Mami Wata | |
|---|---|
 African sailors recognized the iconography of the water deity Mami Wata in this 1880s chromolithograph 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 in Africa and in the African diaspora.[1] | |
| Venerated in | West African Vodun, Haitian Vodou, Folk Catholicism, Odinani, Yoruba religion, Louisiana Voodoo |
| Feast | June 25 |
| Attributes | Snakes, pearls, gold, diamonds |
| Patronage | Water, the sea, mermaids, the moon, markets, divination, healing, luck, money, music |
Mami Wata (also Mamba Muntu, Water Mother, La Sirene) is a water spirit venerated in West, Central, and Southern Africa and in the Afro-American diaspora.[2] Mami Wata spirits are usually female but are sometimes male.[3]
- ^ Drewal, Henry (Summer 2008). "Mami Wata Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas". African Arts: 70–71.
- ^ Blench, Roger. 2022. Therianthropes in Africa, ancient and modern: from rock art to Mami Wata. Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
- ^ Drewal, Henry John (2008). "Introduction: Charting the Voyage". In Drewal, Henry John (ed.). Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and other divinities in Africa and the diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35156-2., p. 1.