Despite being considered as an adaptation of the Western Mermaid, Mami Wata is a deity that has existed in Africa for as long as African history and culture can recollect.
The half-fish half-human female water spirit is highly respected, feared and worshipped presenting a balance between dark, divine, mysterious and angelic existence.
African sailors recognized the iconography of the water deity Mami Wata in this 1880s poster of the performer Maladamatjaute by the Adolph Friedlander Company in Hamburg and carried it worldwide, giving rise to the common image of the deity largely in Africa and in the African diaspora.
Mami Wata traces back to the earliest of African societies as recorded by the griots and keepers of history.
The Dogon’s creation myth tells the stories of Mami Wata and traces records of its existence to more than 4000 years ago. Mesopotamian myths also tell of the great water goddess in their story of creation known as Mami Aruru to be the creator of life.
The first root of its name is considered to be from Ethiopian and Egyptian Coptic societies. In the Ethiopian Coptic language, the word “mama” was used as a description of truth and wisdom and the term “uat-ur” meant ocean water.
The appearance of her hair ranges from straight, curly to kinky black and combed straight back. Most scholarly sources suggest the name “Mami Wata” is a pidgin English derivation of “Mother Water”, reflecting the goddess’s title (“mother of water” or “grandmother of water”) in the Agni language of Côte d’Ivoire.
By appearing in human form in between decades, she reminded the slaves that she had not forsaken them.
For many Africans communities in areas like the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Brazil she emerged to the people as Lasirèn, Yemanja, Santa Marta la Dominadora, and Oxum.
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