Mami Wata

Mami Wata, Mammy Water, or similar is a mermaid, water spirit, and/or goddess in the folklore of parts of Western Africa, Eastern Africa, and Southern Africa. Mami Wata subsequently joined native pantheons of deities and spirits in parts of Africa.
Historically, Mami Wata is conceived of as an exotic female entity from Europe or elsewhere, often a white woman with a particular interest in objects foreign to West Africans that her adherents place at her shrines. In the mid-19th century, Mami Wata's iconography becomes particularly influenced by an image of snake charmer Nala Damajanti spreading from Europe. This snake charmer print soon overtook Mami Wata's earlier mermaid iconography in popularity in some parts of Africa.
Additionally, Hindu imagery from Indian merchants have influenced depictions of Mami Wata in some areas. Papi Wata, a male consort or reflection of Mami Wata sometimes depicted as modeled from the Hindu deity Hanuman, can be found in some Mami Wata traditions, sometimes under the influence of Hindu imagery.
Mami Wata is especially venerated in parts of Africa and in the Atlantic diaspora and has also been demonized in some African Christian and Islamic communities in the region. Mami Wata has appeared in a variety of media depictions and in literary works.
The names Mami Wata, Mami Wota, or Mammy Wata derive from the English language nouns mammy and water. The name is related to the Krio word mami wata that refers to mermaids in Krio folklore. Krio is an English-based creole language used in parts of West Africa.
The Mami element derives from English mother. However, Mami Wata has no children nor family of any kind. She is typically represented as free of any kind of social bonds and as a foreign entity, and "broadly identified with Europeans rather than any African ethnic group or ancestors".
Scholars trace the origins of Mami Wata to encounters to depictions of European mermaids witnessed by West Africans as early as the 1400s and 1500s. As summarized by scholar and adherent Henry John Drewal:
A second version of the mermaid from European folklore with two tails also likely influenced depictions of Mami Wata localized especially to the Benin kingdom. Scholars trace this motif to the influence of Portuguese depictions of mermaids.
Around the mid-1800s, a lithograph of the snake charmer Nala Damajanti from Europe became popular associated with imagery around Mami Wata, likely originating in Hamburg, Germany.
In the 1940s to the 1950s Hindu religious imagery from Indian merchants and films began to strongly influence Mami Wata imagery on particular the Ghana-Nigeria coast. Drewal records the following account from a male Yoruba Mami Wata devotee who sells Hindu prints in Togo (notations are that of Drewal):
Writing from research conducted from 1965 to 1966 at the Catherine Mills Rehabilitation Center in Liberia, at the time the only psychiatric center in Liberia, former director Ronald Wintrob recorded beliefs among individuals who venerated Mami Wata in the region. Wintrob records that "beliefs in Mammy Water are held by the vast majority of Liberians". Wintrob recorded that "confirmed that some ten per cent of male patients requiring in-patient treatment for psychotic disorders, revealed a system of delusions relating to possession by Mammy Water".
Wintrob summarizes the conceptualization of Mammy Water in Liberia at the time as follows:
Wintrob records that in Liberian Mammy Water folk belief, anyone who has contact with her will become wealthy and gained good luck. One of his informants, a man from the Vai people, provides the following account:
Mammy Water was typically believed to visit people in their sleep at night. According to another informant, a man from the Kissi people, she grants wealth in exchange for sexual celibacy:
Wintrob records that this was not always the case: in some instances folk belief dictated that Mammy Water's contact need not be celibate with her and could in fact have a large family.
Mammy Water may also gift extra-sensory perception, including foresight and the ability to see that which others cannot, or especially swift travels. Some groups believe that Mammy Water does not contact everyone but rather that the ability to contact her is inherited.
A secondary development of Mami Wata in some traditions is Papi Wata, a male entity associated with Mami Wata. In parts of West Africa, Hindu depictions of Hanuman, a divine figure or deity typically depicted with monkey features, is interpreted as Papi Wata.
Mami Wata has become demonized in some Christian and Muslim communities in Africa. The figure's popularity spread from the colonial period onward and over time her worship became increasingly syncretic with imagery and customs from Christianity with a heavy European influence. In 2012, Duwel writes that over the previous 20 to 30 years, Mami Wati has therefore become "a primary target of a widespread and growing religious movement led by evangelical (Pentacostal) Christians and fundamentalist Muslims who seek to denigrate and demonize indigenous African faiths." To these groups, Mami Wati personifies "immortality, sin, and damnation".