How can you tell a Mami Wata?
How can you tell a Mami Wata?
Mami Wata 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 human in appearance (though never human).
What is the story of Mami Wata?
Mami Wata found her way into western societies by the 15th centuries when the sailors who mixed with the indigenous Africans and slaves found their way into their lands. In Western culture, she is referred to as a mermaid with beautiful features.
What does Mami Wata symbolize?
At once beautiful, protective, seductive, and dangerous, the water spirit Mami Wata (Mother Water) is celebrated throughout much of Africa and the African Atlantic. A rich array of arts surrounds her, as well as a host of other aquatic spirits–all honoring the essential, sacred nature of water.
Is Mami Wata and Yemaya the same?
In Nigeria the Yoruba orisha, the sea deity Oshun shares the stage with the widely followed Mami Wata (Mother of the Waters). In Cuba, the orisha of the sea is Yemaya, and Oshun appears as the Virgen de la Caridad, matron saint of Cuba.
What are four of the international influences that have influenced the depiction of Mami Wata?
Mami Wata is widely believed to have “overseas” origins, and depic- tions of her have been profoundly influenced by representations of ancient, indigenous African water spirits, European mermaids and snake charmers, Hindu gods and goddesses, and Christian and Muslim saints.
What are water spirits called?
The Nixie (English) or the Nix/Nixe/Nyx (German) are shapeshifting water spirits who usually appear in human form. The Undine or Ondine is a female water elemental (first appearing the alchemical works of Paracelsus).
What is Mamba Muntu?
The African mermaid water spirit Mami Wata, sometimes known as Mamba Muntu, is typically shown holding a snake, which is often associated with water spirits in West Africa. Her appearance, wristwatch, and jewelry represent foreign wealth.
What is a mermaid spirit?
In some cultures, that means that mermaids have fish tails and humanoid upper bodies. In other cultures, they might have fully human figures but also scales and fins or fish-like mouths. The second key feature is their magical connection to the sea.
What is the name of the water goddess?
Amphitrite, in Greek mythology, the goddess of the sea, wife of the god Poseidon, and one of the 50 (or 100) daughters (the Nereids) of Nereus and Doris (the daughter of Oceanus).
Is Mamlambo a mermaid?
As Felicity Wood points out in The Extraordinary Khotso (2007), “the mamlambo tends to be associated with Western forms of prosperity, like money, so the fact that she is often depicted as a Western mermaid.
Mami Wata. 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.
Is Mami Wata a mermaid or a snake woman?
In time Mami Wata image has shifted more or less from a mermaid to a snake woman which became a sort of definitive image of Mami Wata. This happened in the 19th century and there’s a strange story behind it. Circa 1887, a chromolithograph of a female Samoan snake charmer appeared in Nigeria.
What is a Mami Wata altar?
Mami Wata altar used by Annang Ibibio peoples. They comprise a vast and uncountable “school” of indigenous African water spirits (female and male) that have specific local names and distinctive personalities. These are honored in complex systems of beliefs and practices that may or may not be shared with the water spirit Mami Wata.
What is Mami Wata’s association with sex and lust?
Mami Wata’s association with sex and lust is somewhat paradoxically linked to one with fidelity. According to a Nigerian tradition, male followers may encounter the spirit in the guise of a beautiful, sexually promiscuous woman, such as a prostitute.
