MAMI WATA
allySpirit of the waters
Mami Wata, whose name means Mother of the waters in pidgin English, is one of the most venerated spirits of West and Central Africa. Her cult extends along the coasts, the rivers and the lagoons, from Senegal to Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Cameroon and the Congo basin, where her figure often encompasses older local aquatic deities, such as Ogbuide of Lake Oguta among the Igbo. Her attributes are the serpent, the mirror, the comb and perfumes. Her modern iconography owes much to a German chromolithograph representing a snake charmer, circulated in Africa from the end of the nineteenth century and adopted by her devotees. A spirit at once generous and exacting, Mami Wata grants wealth, beauty and fecundity, but demands fidelity and offerings: her faithful dedicate altars, possession dances and precious objects to her. With the Atlantic slave trade her figure crossed the ocean; her spiritual kin are found in Lasirenn of Haitian Vodou, in Watramama in Suriname and Guyana, and in the mermaids of the Black Americas. A living religion and no mere legend, the cult of Mami Wata is still practised today, from the lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to the communities of the diaspora.
Powers & Attributes
Role in the ROHO universe
Weaver of the currents. MAMI watches over the flow of the waters and the fluid memory that binds the worlds within the Mabioni. Bound to the Pan-African pantheon.
Sacred Mask
A mask carved of ancient energy — a symbol of the cosmic force proper to its pantheon.
Era
3,000–1,000 BCE — Cycle of Elemental Powers
Frequently asked questions
Who is Mami Wata?
Mami Wata is a water spirit venerated in West and Central Africa as well as in the Afro-American diaspora. Represented as a long-haired woman holding a serpent and a mirror, sometimes as a mermaid, she embodies beauty, wealth and the ambivalent power of the waters. Her cult, still alive, mingles ancient local aquatic traditions with modern images come from elsewhere.
Is Mami Wata a mermaid?
Not exactly. Mami Wata is often represented half woman, half fish, and the mermaid image fed her iconography, notably through ships' figureheads and European prints. But for her faithful she is a water spirit in her own right, the object of a real cult with altars, offerings and possession dances — not a mere storybook character.
Where is Mami Wata venerated today?
Her cult remains alive in Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along the coasts, rivers and lagoons. In the Americas, her spiritual kin include Lasirenn in Haitian Vodou and Watramama in Suriname and Guyana — inheritances of the Atlantic slave trade and of creolisation.
Related spirits
Sources and references
- Henry John Drewal (dir.), Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and Other Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora (2008)
- Henry John Drewal, Performing the Other: Mami Wata Worship in Africa (TDR, The Drama Review) (1988)
- Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, The Water Goddess in Igbo Cosmology: Ogbuide of Oguta Lake (2008)