Mami Wata or, La Sirene, is a water spirit venerated in West, Central, and Southern Africa and in the African diaspora in the Americas. For Myers, the figure of Mami...
Mami Wata or, La Sirene, is a water spirit venerated in West, Central, and Southern Africa and in the African diaspora in the Americas. For Myers, the figure of Mami Wata exemplifies the accumulative, syncretic way in which spirituality and mythology iconography travel throughout diasporic communities. In the late 19th century, a European image of the snake-charming sideshow performer Nala Damajanti was reproduced in India, and this chromolithograph circulated in religious communities in West Africa and other parts of the diaspora. In different places, this image came to symbolize Mami Wata, Erzulie, Yemanja, and a great number of water spirits. There is a web of connections centering around this image as it was reproduced, re-edited, and rewritten. Across these translations and transformations remains a reverence for–and a wariness of water– the chthonic, and the oceans that connect all these diasporas.