RESTORED 6/2/223
MEET THE SPIRIT BEHIND THE MERMAID CRAZE.  I am telling you if you are not already aware, that there is an evil agenda behind all this Mermaid phenomenon that is being advanced and promoted by the LameStream Media and the Illumined Ones.  I learned about the history of this Spirit when I happened upon an item about a pastor who met this demon and developed a relationship with it.  When I saw all the comments, I had to investigate.  You can see the video here:  EXPOSE OF FALSE PASTORS USING MERMAID SPIRITS: ” FALSE MARINE OCCULTIC PASTORS”    This is a very Ancient and EVIL spirit, and her popularity is growing.  The entire EARTH Worship, Environmental Agenda, Diva, Feminine Agenda and All sexual perversion stems from this Spirit.  Gaia the Earth Goddess, ISIS, Hectate, Khali, Sophia, Medusa, Dianna, Minerva, they are all images of the Mother Goddess Spirit which started with Semiramis and Nimrod.  The worship of MARY by the Catholics is EXACTLY THE SME THING!  Voodoo got mixed in with Christianity when the Romans, converted everyone by force to the ROMAN Catholic Religion.  Anyway… you need to check this out and see for yourself.  I pray that your eyes are opened.

Please be sure and visit the following articles for much more information:

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Why Pirates & Mermaids? – Part 1;Part 2;Part 3;Part4;Part 5;Part 6;Part 7;Part 8;Part 9;Part10;Part 11

Must be Something in the Water – Part 2 – Water REMEMBERS – Water and Spirituality

Are You Having A Mari-time? Part 1 – The Ritual; Part 2; Part 3: Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

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From the outset, it must be emphatically stated that the name Mami Wata is plural, meaning it refers to a pantheon of ancient water deities.  Mami Wata are not part of the Yoruba pantheon of Orishas (i.e.,Yemoja, Oshun, etc.,), nor are their initiation ceremonies or means by which they are identified the same. The history of the priesthood of Mama Wata is overwhelmingly matriarchal, meaning that the Mami Watas are a part of the old African matriarchal, sacerdotal religious systems that once ruled and denominated Africa and many parts of the ancient world for thousands of years.  

Anyone, from anywhere (the world over) can be born to Mami Wata, for any number of reasons. This article briefly discusses its ancient presence in Africa, and more particularly, Togo, West Africa and other West African regions where many Africans in the North American Diaspora descend.

 The mystical pantheon of Mami Wata deities are often pictured in their most ancient primordial aspects as a mermaid, half-human or either half-fish or half-reptile. Mermaids are not a recent phenomena in African history. For example, according to the Dogon’s creation myth, they attribute the creation of the world to mermaid/mermen like creatures whom they call Nommos. They claimed to have known about the existence of these mermaid-like divinities for more than 4000 years.

Also according to Dogon mythology, the ancient home of these (originally crude) reptilian (half-woman/half-men/fish) pantheon of water spirits is believed to be the obscure and celebrated star system in the belt of Orion known as Sirius (or Sopdet, Sothis), more popularly known as the “Dog Star” of Isis.

When asked where their ancestors obtained these stories of mermaids and mermen, they quickly point to ancient Egypt (Griaule, 1997, Winters 1985, p. 50-64, Temple 1999, p.303-304). Mermaid/mermen “nymphs” worshiped as goddesses and gods born from the sea are numerous in ancient African cultures history and spiritual mythology. Most were honored and respected as being “bringers of divine law” and for establishing the theological, moral, social, political, economic and, cultural foundation, to regulating the overflow of the Nile, and regulating the ecology i.e., establishing days for success at sailing and fishing, hunting, planting etc., to punishment by devastating floods when laws and taboos were violated.

However, just as not all serpents were revered, not all mermaids/mermen were considered “good.” In one story, the famed London, Naturalists Henry Lee (1883) recounts that “in the sea of Angola mermaids are frequently caught which resemble the human species. They are taken in nets, and killed . . . and are heard to shriek and cry like women (p. 22).”

More contemporary stories and images show the deity as a human-like figure dressed in the latest fashions. Despite these manifestations being almost universally female in appearance, Mami Wata is actually a pantheon of water deities consisting of both male and female, such as the ancient Densu in the Togo Mami Wata pantheon, and Olokun of the Yoruba.

These deities are understood to be non-human, so those who are born and initiated to them consider questions of gender and race unimportant. Today, the most frequently encountered image of Mami Wata is a long-haired woman with a snake circling her torso, based on a 19th century chromolithograph of a snake goddess.

The [Santa Marta ] image created by an artist from Hamburg, Germany named Schleisinger (shown above), was actually inspired by the ancient imagery of Isis (rt) in her role as “Virgin (meaning unmarried) Mother” where she is sporting the young solar child Horus.

This iconography is considered the oldest manifestation of Mami (Isis). Just as the ancient African, Ishtar, Artemis, Cybelle, and Hathor, Isis was originally portrayed with braided hair accompanied by two serpents draped around her neck. To the ancient Egyptians, she was known as RENN, meaning “born from the place of the fishes”, and her son Horus, was known as “RENNU,” meaning an “unnamed fish/serpent child.” (Massey 1994, p. 238).

Origins of the Name

The name “Mami Wata,” was believed by Western scholars to be a derivative either directly from pidgin English, or is an anglicize version of the two words “mommy/mammy” and “water.” However, though phonetically similar to the English words, the name “Mami Wata” does not have its linguistic roots nor any cultural, mythological or historical origins in the West.

Mami Wata are ancient, African deities whose primordial origins and name can be traced linguistically through the languages of Africa. According to some renowned scholars, the name “Mami Wata” was originally formulated in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and is derived from a composite of two African words, “Mami,” and “Wata.” Both words are rooted in the ancient Egyptian and Ethiopian (Coptic), Galla and Demotic languages.

“Mami” is derived from “Ma” or ”Mama,” meaning “truth/wisdom,” and “Wata” is a corruption of not an English, but the ancient Egyptian word “Uati,” (or “Uat-ur” meaning ocean water), and the Khosian (“Hottentot”) “Ouata” meaning “water.” Further, we discover from Mesopotamian myths that the first great water goddess in the story of the Creation Flood was known as “Mami,” (Mami Aruru) as she was known in ancient Babylonian prayers as being the creator of human life (Dalley 2000, p. 51-16, Stone 1976, p. 7,219).

“Uati” is perhaps the first of more than ten thousand appellations of Isis (logos/wisdom) in her oldest generative form as the Divine African Mother, or Sibyl (Mamissii/Amengansie) prophetess. Furthermore, Massey (1994, p. 248) informs us that the word “Wata, Watoa, Wat-Waat” which means “woman,” are all exact spellings in the ancient Sudanic languages spoken by the Baba, Pebaand Keh-Doulan groups.

In ancient Egypt, Uati was Isis’ oldest appellation, and was the first Mami goddess worshiped by the Egyptians as “the Holy Widow”, “the Genitrix,” the “Self-Creator”, “the one who reigned alone in the beginning”, “the one who brings forth the gods,” “she who was mateless”, and “the Virgin (meaning ‘unmarried’) Mother.” Thus, we have Isis originally worshiped as “Mama Uati” in ancient Egypt, and as Mami (Uati/Aruru) in ancient Mesopotamia, where she is first addressed and immortalized in prose by the gods. (Massey 1992, p. 204, 227).

Mami Uati, is an ancient and sacred name which remarkably, after thousands of years, has survived as “Mami Wata,” in West African Vodoun and other African religious systems, having changed little in its original phonetic form.

        In Togo, West Africa, and in the United States, the priestesses of Mami Wata are called Mamisii (Mamissi, Mamaissii, Mammisi). Certain paths of high-priestesses who are called to open an Egbé (spirit house) are known as “Mamaissii-Hounons” which translates as “queen of the ship,” or literally “mother wisdom” (Alapini 1955, Massey 1994, p. 227, Rosenthal 1998, p. 116-117).

This is an ancient name probably having its etymological roots in ancient Egypt, where we find the name Mammisi meaning “motherhood temple,” as the sacred shrine where the queen/ priestesses gives birth to spirit. (Walker 1983, p. 572-573).

 

Mammisi temples are traditionally built as attachments to the main shrines. To the Left, the temple of Hathor at Dendera, (Egypt) The names “Mammissii” and “Hathor” are actually one and the same, both symbolizing the sacred womb which only part of their sacerdotal function was giving birth to the solar gods who ruled as kings

Roman Mammisi Temple of Hathor. Dendera View from the temple roof looking north towards the entrance. From back to front we see the Roman mammisi (reign of Trajan), an early Christian basilica (fifth century AD), and a mammisi begun by Nectanebo I (380-362 BC).
	Mammisi (ma-MEE-see, pl. ma-MEE-sees) birth house,” a chapel celebrating the union of two gods from which a divine child – often identified with Pharaoh – is born. Mammisi is an Afro-Arabic word; its spelling and pluralization in English is variable.  REFERENCE: Michael D. Gunther/ www.art-and-archaeology.com/Temples And Monuments Of Egypt

CLEOPATRA (THE GREEK)  BUILT  MAMMISI SHRINE

In a political ploy probably designed to legitimize her reign, after inheriting her father’s expanding colonial kingdoms at the age of 17, the Macedonian (Greek) Cleopatra IV and her 10 year old brother (Theos Philopator)-Ptolemy XIII, installed as the new rulers of Egypt, in imitation of the African queen mothers, reputedly built herself a (now destroyed) Mammisi shrine at Erment (Upper Egypt), when giving birth to her first son.

She even had inscribed in her shrine the traditional priestly attributes including depicting herself giving birth to Julius Caesar’s son, being assisted by the seven Netjers (divine African ancestors, including Isis and Osiris).

However, lacking the ancestral connection to the divine spirits, she thought she could fake it by trying desperately (without success) to obtain the sacred prophetic poems of the Eastern Masses, authored by the great Sibylline (Mami) prophetesses’.

Undeterred, she ordered her conquered African subjects to address her as the “New Isis.” Ironically, she met her demised when she was fatally bitten by one of the sacred asp (serpents). (Walker 1983, p.573, Britannica 1974, Vol. 6, p.484, Vol 8, p. 386, Vol. I p. 261, VIII p.282, Nicholson, p.264,269, Lindsay 1971, p. 384).

Mami’s Primary Role

Mami Wata’s primary role in the life of the devotee/initiate is “healing,” by helping the initiate to achieve wholeness both spiritually, and materially in their lives.

Mami is also responsible for protection, emotional, and mental healing, spiritual growth/balance, and maintaining social order by assuring that sacred laws imposed on both the initiate and the family in which she/he lives is maintained. When these requirements are met, Mami often blesses the initiate (and family) with material wealth.

“Wealth” being relative to assuring that the family has the basic needs of survival, such as shelter, food, clothing, medicine and funds to maintain them. Or, wealth could mean achieving great riches through some profession or spiritual gifts the initiate might possess.  

Far from being the over-embellished, “seductress” or “god/dess of love” so over-emphasized by western anthropologists,  Mami Wata is primarily known to produce  Africa’s great seers, prophetesses, prophets, scribes, herbalists, healers, orators, mystics, etc.,.

They are also known as the protector of mothers and children, and of abused women, and the “bringer of fertility” to both men and to barren women.  They are even known in ancient history as being the “protector of sacred prostitutes”, meaning those African priestesses whose role was to subsume the “uncivilized invader/foreign groups” by “spreading the ache” of the African god/desses.

An example of a male high priest of Mami Wata in Togo, West Africa. A medical doctor (ophthalmologist) by profession, Papa Akuété was born to Mami Wata. He was called from his medical residency in Tübigen, West Germany by his family’s (more than) 300-year-old Mami Wata Vodoun and Tchamba spirits.

They were demanding that he serve them. He returned to Togo, and underwent extensive and expensive initiations establishing his shrines in Baguida, West Africa. Mami blessed him with enormous divinatory skills, and healing powers. His clients often came for healing as far away as West Germany.

Far from being a “cult” of women, in Ewe Mami Wata cosmology and history, Mami Wata is an ancient deity, and is known to have been the sacred deity of most of the most powerful male diviners, healers, prophets and African kings.

Certain women high-priestesses known as Mamissiis are called and appointed by the Mami deities to initiate. It is important to note that although it is popular to classify all water deities honored in African and Diaspora religions as “Mami Wata”, not all are recognized as being part of the actual ancient pantheon of specialized water dieites known in Ewe cosmology as “Mami Wata.”

An example of a male high priest of Mami Wata in Togo, West Africa. A medical doctor (ophthalmologist) by profession, Papa Akuété was born to Mami Wata. He was called from his medical residency in Tübigen, West Germany by his family’s (more than) 300-year-old Mami Wata Vodoun and Tchamba spirits.

They were demanding that he serve them. He returned to Togo, and underwent extensive and expensive initiations establishing his shrines in Baguida, West Africa. Mami blessed him with enormous divinatory skills, and healing powers. His clients often came for healing as far away as West Germany.

Far from being a “cult” of women, in Ewe Mami Wata cosmology and history, Mami Wata is an ancient deity, and is known to have been the sacred deity of most of the most powerful male diviners, healers, prophets and African kings.

Certain women high-priestesses known as Mamissiis are called and appointed by the Mami deities to initiate. It is important to note that although it is popular to classify all water deities honored in African and Diaspora religions as “Mami Wata”, not all are recognized as being part of the actual ancient pantheon of specialized water dieites known in Ewe cosmology as “Mami Wata.”

The finishing touches were put on an altar to Santa Marta constructed in the Cantor Arts Center by Gassia Armenian, curatorial and research associate for the Fowler Museum at UCLA. The altar is a part of the exhibit ‘Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas.’

Caris LeeAnne Mami Wata Voodoo women dance during the Epe Ekpe ceremony, in Aneho, Togo. Epe Ekpe marks Voodoo New Year in Togo. During the ceremony, Voodoo priests look for a stone in the sacred forest; depending on the color of the stone, a prophecy for the New Year is made. Voodoo is a very complicated religion; often not understood fully by westerners. It is estimated that Voodoo is about 4000 years old. Voodoos’ cradle in West Africa is Benin and Togo. ..September 2006..

 

Although the size and location of a Mami Wata shrine may vary, Mami’s appreciation of perfumes, powders and fine statuary appears universal. According to Mami Wata Vodoun Priestess, Mama Zogbé: “In Togo, income is low, many shrines consecrated to Mami Wata are small and sparse. In the United States where access to monetary and material wealth is more abundant, shrines are typcially more elaborate.”

Mami Waters

Posted by Zephonith Serpent Woman on March 20, 2012, at 4:48 am in The Triple Goddess

Mami Waters is one of the most well-known of Vodoun Loas and in fact the name Mami Wata is ancient, so ancient that the name or word “ Mami” is to be found in every root language. Mami means simply, Mother, and in some ancient tongues also means Wisdom and Truth. Tiamat , the primordial Dragon Goddess Creatrix  of Mesopotamia, was also known as Mami.

The Priestesses of contemporary Vodoun are called Mammissi.

Uati is the root word that “wata” originates from and is an ancient Egyptian word meaning the sea or the ocean. This is also the word used by the Khoisan, or as they are known , the Bushmen of Southern Africa which are one of the only so-called Stone Age peoples still surviving in a cohesive unit; to mean the ocean or great waters.

Uati is one of the oldest praise names of more than ten thousand for Isis.

The Queen of Magic was first worshipped as Mama Uati in Egypt and as Mami, or Aruru, in Mesopotamia, and it is thus remarkable that as Mami waters, Isis is still revered as The Divine African Mother, just as in modern-day Pagan culture Isis is revered by many as The Mistress of Magick.

 

Make an Offering to Mami Wata Before Time Runs Out

By Ashley Luthern

SMITHSONIAN.COM
JULY 21, 2009

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MamiWata

Myth of mermaids is popular all around the world, but the African water spirit Mami Wata remained respected and celebrated from the time before the African nations came in contact with Europe, through the ages, and even up to today where she is venerated in West, Central, Southern Africa and the diaspora in Americas. She represented one of the most powerful goddesses in the African religion of Voudun (not to be mistaken to the newer and more heavily publicized Voodoo) and is today celebrated as a goddess that must be both loved and feared.

As with many other old mermaid deities such as Assyrian Astarte, Babylonian Ishtar and Greek Aphrodite, she is regarded as an immortal spirit that personifies polar opposites, such as of beauty and danger, natural force and healing, wealth and destruction, health and disease, and inability to follow ideas of good and evil. As those old mermaid deities, she is incredibly powerful, dangerous, pleasant, sexual and able to destroy anything on her path.

Her image in the minds of African followers went through little changes over the millennia. She is often portrayed as a long-haired beautiful mermaid, half human and half fish, but sometimes she can walk the earth in more human body (but she never transforms completely into human form, always showing herself as a deity). Her clothes and jewelry are always new, shining, impossible to replicate, and she can be seen carrying small mirror, coiled snake that twist around her waist, breasts and head. This wealth symbolizes the wealth and beauty her followers can achieve, and interestingly her skin is fair and light, which is uncommon in the African pantheon of deities. Colors of Mami Wata’s attire carry great significance in African people. Red symbolizes the color of blood, violence and death, and white symbolizes spirituality, beauty and female body. In the mermaid form she is always represented naked, sometimes combing her long hair and looking at herself in the golden mirror.

Stories of the encounters with the Mami Wata are widespread across entire Africa. In most common version, she stalks the shores of the ocean and abducts men and women while they are swimming or traveling in a boat. If the goddess thinks that the captive is worthy of her attention, she will return them to the shore, completely dry and with changed attitude toward spirituality and religion that can often make them rich, attractive and famous. Other encounters tell the story of her leaving her comb and mirror in the presence of sailors. After they took the items she would haunt their dreams, requesting the return of the items in an exchange of eternal sexual favors.

Her devotees across Africa and diaspora wear her traditional colors of red and white, offer her items of wealth, expensive foods, and celebrate her in the rituals of dancing and music that induce trance-like state. In such events, it is believed that Mami Wata can possess the dancers and speak to them, wishing them the successful, healthy and fertile life.

However, as all deities that are water-based, she is blamed for many of the misfortunes that happen in the sea. Even today, people of Cameroon believe that her wrath is killing the swimmers who are swept to the sea with the strong undertow water currents that flow near their coast.

TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

SNAKE, SPIRIT & THE KUNDALINI

MAMI WATA

This article is about the goddess Mami Wata. For other uses of the name and its variants, see Mami Wata (disambiguation).

Mami Wata (also known by numerous other names, listed below) is a goddess of the African diaspora whose immensely popular cult has grown in West, Central, and Southern Africa, and in the Caribbean and parts of South America since the 18th century.

Wata is often pictured as a mermaid, half-human and either half-fish or half-reptile. Other stories and images show her as a human-looking woman dressed in the latest fashion. Her most definitive image that of a long-haired woman, with a snake circling her torso is based on a 19th century chromolithograph of a Samoan snake charmer.

The goddess is characterized by her inhuman beauty and capricious nature; in many traditions, she is as likely to harm her followers as to help them. Her cult has strong associations with fortune, healing, sex, and water. Worship practices for the goddess vary, but they often involve wearing the colours red and white (sacred to Mami Wata) and dancing to an altered state of consciousness, and potentially spiritual possession.

Mami Wata as she exists today represents a widespread amalgamation of many different African water gods. Slaves from the Slave Coast brought their water-spirit beliefs with them to the New World, and traders in the 20th century carried similar beliefs with them from Senegal to as far asZambia, so that today the goddess is known in at least 20 African nations. As the Mami Wata cult spread, native water deities were subsumed into it. In addition, Africans may sometimes call non-Mami Wata figures by that name when speaking to foreigners, as they know that Mami Wata is better known than local gods and goddesses. She is today one of the most popular themes in African and Caribbean popular culture.

Photo Credit    Pyreaus – Inspired Manifestation – Mythical Serpent

APPEARANCE

Mami Wata is usually described in excesses. She possesses an inhuman beauty, unnaturally long hair, and a lighter-than-normal complexion. Her hair is straight, either black or blonde, and combed straight back. Her lustrous eyes gaze enticingly, which only enhances her ethereal beauty. In many parts of West and Central Africa, “Mami Wata” thus serves as a slang term for a gorgeous woman.

She is often described as a mermaid-like figure, with a woman’s upper body (often nude), and the hindquarters of a fish or serpent. In other tales, Mami Wata is fully humanoid (though never human). Her superlative nature extends to her clothing, which is more fashionable than anything created by a human fashion designer. She flaunts her unimaginable wealth with jewellery that blinds those who view it. In both mermaid and humanoid form, she often carries enormously expensive baubles such as combs, mirrors, and watches. A large snake (symbol of divination and divinity in many African cultures) frequently accompanies her, wrapping itself around her and laying its head between her breasts. Other times, she may try to pass as completely human, wandering busy markets or patronising bars. She may also manifest in a number of other forms, including as a man.

RELIGION

Followers of traditional African religions, Santeria, and Voodoo comprise Mami Wata’s devotees. Her worship is therefore as diverse as her worshippers, though there are many parallels. Groups of people may gather in her name, but the goddess is much more prone to interacting with followers on a one-on-one basis. She thus has many priests and mediums in both Africa and the Caribbean who are specifically devoted to her.

Followers typically wear red and white clothing, as these colours represent the goddess’s dual nature. Especially in Igbo iconography, red represents such qualities as death, destruction, heat, maleness, physicality, and power. In contrast, white symbolises beauty, creation, femaleness, new life, spirituality, translucence, water, and wealth. This regalia may also include a cloth snake wrapped about the waist. The Mami Wata shrines may also be decorated in these colours, and items such as bells, carvings, Christian or Indian prints, dolls, incense, spirits, and remnants of previous sacrifices often adorn such places.

Frenzied dancing accompanied by musical instruments such as African guitars or harmonicas often forms the core of Mami Wata worship. Followers dance to the point of entering a trance. At this point, Mami Wata possesses the person and speaks to him or her. Offerings to the goddess are also important, and Mami Wata prefers gifts of delicious food and drink, alcohol, fragrant objects (such as pomade, incense, and soap), and expensive goods like jewellery. Modern worshippers usually leave her gifts of manufactured goods, such as Coca-Cola or designer jewellery.

Nevertheless, Mami Wata is unpredictable. She craves attention, and her followers must be prepared to be called to service without warning. She can give her devotees boons based on her attributes: beauty, an easy life, good luck, and material wealth. However, she can also takes these things away on a whim. Nevertheless, she largely wants her followers to be healthy and well off. More broadly, people blame the spirit for all sorts of misfortune. In Cameroon, for example, Mami Wata is ascribed with causing the strong undertow that kills many swimmers each year along the coast.

ATTRIBUTES

WATER

As her name would imply, the goddess is closely associated with water. Traditions on both sides of the Atlantic tell of the goddess abducting her followers or random people whilst they are swimming or boating. She brings them to her paradisiacal realm, which may be underwater, in the spirit world, or both. The captives’ release often hinges on some sort of demand, ranging from sexual fidelity to the goddess to something as simple as a promise that they do not eat fish. Should she allow them to leave, the travellers usually returns in dry clothing and with a new spiritual understanding reflected in their gaze. These returnees often grow wealthier, more attractive, and more easygoing after the encounter.

Other tales describe river travellers (usually men) chancing upon the goddess. She is inevitably grooming herself, combing her hair, and peering at herself in a mirror. Upon noticing the intruder, she flees into the water and leaves her possessions behind. The traveller then takes the invaluable items. Later, Mami Wata appears to the thief in his dreams to demand the return of her things. Should he agree, she further demands a promise from him to be sexually faithful to her. Agreement grants the person riches; refusal to return the possessions or to be faithful brings the man ill fortune.

In parts of the Caribbean, in contrast, meeting with the water goddess prompts the mortal to flee, not the spirit. In the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago, for example (where she is called Maman Dlo), one can escape the deity by removing his left shoe, laying it upside down on the ground, and then running home backwards.

SEX

Mami Wata’s association with sex and lust is somewhat paradoxically linked to one with fidelity as well. Male followers may encounter the goddess in the guise of a beautiful, sexually promiscuous woman, such as a prostitute. Should the man have sex with her, he often contracts venereal disease (this leads to the African slang term “Mami Wata” for prostitutes). A related tradition says that Mami Wata may seduce a favoured male devotee and then show herself to him following coitus. She then demands his complete sexual faithfulness and secrecy about the matter. Acceptance means wealth and fortune; rejection spells the ruin of his family, finances, and job. Nevertheless, Mami Wata has a strong phallic nature. She is frequently depicted with snakes, and even some female followers report sexual relations with the goddess in their dreams.

HEALING AND FERTILITY

A prominent aspect of the deity is her connection to healing. If someone comes down with an incurable, languorous illness, Mami Wata often takes the blame. This implies that she caused the illness, and that only she can cure it. Similarly, several other ailments may be attributed to the water goddess, from headaches to sterility.

In fact, barren mothers often call upon the goddess to cure their affliction. However, many traditions hold that Mami Wata herself is barren, so if she gives a woman a child, that woman inherently becomes more distanced from the goddess’s true nature. The woman will thus be less likely to become wealthy or attractive through her devotion to Mami Wata. Images of women with children often decorate shrines to the goddess.

OTHER ASSOCIATIONS

As other deities become absorbed into the figure of Mami Wata, the goddess often takes on characteristics unique to a particular region or culture. In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, Maman Dlo plays the role of guardian of nature, punishing overzealous hunters or woodcutters. She is the lover of Papa Bois, a nature deity.

ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

West Africa possessed a multitude of water-spirit traditions before the first contact with Europeans. Most of these were regarded as female, and dual natures of good and evil were not uncommon, reflecting the fact that water is both an important means of providing communication, food, drink, trade, and transportation, but at the same time, it can drown people, flood fields or villages, and provide passage to intruders.

Scholars have proposed several theories for Mami Wata’s light-skinned, mermaid-like appearance. One theory is that she is based on the West African manatee; in fact, “Mami Wata” is a common name for this animal in the region. Another proposal is that the mermaid image came into being after contact with Europeans. The ships of traders and slavers often had carvings of mermaid figures on their prows, for example, and tales of mermaids were popular among sailors of the time. In addition, the goddess’s light complexion and straight hair could be based on European features. On the other hand, white is traditionally associated with the spirit world in many cultures of Nigeria. The people of the Cross River area often whiten their skin with talcum or other substances for rituals and for cosmetic reasons, for example.

SPREAD THROUGH AFRICA

Liberian traders of the Kru ethnic group moved up and down the west coast of Africa from Liberia to Cameroon beginning in the 19th century. They spread their own water-spirit beliefs with them and helped to standardise conceptions in West Africa. Their perceived wealth also helped establish the goddess as one of good fortune.

This period also introduced West Africa to what would become the definitive image Mami Wata. Circa 1887, a chromolithograph of a female Samoan snake charmer appeared in Nigeria. The poster, entitled Der Schlangenbandinger (The Snake Charmer) was originally created sometime between 1880 and 1887. It may have been intended to advertise a company of itinerate entertainers who were performing in Nigeria at the time, the girl depicted being one of the acts. Another proposed explanation is that the girl was the wife of a zookeeper from Hamburg. Alternately, Indian traders may have brought the image to Africa and then posted it in their shops. Whatever its source, the image – an enticing woman with long, black hair and a large snake slithering up between her breasts – caught the imagination of the Africans who saw it; it was the definitive image of the goddess. Before long, Mami Wata posters appeared in over a dozen countries. People began creating Mami Wata art of their own, much of it influenced by the lithograph.

MODERN DEVELOPMENT

During the 20th century, the various West African cults came to resemble one another, especially in urban areas. The homogenisation was largely the result of greater communication and mobility of individuals from town to town and country to country, though links between the goddess’s nature and the perils of the urban environment have also been proposed. This led to a new level of standardisation of priests, initiations of new devotees, healing rituals, and temples.

The 20th century also led to Mami Wata’s adoption in much of Central and Southern Africa. In the mid-1950s, traders imported copies of The Snake Charmer from Bombay and England and sold them throughout Africa. West African traders moved her to Lumbumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in that same decade. There the goddess became a popular subject of Congolese folk painters, who placed her on the walls of bars, stores, and marketplace stalls. Senegalese traders and Congolese immigrants brought her cult to Zambia by the 1970s. Meanwhile, Congolese and Zambian artists spread Mami Wata images throughout public places in Zambia. Further diffusion occurred during the Biafran Secessionist War inNigeria, which began in 1967. Refugees fled to all parts of West and Central Africa, bringing with them their belief in the water spirit.

Modern DRC, Lesotho, South Africa, and Zambia today form the current boundary of the Mami Wata cult, albeit a blurred one. The pan-African water deity is assimilating native water spirits in this region, many of them serpent figures. Some examples are the Congolese-Zambian chitapo or nakamwale, the South African umamlambo, and the Sotho mamolapo or mamogashoa. The most visible evidence of this absorption is that many of these creatures are today viewed as mermaids rather than snakes, their traditional form. These adoptions often lead to confusion when aspects of more than one being become amalgamated under the name “Mami Wata”. In Southern Africa, for example, Mami Wata is sometimes said to be able to fly around in the form of a tornado, an adopted aspect from the khanyapa water spirit.

Across the Atlantic

West African slaves brought tales of Mami Wata with them to the New World. The new environment only served to emphasize the slaves’ connection to water. In Guiana, for example, slaves had to fight back swamp waters on the plantations they worked. She was first mentioned in Dutch Guiana in the 1740s in the journal of a colonist. According to the anonymous man, the slaves in the colony often claimed that “Watermama” appeared to them and told them to skip work or to perform sacrifices to avoid her wrath. Slaves worshipped the goddess by dancing and then falling into a trancelike state. In the 1770s, the Dutch rulers outlawed the ritual dances associated with the goddess. Amerindians of the colony adopted Watermama from the slaves and merged her with their own water spirits.

By the 19th century, an influx of slaves from other regions had relegated Watermama to a position in the pantheon of the gods of the Surinamese Winti religion. When Winti was outlawed in the 1970s, her cult lost some of its importance in Suriname. Furthermore, a relative lack of freedom compared to their African brethren prevented the homogenisation that occurred with the Mami Wata cult across the Atlantic.

Mami Wata in popular culture

Mami Wata is a popular subject in the art, fiction, poetry, music, and film of the Caribbean and West and Central Africa. Visual artists especially seem drawn to her image, and both wealthier Africans and tourists buy paintings and wooden sculptures of the goddess. She also figures prominently in the folk art of Africa, with her image adorning walls of bars and living rooms, album covers, and other items.

Mami Wata has also proved to be a popular theme in African and Caribbean literature. Authors who have featured her in their fiction include P. Chamoisseau, Alex Godard, Rose Marie Guiraud (Côte d’Ivoire), Flora Nwapa, and Véronique Tadjo (Côte d’Ivoire). Mamy-Wata is also the title of a satirical Cameroonian newspaper.

Other names

In addition to numerous variants of the name “Mami Wata” (Mammy Wata, Mamy Wata, Mami Water, Maame Water, Mamaissii, etc.), numerous cultures call the goddess by alternate names. What follows is only a partial list.

* Antilles: Maman de l’Eau, Maman Dlo
* Benin: Mawa-Lisu (sometimes seen as an aspect of Mami Wata)
* Democratic Republic of the Congo: La Sirène, Madame Poisson, Mamba Muntu
* Dominica: Maman de l’Eau, Maman Dlo
* French Guiana: Mamadilo
* Grenada: Mamadjo
* Guadaloupe: Maman de l’Eau, Maman Dlo
* Guyana: Watramama
* Jamaica: River Mama
* Martinique: Lamanté
* Nigeria (Igbo): Ezebelamiri, Ezenwaanyi, Nnekwunwenyi, Nwaanyi mara mma, Uhamiri
* Suriname: Watermama, Watramama
* Togo: Mawa-Lisu (sometimes seen as an aspect of Mami Wata)
* Trinidad and Tobago: Maman de l’Eau, Maman Dglo, Maman Dlo, Mama Glow

In addition, several non-Mami Wata figures have taken on aspects of the goddess or show signs of being absorbed by the Mami Wata figure:

* Brazil: Yemanya (or Yemaya)
* Cuba: Yemanya (or Yemaya)
* Haiti: Erzulie, Simbi

References

* Bastian, Misty L., Ph.D. “Nwaanyi Mara Mma: Mami Wata, the More Than Beautiful Woman”.

* “Modernity and mystery, Mami Wata in African art”.

* van Stipriaan, Alex (2005). “Watramama/Mami Wata: Three centuries of creolization of a water spirit in West Africa, Suriname and Europe”. Matatu: Journal for African Culture and Society 27/28, 323-337.

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