Performing the Other: Mami Wata Worship in Africa
Henry John Drewal
TDR (1988-), Vol. 32, No. 2. (Summer, 1988), pp. 160-185.
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Performing the Other 

Mami Wata Worship in Africa
HenryJohn Drewal
In their religious practices involving the water spirit Mami Wata, African
peoples from Senegal to Tanzania take exotic images and ideas, interpret
them according to indigenous precepts, invest them with new
meanings, and then re-create and re-present them in new and dynamic
ways to serve their own aesthetic, devotional, and social needs. In so
doing, they evaluate and transform external forces, using them to shape
their own lives.'
The Mami Wata phenomenon illustrates what Roy Wagner (1981) calls
the invention of culture, an ongoing process of creating one's reality, of
constructing meaning out of experience. Such invention never occurs in
a vacuum or by accident, but rather emerges out of what already exists.
Like anthropologists, Mami Wata devotees "study" others-overseas
visitors-and generalize them from impressions, experiences, and other
evidence as if they were produced by some external "thing." This invention
is an objectification, or reification, of that "thing" (Wagner 1981:26).
Their study of our "waysw-our lore, writings, possessions, or patterns of
worship-is actually a resymbolization of them, transforming our symbols
into theirs (Wagner 1981:30). This study is my own objectification of
the process by which Mami Wata devotees invent foreigners from overseas
as models for an evolving system of beliefs and practices in honor of water
spirits. That process is at the same time one of self-definition for Mami
Wata devotees, achieved in large part through performance.
Mami Wata, Pidgin English for "Mother of Water," refers to an African
water spirit whom Africans regard as foreign in origin. Africans use the
pidgin term to acknowledge the spiriťs otherness as well as to indicate its
incorporation into the African world. The term mediates between Africans
and those from overseas and represents Africans' attempts at understanding
or constructing meaning from their encounters with overseas strangers.
Pidgin English also serves as a lingua franca among Africans. Sharing
similar kinds of experiences with foreigners and foreign material culture,
Africans spread Mami Wata lore throughout West and Central Africa and
filter it through many cultural lenses to make it a transcultural phenomenon
of remarkable proportions.
The pidgin term suggests an economic context; such languages develop
during periods of expanding trade. The arrival of Europeans and the trad-
Mami Wata Worship 161
ing wealth they brought reinforced ancient African ideas of wealth from
the sea in the form of coral and cowries. It is therefore most appropriate
that a trading language be used to name a spirit whose primary gift to her
devotees is wealth, especially monetary riches from abroad.
But in important ways Mami Wata is not a pidgin phenomenon. For one
thing, Mami Wata worshipers are not formulating beliefs and practices for
the consumption of foreigners. Therefore, the term is not mediative in this
sense. Secondly, rather than becoming a reductionistic and simplified version
of a particular code, Mami Wata is a varied, complex, and fully
expressive system that has drawn inspiration from widely dispersed and
diverse sources to forge a uniquely African faith.
What can account for Mami Wata's presence among so many different
peoples over such a vast area of Africa? Certainly their shared experiences
with Europeans is crucial. Mami Wata represents a "free," unencumbered
spirit of nature detached from any social bonds. She is broadly identified
with Europeans, rather than with any specific African ethnic group. Although
her name "Mami," sometimes spelled Mammy, is usually translated
as "mother," she has no children, no family of any kind-she is
entirely outside any social system. Her appellation of "mother" connotes
her sexualidentity, her domination over the realm ofwater, and those who
come under her sway. Her relationship with her devotees is more as a lover
than as a parent (Gerrits 1983).In Ghana, she is notorious for herjealousy.
She is said either to drive a man's wives out of the house or to kill them. In
Zaire, she demands total sexual abstinence in return for riches-profit in
exchange for progeny (Fabian 1978:319). Likewise, the benefit she
brings-monetary wealth-is acquired rather than inherited and is therefore
outside the kinship system. As a foreigner, she provides alternatives to
established cultural avenues. Her otherness and her independence together
legitimize novel modes of action.
Building on indigenous beliefs in water spirits, often represented as
aquatic creatures such as fish, crocodiles, and water snakes, Africans incorporated
new spirits, such as the mermaid, when Europeans arrived along
the coast in the late 15th century (plate I). The earliest documented example
of an African rendering of a mermaid juxtaposes her with
crocodiles. The image occurs in an Afro-Portuguese ivory from Sherbro,
Sierra Leone, known to have been in Denmark before 1743 (Fraser
197x277). Early European travelers reported that Africans associatedthem
with the sea and water spirits, an impression that would have been reinforced
by the sight of their large sailing vessels coming into view from
below the horizon. One of the earliest European interpretations of African
ideas about Europeans was made by Cadamosto, who voyaged to the
western coast of Africa near Cape Verde in the years 1455 and 1456 (see
Crone 1937:20-21). In 1700, during a voyage to the islands of Bissao and
Bissagos, the Frenchman Andre Brue reported an "Odd Ceremony of
sacrificing a Cock":
[A] canoa approached with five Negros; one of whom came on
Deck, holding a Cock in his left Hand, and a Knife in his right. After
kneeling a Minute before the Sieur Brue, without speaking, he rose;
and turning to the East, cut the Cock's Throat, and placing himself
on his Knees again, let some Drops of Blood fall on the Sieur Brue's
Feet. He did the same to the Mast and Pump of the Ship, and returning
to the General, presented him the Cock. The General, ordering
him a Bumper of Brandy, asked him the Reasons of this Ceremony:
162 HenryJohn Drewel
I . A mural by an Ewe artist
painted on the exterior wall
of a Mami Watashrine.
This central panel depicts
the rainbow and Mami Wata
as a mermaidgazing into her
mirror while combing her
long hair. Her snake companion,
in this area associated
with the rainbow, looks
on. The twoJanking panels
are based on Indian popular
prints of Hindu spirits.
Ghana, Ewe, 1975. (Photo
by Henry]. Drewal)
2. A Mami Wata medium
-a tridentpaddle on her
hip, lines, and tridents
on her body with
powdered white clay, and
rainbow serpent beads hung
around her neck-leans in
an off-balancepose during
trance before beginning her
dance. Togo, Mina, 1975.
(Photo by Henry].
Drewal)
He replied, that the People of his Country looked on the Whites as
the Gods of the Sea; that the mast was a Divinity that made the Ship
walk, and the Pump was a Miracle, since it could make Water riseup,
whose natural Property is to descend (in Astley 1968:104-5).
Other authors have documented similar responses.'
These curious-looking white visitors, their possessions, and especially
their icons made a profound impression. De Barros' 15th-century accounts
describing some Abbyssinians reported that "they bowed down and
adored the figurehead of the Portuguese flagship-a wooden statuette of
the Angel Gabriel" (inJayne 1970:47). Marine sculptures (especiallyfigureheads
of females)became part of water divinity altars at least as early as the
19th century. One figurehead that came from a ship wrecked off the coast
of southern Africa in the 1870s was allegedly acquired by Africans and
incorporated into a shrine honoring local sea divinities (Pinckney 1940:27,
130). Similarly among the Bidjogo on the West African coast, a Baroque
style figurehead dominated a shrine on Formosa Island (Bernatzig
1933:plate 221).
As a result of their increasing awareness of European lore and imagery,
Africans adapted the concept of the mermaid, whose most characteristic
depictions show her emerging from the water combing her long luxurious
hair as she gazes at her reflection in a mirror (plate I). The mirror has
become central to Mami Wata belief and ritual practice. Familiar with
mermaid lore, devotees consider the mirror one of Mami Wata's most
prized possessions. The mirror's surfaceis like the surfaceof the water. It is
the boundary between the cosmic realms of water and land, a symbol of
the permeable threshold crossed by Mami Wata when she enters the bodies
of her mediums and they go into possession trance (plate 2). At the same
Mami Wata Worship 163
164 Henry John Drewel
time, it is the threshold crossed by those troubled by Mami Wata when
they voyage to her watery underworld in their dreams. Furthermore, the
mirror allows not only passage between water and land, but between the
present and the future. As one Ewe devotee in Togo explained about her
Mami Wata mirror, "I can see the future in it; the mirror can answer my
questions. It does so at night during my dreams" (in Chesi 1980:57).
At another level, the mirror is a metaphor for the very process by which
devotees construct their worship and ritual performance. In their effort to
become one with Mami Wata, devotees re-create her world by mirroring
data from a variety of sources-popular imported prints, dreams, foreign
literature, trade goods, and the actions of those from overseas (Europeans
and Indians). Yet this mirroring is not simple reproduction; it is a creative
interpretation and re-presentation of the things they see and experience.
Using exotic sources as models for behavior, devotees create Mami Wata's
attire, construct her watery world in their sacred spaces, and impersonate
her during rituals, frequently going into possession trance.
As an important part of the mermaiďs image, the mirror symbolizes the
alluring beauty and vanity of this irresistible creature. Sitting on a rock and
combing her luxurious long hair as she admires herself in the mirror, the
mermaid can lure the unwary or unprepared to their destruction or, under
other circumstances, can bestow enormous ~ e a l t h . ~
Mirrors figure prominently in devotees' communications with the spirit.
One Igbo priestess explained that mirrors are used to "call" Mami Wata to
possess her mediums. Because of her vanity Mami Wata enjoys looking at
herself, and mirrors are thought to attract her to the site when devotees
seek her presence, or to distract her when she "worries" them excessively.
Thus, mirrors adorn Mami Wata shrines. In one Igbo shrine in Nigeria
(plate 3), the reflective surfaces of the mirrors held by a Mami Wata figure
echo the pool of water that she stands in and the sunglasses that she wears.
As the priest of this altar explained, Mami Wata wears sunglasses because
"she is a fashionable lady"-a comment totally in accord with popular
images of mermaids. But sunglasses are more than expressions of fashion.
They, like mirrors, represent the surface of the water, the threshold that
separates as well as unites Mami Wata and her devotees.
For many Mami Wata followers, communications with the spirit are
seen as cosmic journeys. Initially, Mami Wata makes her presence felt
through vivid dreams and visions that continually "worry" the chosen
person. One Mina priest in Togo explained how his world began to fall
apart and "whirl around him," turning everything "upside down." He lost
all sense of direction or purpose in life, until he learned through divination
that Mami Wata was causing his troubles and that he must worship her to
set things right.
Often, people's first encounters with Mami Wata are in visions of seascapes.
An Ewe priestess at Lome, Togo, was first drawn to the seasidein
her dreams. She described how, instead of going to school as a child, she
would go to the beach and remain there for hours, gazing into the water.
When her father learned of her "unnatural" behavior, he punished her.
Soon afterward she became seriously ill. The following day she went down
to the sea again and this time went in, feeling compelled to cover herself in
water. Some fishermen rescued her. After this incident, her father took her
to a priest, who divined her identity as a chosen of Mami Wata. She was
later initiated into the Mami Wata priesthood.
In dreams, Mami Wata told the priestess to collect clay, first from one
river, then from another, and also from a third. Then Mami Wata inMami
Wata Worship 165
3. Mirrors and sunglasses
adorn an Igbo shrine sculpture
of Mami Wata that
stands on Coke bottles in
a small pool of water. In
front, plates, a bottle, a bottle
opener, wooden and
metal snakes, talcum powder
containers, kola nuts, and a
candelabrum cluster on a
table. Nigeria, Igbo, 1978.
(Photo by Henry J. Drewal)
166 Henry John Drewel
structed her to go to the sea. When she reached the shore the waters parted,
making a road, and she went inside. She came to a door, opened it, and
saw Mami Wata, who gestured to her with a sweeping arc over her head.
Mami Wata told her to make a clay stool and then a figure of a girl. The
priestess made both, but when she saw someone coming to look at what
she had made, she tried to chase the intruder away. Then she woke up.
Since that dream, the Ewe priestess has had many others. Mami Wata
told her to make clay sculptures of what she sees (plate 4). In another
dream, she was told to gather the powerful leaves associatedwith the deity
Dan, the celestial water serpent or rainbow. The very next day, she began
to gather them and put them in the statues. She sculpted the leaves onto the
shoulders or in the hands of some of her Mami Wata figures, depicting
Mami Wata as she had appeared in her dreams-coming out of the water
covered with Dan's leaves. The wavy lines in the clay-covered floor of her
shrine evoke a beach, rivulets of water, and snakes-all central themes in
her visions (plate 4). Thus the priestess interprets and reflects what she sees
in her dreams in order to re-present Mami Wata's realm in her own.
Dreams appear to be significant universally in the Mami Wata phenomenon;
some of their motifs recur frequently (see Dupre 1978:63; Gerrits
1983:36). Not only do devotees travel to Mami Wata's realm beneath the
sea, but Mami Wata herselfjourneys to the world of her followers, causing
4. Under instructionsjom
Mami Wata through dreams,
an Ewe priestess sculpts clay
figures offemales and males,
snakes, and otherjgures,
decorating them with cowrie '
seashells, tridents, and other
items and covering thejoor
with wavy lines of clay to
evoke rivulets and snakes.
Togo, Ewe, 1975. (Photo
by Henry J . Drewal)
Mami Wata Worship 167
them to go into possession trance. Shivers, shouts, and disequilibrium
signal the onset of possession (plate 5). At one ceremony in Togo, a
priestess swayed and stared blankly into space. Then, posturing with hands
on hips, she surveyed the scene and began to walk backward, then forward.
Others launched into a song, and the possessed devotee leaned forward
in a dance in which the winging armlshoulder gestures characteristic
of Ewe and Mina style were interspersed with large stroking arm gestures
that evoked paddling or swimming. Such swimming gestures characterize
Mami Wata possession trance in southern Togo (plate 6).
In other instances, Mami Wata manifests herself through ventriloquism.4
Once, an Igbo Mami Wata priestess informed Margaret Thompson
Drewal and me that she had trained for more than seven years in order
to "invoke Mami Wata's voice." She removed her pink headtie and
donned a white one. Then, sitting on a low stool before a shrine covered in
5. A Mami Wata medium
going into trance loses consciousness
and is caught by
an assistant. Togo, Mina,
1975. (Photo by Henry].
Drewal)
168 Henry John Drewel
6. In theforeground, a
Mami Wata medium employs
large, swimminggestures
as part of his trance
performance while he leads
a procession of devotees.
Togo, Mina, 1975. (Photo
by Margaret Thompson
Drewal)
white cloth, she pinched off a small amount of a red claylikesubstance and
sprinkled it on the ground along with perfume from a small bottle. She
also put some perfume on her headtie just above her forehead. The
priestess rang a small bell as she entered the shrine enclosure and then
added the sound of a wooden instrument to the accompaniment. Soon
after, she began a song in a mixture of Igbo and English that had a decidedly
Christian hymnlike quality (we were told later that Mami Wata
was Christian and that she "beat" those who failed to go to church). The
small bell was replaced by the loud clang of a large one, followed by the
voice of Mami Wata. The ethereal voice that pierced the room seemed to
come from another direction. Its quality was otherworldly. Although
Mami Wata spoke in some form of English, we were not able to follow;
another woman served as translator.
The conversation ran as follows: Mami Wata extended greetings and
asked for money to pay for the gas she had used in herjourney to come and
Mami Wata Worship 169
speak-as everyone knows, she drives a car. The amount requested was
sizable, because (it was later explained) Mami Wata had traveled all the
way from the Indian Ocean where she lived. We said we could not pay
such an amount and offered a smaller gift which was accepted. Then Mami
Wata asked if we had been "seeing things" on Friday nights for, she said,
she had been visiting us. A mark on the body would confirm her presence
(earlierwe had been told that Mami Wata "marks" her people).5Then she
asked if we wanted to see her "face to face." We said yes and the medium's
sister asked, "If you see Mami Wata, won't you run away?" We answered,
no, because we heard that Mami Wata was very beautiful. Marni Wata
gave more blessings and asked for further questions. When we asked what
she looked like, Mami Wata first said that no one had ever actually seen
her, but then directed our attention to a chromolithograph on the wall
(plate 7).
After the ventriloquist performance was over, we asked the priestess
how she knew that Mami Wata looked like the print, and she replied:
"Someone with specialpowers must have gone under the water to snap her
picture. " This and other naturalistic pictures, regarded as photographs, are
believed to capture the underwater reality of Mami Wata.
By the second half of the 19th century, the establishment of colonial
empires and the expansion of trade linking Africa with both Europe and
the East provided the setting for the rapid spread of images and ideas that
helped to inspire the diversity of Mami Wata iconography and performances.
The most widespread image of Mami Wata is the one the Igbo
priestess had hanging in her shrine. It is a chromolithograph of European
origin depicting a snake charmer. Dating circa 188j, it was subsequently
reprinted in large numbers in India and England and distributed widely in
sub-Saharan West and Central Africa where it became the key image of
Mami Wata in less than 80 years.6
7. This chrornolithograph of
a snake charmer is the 1955
edition printed in Bombay,
India, by the Shree Ram
Calendar Companyjom a
European source. Ahcan
devotees regard it as a picture
or "photograph" of Mami
Wata.
8. Studio photograph of the
snake charmer Maladamatjuute,
cu. 1887. (Photo
courtesy of the Wilhelm
Zimmermann Circus Ar-
chive)
I70 Henry John Drewel
Remarkably, this image symbolized the exotic Other for two vastly
different cultural areas in the world: she was a mysterious, sensuous Oriental
snake charmer for Europeans, but a European water spirit for Africans!
The origin of this image can be traced to the northern German port of
Hamburg in the second half of the 19th century, during an era of widespread
public fascination with things from distant lands. Carl G.C. Hagenbeck's
1848 success exhibiting animals as a popular attraction led to a
rapidly enlarged menagerie of more exotic animals from Greenland, Africa,
and Asia, housed in his zoological garden in Hamburg. Soon he added
another attraction-exotic people-creating a new form of popular entertainment,
the Volkerschauen or "People Shows" (Benninghoff-Luhl 1984).
About 1880, when Hagenbeck's game hunter traveled to Southeast Asia
and the Pacific to trap animals for the zoo, he returned with a wife (probably
Samoan) who began to perform as a snake charmer in Hagenbeck's
show under the stage name of "Maladamatjaute." A photograph of her
taken about 1887in a Hamburg studio shows many elements of the snake
charmer chromolithograph (plate 8). Note especially the style and cut of
the bodice, the stripes of buttons, the coins about the waist, the armlets,
the position of the snake around her neck and a second one nearby, the
nonfunctional bifurcated flute (see the inset in the print), and her facial
features and coiffure. There can be little doubt that Maladamatjaute was
the model for the image called "Der Schlangenbandiger" (The Snake
Charmer). It was probably made between 1880-87 by an artist (as yet
undetermined) in the printing studios of Hagenbeck's close friend and
associate Adolph Friedlander, a leading printer who produced for Hagenbeck
a wide variety of circus and "People Show" posters in the style of the
snake charmer print (see Malhotra 1979).
Not long after the prinťs appearance in Europe, the image reached
Africa. The earliest evidence of the prinťs impact in Africa was recorded in
a 1901photograph byJ.A. Green taken at Bonny on the Niger River delta
(plate g). It shows an African headdress with a somewhat two-dimensional
half-figure that is unquestionably based on the snake charmer print: note
the thick, black hair (a wig) parted in the middle; the earrings; the cut of the
garmenťs neckline; the position of the snake and of the figure's arms; and
especially the low-relief rendering of the inset showing the kneeling flute
player facing several snakes (to the lower right of the central figure).
Feather plumes, toy rattles, and a large number of mirrors surround the
figure.
The chromolithograph that inspired this Bonny headdress along with
the Igbo sculpture in plate 3 has had an extraordinary impact in Africa; its
style and inconography help to explain its widespread significance. The
snake, an important and widespread African symbol of water and the
rainbow (Hambly 1931), is a most appropriate subject to be shown surrounding,
protecting, as well as being controlled by the Mother of Water.
The snake's position over the head of Mami Wata reinforces its link with
the arching rainbow. One stands for the other, as in the central panel of the
Ghanaian mural illustrated in plate I and in the Ewe priestess's dream
image of Mami Wata's sweeping gesture over her head (cited above). In
this chromolithograph, snake/water/rainbow divinity is dramatically
combined with female/foreigner/mermaid Mami Wata.
Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the majority of overseas foreigners
seen by Africans were Western Europeans, followed by Lebanese and Indians.
All were associated with commerce, that is, wealth brought from
overseas. Therefore, the same cluster of ideas associated with mermaid
Mami Wata Worship 171
images would have also been associated with this more recent image of a
snake charmer, first obtained from Europeans and later from Indians. The
naturalism of the print contributed to its acceptanceas a picture of a foreign
spirit. As a "photograph," the print is seen as a product of foreign technology-only
logical since Mami Wata is everywhere regarded as a foreigner.
The snake charmer is thus interpreted as a depiction of a non-African
female by her complexion, her facial features, and especially her long,
flowing hair-all of which she shares with mermaids. The print, like the
image of the mermaid, also epitomizes breathtaking beauty. Without exception,
informants emphasized the beauty of Mami Wata's symmetrical,
balanced, intense, and composed 'face7-characteristics that evoke comeliness
and well-being. Icons of wealth shown in the print-golden armlets,
earrings, neckline, pendant, and waist ornaments-evoke the riches that
Mami Wata promises to those who honor her. The theme of wealth that
underlies much of Mami Wata worship is sometimes exaggerated by the
amount ofjewelry (plates z sr 3).
Since Africans tend to depict complete figures in their visual arts, the
half-figure rendering of Mami Wata is taken to be significant by African
viewers. In discussing this aspect of the print, devotees point out that
Mami Wata in her mermaid manifestation is half woman, half fish; what is
not shown becomes important. The concealed lower portion of the snake
charmer conveys to devotees that Mami Wata is "hiding her secret," the
fishtail. In the print, the ambiguous rendering of the cloth below the waist,
reminiscent of fish scales, reinforces this idea and also recalls the swimming
gestures of devotees during trance dances.
The use of an overall blue-green background and the absence of any
contextual features, such as landscapes or buildings, contribute to the impression
of an underwater scene. This aspect has become important in the
creation of Mami Wata environments. In an Igbo shrine, the worshiper recreates
Mami Wata's world by filling the aquamarine-colored space with
mirrors, canoe paddles, fishnets, and low-relief snakes floating across the
walls (plate 10).Near the center of the raised platform is a coiled, stuffed
cloth snake which, in procession, the priestess wraps around her torso,
drapes over her shoulders, and holds aloft in her right hand, just as the
snake charmer does in the print (Anonymous 1975:7z).Also imaging the
9 . This 1901 photograph by
J.A. Green taken at Bonny
on the Niger River delta
shows an A3ican masquerade
headdress with a
sculpture based upon the
European chromolithograph
of a snake charmer. (Photo
courtesy of the Nigerian
National Museum, photo
archive neg. #106.94.17)
lo. An aquamarine shrine
environment re-creating
Mami Wata's underwater
world withjshnets, canoe
paddles, and a stuffed, coiled
snake which the possessed
medium wraps around her
neck and holds aloj in her
right hand in imitation of
the snake charmerprint.
Nigeria, Zgbo, 1978. (Photo
by HenryJ. Drewal)
print, the priestess wears a long black wig parted in the center, a profusion
of golden bangles around her neck, and a European-style formal gown
trimmed in gold.
The enormous popularity of the snake charmer lithograph led to a growing
African market in Indian prints of Hindu deities and spirits over the last
30years. '~fricansinterpret various Hindu popular prints as a host of Mami
Wata spirits associated with specificbodies of water. The expansion of the
pantheon and the growing number of Mami Wata devotees in Africa have
stimulated a further proliferation of imagery. As a Yoruba man who sells
popular Hindu prints in Togo explained:
[Flormerly, during the colonial period, we had the pictures, but we
didn't know their meaning. Peoplejust liked them to put in their
rooms. But then Africans started to study them too-about what is
the meaning of these pictures that they are putting lights, candles,
and incense there every time. I think they are using the power to
Mami Wata Worship 173
collect our money away, or how? So we started to befriend the Indians
to know their secret about the pictures. From there the Africans
also tried tojoin some of their societies in India and all over the
world to know much about the pictures. Reading some of their
books, I could understand what they mean.
This statement suggests rather explicitly the process of invention, the creation
of meaning that is at work as Africans interpret visual and written
data from the Other. The print seller distinguished several stages in the
process. In the beginning, Africans considered the prints simply as "decoration"
until they began to "study" them. When they studied them, or
interpreted their iconography, they came to view the prints as religious
icons that held secrets to be unlocked. More importantly, Africans determined
that there was a direct connection between these Indian images, the
beliefs associated with them, and Indians' success in financial matters (just
as mermaids and other icons such as marine sculptures and saints' statues
had been linked with European wealth and power).
But Africans were not content simply to study images, they began to
analyze Indian actions as well. They examined Hindu rituals in relation to
these religious icons and attributed their own meanings to them. Finally,
Africans enlarged the knowledge gained from the images and the actions of
Hindus by seeking additional information in their books, pamphlets, and
religious paraphernalia. Using all these resources, Mami Wata devotees
continue to evolve an elaborate faith, actualizing it in their sacred spaces
and ritual performances.8
One of the most influential of the new lithographs, printed in India
and England, is known in Ghana and Togo as Densu, a male Mami Wata
spirit (plate XI). Densu shrines often mirror the themes in the Hindu
lithograph (plate 12). On one altar, painted and unpainted shells echo the
one in the upper right hand of the Hundu spirit in the print and also
reinforce the theme of water. So does the reflective surface of the mirror
between the statue's legs that refers to the surface of the water and to the
river shown in the print. Green plastic parrots flank the clay sculpture,
referring to the animal companions of Densu. The figure's three heads,
coiffure, andjewelry are copied as well as most of the objects shown in the
hands, while the statue itself is painted bright gold to evoke the riches
bestowed by Mami Wata.
These and other shrine elements-white cloth, flowers, perfumes, and
talcum powder containers-constitute Mami Wata's "table." The use of
the term "table" is itself revealing, for the table is not traditional in many
parts of Africa. Rather it evokes "foreign" ways and is therefore seen as
most appropriate for Mami Wata. The icon derives from at least four
sources: the dressing table of European ladies, the dining table, the Christian
altar, and the altar in Hindu households with its pictures, candles, and
incense. The process of making the table seems to have become more
elaborate with the advent of an expanded corpus of Hindu prints, as well as
the increased availability of printed matter from India (books, pamphlets,
sales catalogs) dealing with Hindu religious practice. A Mina priestess
explained that the "old" form of Mami Wata was "with the snake," but
about 1955 they began to worship the "new" forms differently, using a
table, perfume, candles, fruits, flowers, and books. Plate 13 shows a Mami
Wata table that synthesizes the old and the new. A carved representation of
the snake charmer print becomes the focal point of a more elaborate
"table" with plastic flowers, dolls, and animals; perfume bottles and talc
174 Henry John Drewal
11. Hindu popular print interpreted
as the male Mami
Wata spirit known as Densu
in Togo and Ghana.
tins; mirrors; a bottle of Gordon's gin; and, front and center, the Bible
surmounted by a plastic turtle.
The Yoruba print seller in Togo dramatically illustrates how meanings
are constructed and how Mami Wata ritual practices evolve and spread. He
uses books on Buddhism, Hinduism, and Occultism as references for his
synthesis of foreign and indigenous divinities and the paraphernalia necessary
for their worship. When African clients express an interest in particular
prints, he informs them about their English, Hindu, and African names;
their powers and attributes; as well as the materials required for their
worship. Each water spirit, he explains, has its own incense or perfume
because Mami Wata likes pleasant scents and the fragrances "drive away
evil spirits." He adds that Mami Wata abhors filth and loves beautiful
things, so her table must be spotless, well arranged, and covered in white
cloth or clean sand. The remaining requirements for the table include
flowers, "sweet" foods (such as candy, bananas, oranges, eggs), candles,
papers (either a notebook or individual sheets), money, perfume, and talcum
powder.
Since about the First World War, when Indian merchants established
firms along the west coast, Africans have been observing their ways, espe-
Mami Wata Worship 175
12. A tablefor the Mami
Wata spirit Densu displays a
gold-colored clayjgure based
on the Hindu chromolithograph
shown inplate 11.
Togo, Ewe, 1975.(Photo
by Henry J. Drewal)
13.A synthesis of the old
and new style of Mami
Wata, this tablefeatures a
statue based on the snake
charmer print; a mirror at its
back;plastic dolls, ducks,
jsh, andjowers;perfirme
bottles; talcum powder containers;
a Gordon's gin bottle;
a Christian and
a clay tortoise on top of a
book. Togo, Ewe, 1975.
(Photo by HenryJ. Drewal)
176 HenryJohn Drewal
cially Hindu devotions. Many of these rituals are based on the practice of
Gujeratis, who predominated among Indian merchants in Africa and were
devotees of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and patroness of merchants.
Like Mami Wata devotees, Gujeratis place their account books or
ledgers on their shrines as objects of veneration. And, as Alan Babb told
me, they also submerge terra cotta statues of Lakshmi under water at the
close of annual festivals-a practice strikingly similar to those that occur
during some Mami Wata festivals (1985).
One young Igbo woman at Lagos spoke of her fear and fascination for
the gods that the Hindu family she worked for kept in their house. She
described in detail the prayers they conducted while seated with their legs
crossed; the "points" (bindu) on their foreheads; their hand gestures; their
shrines covered with pictures, statues, and books; the smell of incense; and
the blue light of a candle that burned continuously. She also witnessed
Hindu rites in which gifts of fruits and flowers were thrown into the sea
along with the hair of a child. When she asked her employers the reasons
for their actions, she was told, "the things that come from god must be
returned to god." She took this to mean that Indians come from the sea.
The Yoruba print seller described how he "befriended" an Indian man in
Ghana:
He loved me very well, so he gave me some of his secrets about the
pictures. He was telling me about the nature of every individual,
about Lord Shiva, Lord Komara, Lord Krishna, the seven worlds
under the earth. Every individual has a picture in his room. They
worship with incense, candle, and all sorts of different kinds of
things. Before a Hindu leaves the room early in the morning, he
must face the picture, make meditation, pray, see the picture for
himself before going out. These are called Mantra, the calling of the
names of the pictures particular to them.
These observations and others have resulted in specific ritual practices
among Mami Wata worshipers. In Nigeria and Togo, devotees light candles
and burn incense during consultations with the spirit called "meditations."
One Mina Mami Wata priest displays a photograph of himself
taken during his initiation in which he is seated on a Muslim prayer mat in
lotus position wearing a turban and signing a mudra (plate 14).
European conventions are also imaged in Mami Wata rites. In Atakpame,
Togo, Mami Wata devotees have devised a European-style dance to
attract their spirit. It is known as Gran'bal, a gentle ballroom-style dance
often performed by couples, which takes place, appropriately, on Friday
and Saturday nights. Followers also describe Mami Wata's preference for
slow "blues" tunes, highlife, and especially guitar music, a theme that
extends to Nigeria as evidenced in a song by the popular bandleader and
composer Victor Uwaifo:
If you see Mami Wata, oh,
never, never run away
Mami Wata loves music, oh,
guitar boy,
never, never, run away.
Among the Mina of Togo, European elements are juxtaposed with
Hindu and African ones. In the process, all three are transformed to create a
Mami Wata Worship 177
novel ritual. On the day of La Table Sainte (the Sanctified Table), Mami
Wata was honored first with rites based on indigenous practices, then a
dressing sequence with Hindu and European elements, and finally with a
European-style banquet. The day began with prayers, blessings, and songs
performed for Mami Wata and her retinue of water spirits and other deities
installed at the "House of the Holy Trinity." Meanwhile, water was mixed
in a glass with talcum powder and poured on the ground. Some of the
infusion was then shared among the worshipers. During a second prayer,
the priest poured ginger ale on the ground, shared it around, and then
tossed cowrie shells to learn the spiriťs response. He broke apart a hardboiled
egg and spread the pieces on the altar, which was loaded with
perfume bottles, talcum powder, eggs, and water from the well in the
compound. Cleanliness, whiteness, and sweetness permeated the scene.
Songs accompanied the sacrifice of a white goat and chickens. Their
blood was poured into a bowl. More chicken sacrifices followed, but this
time the priest slit their necks and tossed them on the ground, intently
watching their death throes to interpret the messages from Mami Wata.
Satisfied that the signs were auspicious, he proceeded with the finalchicken
offering, whose blood was poured into a concreted hole in the ground that
constituted the altar of Sapata, deity of contagious disease, particularly
smallpox. During these proceedings, various Mami Wata followers went
into possession trance and began to dance.
rq. Formal portrait of a
Mami Wata devotee signing
a Hindu mudra as he sits in
a lotusposition on a Muslim
mat. Togo, Mina, 1975.
(Photographer unknown)
178 Henry John Drewal
15. Synthesizing images
j o m a variety of sources, a
devotee creates the appearance
of Mami wata-by using
a black wig; a Western-style
dress of importedfabric with
a sari-like sash over the left
shoulder;jewelry on her upper
arms, wrists, and ankles;
long necklaces symbolic of
the celestial serpent Dan;
Hindu bindu on herforehead
andjet; a brass snake
in her right hand; and a trident
in her left. She is seated
on a traditional sacred stool
that has beenplaced on a
Muslim prayer rug. Togo,
Mina, 1975. (Photo by
Henry]. Drewal)
The morning of prayer, sacrifice, song, and possession trance was but a
prelude to the climactic rite in honor of Mami Wata-the Day of the
Sanctified Table banquet. What better way to attract the spirit and make
her feel at home than to prepare an elaborate banquet table in her honor?As
her altars are tables, it is fitting that her festival conclude at the dinner table
with an elegantly arranged evening meal.
The preparations for such an elaborate occasion took most of the afternoon.
Priests, new initiates as well as old, underwent an elaborate toilet.
They began by putting on perfume, cologne, and talcum powder painted
in lines over the upper torso, arms, and legs. Face makeup was completed
with a "point" on the forehead in imitation of the Hindu bind^.^ The
priests also donned: (I) bright European- or sari-style dresses of imported
fabric with floral or striped patterns; (2) wigs of straight, black hair which
Mami Wata Worship 179
16. Dressed in a sari-style
garment, a statue of Nanayo
in lotus position presides at
the head of the banquet
P( table. A cobra head is spread
out over her right shoulder
and her arm uplifted in a
mudra-likegesture. Togo,
P Mina, 1975. (Photo by
, Margaret Thompson
4 Drewal)
a
they either wrapped in a white headtie or bedecked with costumejewelry
and strings of beads; and, (3) much jewelry-earrings, anklets, armlets,
bracelets, rings, and long, multicolored necklacesassociatedwith Dan, the
rainbow serpent deity who is Mami Wata's constant companion (plate IS).
Like the garments depicted in the Indian prints, those of these Mami Wata
devotees are draped over the left shoulder. Prior to the banquet, the devotees
sat on a sacred stool for formal portraits, holding emblems of the
water spirits-a bronze snake and a trident whose three prongs are said to
symbolize the serpent, the path, and the moon. The trident, it may be
recalled, is featured prominently in the "Densu" print.
The dressing complete, the priest led his initiates out of the courtyard to
find their places at the sanctified table-a long banquet table covered in
white linen and place settings of silverware, dishes, and glasses. A statue of
Nanayo, the guardian Marni Wata spirit of the House of the Holy Trinity,
presided at the head of the table (plate 16). The sculpture, done by an Ewe
artist, captures a Hindu ritual gesture (mudra) and depictsthe figure seated
in the lotus position. The posture, forehead mark, and piled hairdo, together
with the hooded cobra above the shoulder, all suggest the carver
was influenced by Hindu prints similar to one known as Bhole Shankar.
Nanayo's flowery garment echoes the saris shown in the prints and those
worn by the devotees.
The participants danced counterclockwise around the table before they
sat down (plate 17). The meal began with a benediction followed by the
first course of fresh green salad. While many of the devotees valiantly tried
180 Henry John Drewal
17. Before sitting down to a
formal, five-course Frenchstyle
meal in Mami Wata's
honor, worshipers dance
around her banquet table. At
the head of the table is a
cawed image ofthe Mami
Wata spirit, Nanayo. Togo,
Mina, 1975. (Photo by
Margaret Thompson
Drewal)
to adopt the palate and table manners of their exotic spirit, some found it
impossible to eat raw vegetables, which they consider "bush that only
animals consume." As unobtrusively as possible, one elderly woman removed
her plate and quickly raked the salad onto the ground under the
table. Others poked at theirs awkwardly with knives or spoons until servers
cleared the first course and brought the next. Sweet carbonated drinks
were served while the initiates struggled with their utensils to eat the series
of European dishes that constituted Mami Wata's banquet. Conversation
seemed stilted and subdued in the formal atmosphere, yet, when the ritual
repast finally came to an end, most seemed pleased with their efforts at recreating
and sharing a "proper" meal with their spirit.
Despite the complexity and diversity of Mami Wata beliefs and performances,
certain widespread, transcultural patterns emerge. Mami Wata
devotees objectify the Other through analyses and interpretations. Their
data are based on direct observation of the attitudes and actions of the
Other, including both secular and religious activities. For example, one
Ewe devotee observed that Mami Wata spirits flock to the Hotel Tropicana
in Togo each year in order to lie out in the sun or to sit staring out at the sea
for hours on end. He was referring to French and German tourists on
packaged holidays organized by the hotel. When I askedhow he knew they
were Mami Wata spirits, he simply told me that if I went there I would see
for myself. Other actions invested with new meanings include the personal
toilet (the use of facial powder, cologne, and perfume); reading, writing,
and eating habits; table manners; and such devotional rites as lighting
candles, ringing bells, singing hymns, and chanting mantras. The mundane
actions of some become highly symbolic and meaningful to others.
Likewise, the products of foreign cultures, such as prints, books, sales
Mami Wata Worship 181
catalogs, pamphlets, films, and trade items are viewed, read, analyzed, and
reinterpreted in order to be incorporated into already existing frameworks.
In the end, the syntheses express the identity and concerns of the interpreters,
not those of the producers. With this kind of knowledge, often processed
in dreams and trances, Mami Wata adherents create sacred places
and perform rituals to praise and appeal to their spirit.
Certain paraphernalia are widespread, especially mirrors, combs, and
jewelry. Because of their prominence in mermaid lore and imagery as well
as their reflective, waterlike surface, mirrors have become ritual instruments
for attracting and controlling a vain and unpredictable spiritwhether
in Togo, Nigeria, or Zaire. They therefore become essential
shrine furniture too. Candles, flowers, incense, perfumes, powders, and
other sweet and fragrant things such as fruits, soft drinks, and candies also
persist widely in Mami Wata circles and are considered crucial for ritual
performances. Added to these are other Mami Wata items: snakes, fish,
shells, waterfowl, and other water-related objects like paddles, nets, and
canoes.
Reading and writing messages and the use of books, notepads, and
sheets of paper denote an adaptation of foreign communication modes. An
early indication of the significanceAfricans attached to writing in their first
encounters with Europeans was recorded in John Atkins's journal of his
1721 voyage. Near the Sierra Leonean coast, he described how "making
Paper speak (as they call it) is a miracle" (Atkins 1970:64). In Zaire, paintings
of the mermaid by Samba are frequently covered with texts describing
the artisťs conversations with the spirit (see Hollburg and Sievernich
1979:129)and, in Nigeria and Togo, Mami Wata worshipers write notes to
their spirit and receive messages in the same form. Writing has thus become
a ritual act, part of Mami Wata performance. Other means of communication
are drawn from newer Western technology-the telephone,
airplane, and motorcar help to connect the great distances between Mami
Wata's abodes in the oceans and on African soil.
Dreams and visions also play a crucial role in shaping ritual actions from
Liberia to Zaire and perhaps beyond. They are primary sources for communication
between spirit and follower. The early morning "witching
hour" when humans encounter the enticing mamba muntu of Zaire (thetime
is shown in popular painting on a wristwatch worn by a mermaid) marks
dream time for countless Mami Wata devotees across West Africa. Certain
themes in dreams recur almost everywhere and appear to derive from a
shared mermaid mythology: water voyages and the beautiful yet cold
European siren enticing humans, holding out the promise of sexual gratification
and/or enormous riches.
Mami Wata worshipers perform their constructions of the Other in the
ways they create sacred spaces and ritual action. In possession performances,
Mami Wata mediums swim with their arms and speak in quasipidgin
tongues as they relate their long journeys by boat, canoe, or car to
come from distant waters such as the Indian Ocean. Devotees write notes,
speak with Mami Wata on the phone, dance in a European ballroom style,
play the guitar, sing hymns, and prepare lavish banquets in her honor. All
of these acts are bridges to Mami Wata, bringing her ethos into the world
of her followers. Not that these worshipers emulate Europeans or Indians
in their daily lives, but rather they ritualize certain behavior in order to get
in touch with their water spirit of foreign origins.
While some themes can be found everywhere, others are specific to
certain areas for cultural or historical reasons (see Drewal 1988). Mami
Wata is linked to the rainbow deity complex among the Mina, Ewe, Aja,
182 Henry John Drewal
Fon, Yoruba, and Igbo in West Africa. The rainbow is regarded as a
celestial serpent or, more specifically, the Royal Python. As a spirit, the
rainbow controls the waters of the sky and unites them with the waters on
earth, while Mami Wata dominates the seas and other bodies of water.
Mami Wata followers therefore consider them an inseparable pair. The
iconography of the European snake charmer print perfectly reflected indigenous
beliefs in this area about rainbows, water snakes, and water spirits.
In the print, a multicolored python is shown arching like the rainbow over
the head of the snake charmer. Thus, imported talcum powder containers
with rainbow motifs are favorite decorations for Mami Wata shrines,
uniting a sweet-smelling foreign product and an indigenous symbol of the
Royal Python (plate 13,right front corner). The print, then, contributed to
reshaping the rainbow complex and extending it to include a foreign spirit.
As Mami Wata followers shape their practice, they select fragments
from foreign cultures and invest them with new meanings to create sacred
symbols and performances that will appeal to their vain and potentially
troublesome spirit. Everything is reshaped, resymbolized, and re-presented
in order to control and exploit a force that holds out the hope of
wealth and well-being in an Africa that, as Africans understand, is still
controlled to a large degree by external social, economic, and political
forces.
Inspired by mermaids, snake charmers, and Hindu deities as well as
indigenous ideas concerning water spirits, Africans from Senegal to Tanzania
are evolving a vital and dynamic faith. This transcultural phenomenon
suggests that many African belief systems have the capacity to respond
to, to shape, and to incorporate new elements in building on existing
concepts and practices. They are open, flexible, and incorporative rather
than closed, rigid, and conservative. It is perhaps the divination process, a
pervasive feature in many African religions, as it is in Mami Wata, that
may account in part for this dynamism. Divination opens up religious
systems to theoretically countless possibilities (see Drewal 1984).A spirit
such as Mami Wata, whose lack of social ties sanctions alternatives to
inherited status and wealth, provides more options. And dreams offer still
further possibilities. Assimilating data from these diverse sources, Mami
Wata devotees construct meaningful rites. As the Yoruba print seller remarked,
"We began to study their pictures, read their books, and move
near them to learn their secrets." The process he describes is one of active
interpretation, adaptation, and re-creation-not reproduction. Indeed,
when Mami Wata worshipers "mirror" their spirit, they are really inventing
her. It is this inventiveness that transforms belief and practice and
forges new ideologies, which shape the world of Mami Wata devotees.
Postscript
Invention seems to have few limits, as evidenced in this news item from
Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Ruth Stone sent it to me from Saudi Arabia, where
it later appeared in The Saudi Gazette (I June 1985):
"MERMAID" JAILED FOR FRAUD
A deformed teenager who posed as a legendary African mermaid
with the power to multiply banknotes has beenjailed here for fraud.
Fatou Sidibe, who isjust 82 cms tau, has no legs and her withered
arms look rather like flippers. She worked with a gang of crooks
Mami Wata Worship 183
from her home country, Mali, and was known variously as the goddess
of the waters, the siren of the lagoon and "Mammi wata."
Her accompliceslured gullible customers to the edge of a lagoon at
nightfall and made them wait for hours until the mermaid put in an
appearance, wearing a fluorescent dress and with her long hair flowing
round her shoulders.
She would take their money and tell them to come back the next
day.
Notes
I. I am pleased to acknowledge generous financial support for research among the
Ewe, Mina, Aja, Yomba, and Igbo in 1975, 1977178, and 1982provided by The
National Endowment for the Humanities (grant #s F77-42 and RO-20072-812184)
and Cleveland State University, as well as institutional support from the
Nigerian Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University, and the University of Ibadan
which provided research affiliations. Archival work in Europe in the summers of
1980 and 1984 was funded by grants from Cleveland State University.
2.  Talbot (1967:309) cites an origin myth for masked dances in honor of water
spirits among the Kalabari Ijo which links them with Europeans. And Jones
(1937:79) notes the Igbo belief that Europeans originated from the water. For
more on Mami Wata art and beliefs among the lgbo see Drewal (1988).
3. In Zaire, mermaid (mamba muntu) lore holds that if a man is lucky enough to
acquire one of her tokens (a lock of hair or her mirror) while she is resting on the
shore, he will see her soon after in a dream. In exchange for her belongings, a
vow of silence, and complete devotion, he will become fabulously rich (Fabian
1978:319). Mami Wata beliefs in Liberia seem to be identical (Wintrob 1970).
4. One Mami Wata group in lgbo country calls itself the Harriet Vocal Mermaid
Society. The manifestation of Mami Wata through her voice seems related to
communication with her by means of foreign technology-specifically the telephone.
From such widely separated areas as Ibibioland in Nigeria and Zaire,
telephones figure prominently in interactions with the spirit. In the former, a
long thin rope from a carving of Mami Wata on a pole extends to the worshiper's
house. "This is called a Mammy Wata telephone, for it is claimed that the
priestess is warned by this means of any stranger coming into the compound, as
well as the purpose of their visit" (Salmons 1977:11). In Zaire, paintings of the
mermaid show her telephone perched on a rock with the cord going down into a
pot and then into the water (Eckhardt 1979:129).
5. Traditionally, a number of signs or "marks" identify someone touched by Mami
Wata-for example, erratic behavior; dreams of water, whites, and wealth;journeys
to bodies of water; and pressure on one's back. Mami Wata also puts
physical marks on her followers' bodies.
6. The edition illustrated was printed in Bombay, India, by the Shree Ram Calendar
Company in 1955 to copy an earlier version sent to them by a trader in Kumasi,
Ghana. During 1955156, 12,000 copies (10" x 143 were sent to this trader and
another in Kumasi "without changing a line even from the original" (Manager,
Shree Ram Calendar Company, letter dated 17June 1977). While the inventiveness
of African artists sometimes makes it difficult to be certain, I discern the
prinťs influence in at least 14 countries and 41 cultures.
7. One Yomba man, recalling the first time he saw the print during his youth in
Lagos (1921), admitted that he nearly "peed in his pants" when he beheld the
striking beauty, the long flowing hair, and the snakes of Mami Wata.
8. Even where elaborate rituals for Mami Wata have not evolved, as in Zaire, the
picture of the mermaid is regarded by its owners as a talisman/charm that will aid
in the attainment of wealth (Jules-Rosette 1977:126).
9. The belief that Mami Wata puts marks on her chosen may have been inspired in
part by the proliferation of Hindu images showing bindu on people's foreheads.
In an Ewe sculpture of Densu based on the Hindu print illustrated in plate I I,
even the three dogs have "points" on their heads.
184 Henry John Drewal
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You have printed the following article:
Performing the Other: Mami Wata Worship in Africa
Henry John Drewal
TDR (1988-), Vol. 32, No. 2. (Summer, 1988), pp. 160-185.
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References
Popular Culture in Africa: Findings and Conjectures. To the Memory of Placide Tempels
(1906-1977)
Johannes Fabian
Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 48, No. 4. (1978), pp. 315-334.
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