Mami Wata, mermaid goddess

Mami Wata is an important West African water spirit, more generally she is known as the Mermaid, she is sometimes called sirene or madame poisson. Mami Wata is personified as partially female and partially fish or reptile and as a woman of a very special type. She is commonly known as the more than beautiful woman.

Mami Wata is described an elegant woman, very beautiful, with long black hair and a golden comb. Like some of the descriptions of the Greek gods, Mami Wata, when she chooses to display herself to human beings, can be recognized by the over abundance of her beauty and wealth.

Mami Wata is a powerful spirit, with many followers. She is said to lend a follower the very qualities or attributes which set her apart from ordinary human beings: great beauty, wealth, and the ability to attract good fortune, but at the same time, she is easily tempted to take those gifts away from her followers if they displease her.

Mami Wata herself is thought of as barren, but she will consent to cure this affliction in her followers. Images of babies and mothers with children are integral parts of her many shrines, and testimonies to her success in bringing children. But it is said that those she does cure of infertility will not be granted her other qualities of beauty and wealth. Likewise, those grated the gifts of beauty and wealth will not be blessed with children.

Mami Wata appears to her male followers as a beautiful, loose-living woman who will agree to go with them to their rooms, and have sex with them. In some stories, the spirit will reveal herself to a favored man after their encounter and will demand his absolute sexual fidelity or a promise of absolute silence about what has happened. If he should fail her, Mami Wata can be harsh, taking away everything she bestowed and whatever he managed to accumulate on his own, including wives and children.

Sometimes Mami Wata will take chosen devotees into her spiritual realm, the water. On their return they will have taken on some of her qualities, they become more like the mermaid spirit, and will always exhibit a remoteness from their previous life, as if they had become a human spirit.

Mami Wata is still worshipped today, in West Africa and beyond, with many festivals being held in her honour. She is a popular subject in the art, poetry, and music of the Caribbean and West and Central Africa.

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