elmina Castle and the Door of No Return, confronting the history of Africans who were forcibly taken from the continent and transported to the Americas.
For Matt, the experience transformed a history often encountered through books and records into something deeply personal. The journey took another turn when he arrived in Nigeria and was welcomed by communities connected to his ancestral lineage. Two homecoming ceremonies formally recognised his return to the Igbo community. His Royal Majesty Eze Engr Chidume Okoro, Ugo Amano Obohia, bestowed upon him the Igbo name Ikechukwu, meaning “Strength of God”.
Matt was also given the chieftaincy title Ahamefula, meaning “May my name not be forgotten”, recognising the enduring significance of his family lineage. A second chieftaincy title, Nwanne Di na Mba, meaning “A brother in a foreign land”, was later conferred by His Royal Highness Eze Leo Nwokocha, Ato Di ire. The titles reflect both Matt’s ancestral connection and his efforts to strengthen links between Africa and the global Black diaspora. Among the most significant moments of the journey was meeting relatives in Owerri for the first time.
Family stories that had survived across generations suddenly became tangible through people, voices and places. Matt also discovered that his lineage includes respected traditional leaders, adding another dimension to a search that had begun with a DNA test. That personal discovery forms the emotional foundation of The Water Remembers.
The album features collaborations with African artists including Fatoumata Diawara, Skales, Goya Menor, Boy Spyce, Camidoh, The Cavemen and Kabusa Oriental Choir. It also includes orchestral recordings with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. The project extends beyond music, using film and documentary storytelling to explore ancestry, remembrance and the enduring relationship between Africa and its global diaspora.
For Matt, the story is ultimately larger than his own family. Millions of people across the African diaspora continue to live with gaps in their ancestral histories, many of them created by centuries of displacement and the transatlantic slave trade. By documenting his own attempt to recover a fragmented family history, Matt hopes to encourage others to explore their own origins and reconsider what it means to return to a place from which their ancestors were separated. His journey suggests that homecoming does not necessarily erase the distance created by history. But it can create a bridge between what was lost and what can still be remembered.
ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers is therefore not simply the final instalment of a musical trilogy. It is an exploration of what happens when genealogy becomes lived experience, when historical records lead to living relatives, and when an artist uses music and film to turn a personal search for identity into a wider conversation about belonging.
