Mami Wata Arts For Water Spirits in Afri

exhibition preview
Mami Wata
Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas
Henry John Drewal “EEH , IF YOU SEE M AM I WATA, NEVER YOU RUN AWAY…”
with contributions by Marilyn (SIR VICTOR UWAIFO, GUITAR BOY, 1967)
Houlberg, Bogumil Jewsiewicki,
John W. Nunley, and Jill Salmons
M
ami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and
Its Diasporas” explores the visual cultures and
histories of African and African Atlantic water
deities and reveals the power and potency of
images and ideas to shape the lives of people,
communities, and societies. he exhibition has
several sections: he irst introduces Mami Wata, her person-
ality, attributes, and visual culture. he next ofers a broad his-
Fowler Museum at UCLA torical overview of the sources and currents that constitute her
Los Angeles visual history. his is followed by a series of case studies that
April 6–August 10, 2008 demonstrate speciic cultural, historical and artistic forces that
have shaped Mami Wata and water spirit imagery in diferent
places on the African continent, while the next part treats a simi-
Chazen Museum of Art lar theme for some of Mami Wata’s spirit sisters in the African
University of Wisconsin, Madison Atlantic world. he inal section considers Mami Wata as the
October 18, 2008–January 11, muse that has inspired contemporary artists from Africa, the
2009 Caribbean and the United States. Here, a condensed introduc-
tion and art historical overview are followed by a selection of
National Museum of African Art objects from the other parts of the exhibition.
Smithsonian Institution
INTRODUCING M AM I WATA
Washington DC At once beautiful, protective, seductive, and potentially
April 1, 2009–July 26, 2009 deadly, the water spirit Mami Wata (Mother Water) is celebrated
throughout much of Africa and the African Atlantic worlds. A
The Mariners’ Museum rich array of arts surrounds both her and a host of other aquatic
Newport News, VA spirits—honoring the essential, sacred nature of water. Mami
January 29, 2010–August 16, Wata is widely believed to have “overseas” origins, and depic-
2010 tions of her have been profoundly inluenced by representations
of ancient, indigenous African water spirits, European mermaids
and snake charmers, Hindu gods and goddesses, and Christian
Iris & Gerald Cantor Center for and Muslim saints.
Visual Arts he powerful and pervasive presence of Mami Wata results
Stanford University from a number of factors. Of special note, she can bring good
October 6, 2010–January 2, 2011 fortune in the form of money, and as a “capitalist” par excellence,
her power increased between the iteenth and twentieth cen-
turies, the era of growing trade between Africa and the rest of
the world. Her very name is in pidgin English, a language devel-
oped to lubricate trade. he countless millions of enslaved Afri-
cans who were torn from their homeland and forcibly carried
60 | african arts SUMMER 2008

across the Atlantic between the sixteenth and nineteenth centu-
ries as part of this “trade” brought with them their beliefs, prac-
tices, and arts honoring Mami Wata and other ancestral deities.
Reestablished, revisualized, and revitalized in diaspora, Mami
Wata emerged in new communities and under diferent guises,
among them Lasirèn, Yemanja, Santa Marta la Dominadora, and
Oxum. African-based faiths continue to lourish in communities
throughout the Americas, Haiti, Brazil, the Dominican Republic,
and elsewhere.
Mami Wata’s powers, however, extend far beyond economic
gain. Although for some she bestows good fortune and status
through monetary wealth, for others, she aids in concerns related
to procreation—infertility, impotence, or infant mortality. Some
are drawn to her as an irresistible seductive presence who ofers
the pleasures and powers that accompany devotion to a spiritual
force. Yet she also represents danger, for a liaison with Mami Wata
oten requires a substantial sacriice, such as the life of a family
1 Dona Fish
Ovimbundu peoples, Angola
Circa 1950s–1960s
Wood, pigment, metal, mixed media; 75cm (29½")
Private collection; L2007.19.1
This sculpture comes from Angola where, as in Zambia, Mami

Wata is known generally as Dona Fish (“Fish Woman” or “Madam
Fish”). This version of Mami Wata is closely related to the water
spirit Mamba Muntu of Central Africa. Carved by an Ovimbundu
artist, this work was kept in a house as “decoration,” but it evoked
fear and accusations of “witchcraft” from locals who saw it.
2 Mami Wata shrine figure

Annang Ibibio peoples, southeastern Nigeria
1950s–1960s
Wood, pigment, metal, mixed media; 87.6cm (34½")
Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University 1994.3.9; L2007.63.1
Snakes, ancient and indigenous symbols of African water spirits,

frequently accompany Mami Wata, who is often represented
as a snake charmer. The partial depiction of Mami Wata’s lower
torso often provokes viewers to comment that she is “hiding her
secret,” that is, her fish tail. This sculpture, covered in white, river-
ine clay, was probably the centerpiece of an elaborate Mami Wata
altar used by Annang Ibibio peoples.
SUMMER 2008 african arts

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member or celibacy in the realm of mortals. Despite this, she is devotional, social, economic, and political aspirations.
capable of helping women and men negotiate their sexual desires Mami Wata is oten portrayed with the head and torso of a
and preferences. Mami also provides a spiritual and professional woman and the tail of a ish (Fig. 1). Half-ish and half-human,
avenue for women to become powerful priestesses and healers of Mami Wata straddles earth and water, culture and nature. She
both psycho-spiritual and physical ailments and to assert female may also take the form of a snake charmer (Fig. 2), sometimes in
agency in generally male-dominated societies. Rapid socioeco- combination with her mermaid attributes and sometimes sepa-
nomic changes and the pressures of trying to survive in burgeon- rate from them. And as if this formidable water spirit were not
ing African urban centers have increased the need for the curative complicated enough in her “singular” manifestation, the exis-
powers of Mami Wata priestesses and priests. tence of mami watas and papi watas must also be acknowledged.
he identities of Mami Wata and other aquatic deities are as hey comprise a vast and uncountable “school” of indigenous
slippery and amorphous as water itself. Only the frames of his- African water spirits (female and male) that have speciic local
tory, art, and culture can contain them, giving them shape, con- names and distinctive personalities. hese are honored in com-
tour, substance, and speciicity. Yet even these frames are subject plex systems of beliefs and practices that may or may not be
to change, and when they undergo a metamorphosis, so do the shared with the water spirit Mami Wata.
attributes, personalities, identities, and actions of these fasci- An Eik sculpture portraying Mami Wata as a human-ish-
nating and ambiguous spirits. Worshippers of Mami Wata have goat-priestess handling a bird and a snake (Fig. 3) demonstrates
typically selected local as well as global images, arts, ideas, and her hybridity and powers of transformation. She can also eas-
actions, interpreted them according to indigenous precepts, ily assume aspects of a Hindu god or goddess without sacriic-
invested them with new meanings, and then re-presented them ing her identity (Fig. 4). She is a complex multivocal, multifocal
in novel and dynamic ways to serve their own speciic aesthetic, symbol with so many resonances that she feeds the imagination,

(opposite page)
3 Mami Wata masquerade headdress
Efik peoples, southeastern Nigeria
1950s
Wood, pigment, animal skin, cloth, raffia; 91.4cm (36")
This masquerade headdress raises more questions than it

answers. It possesses many of Mami Wata’s attributes (snakes,
fish tail, coiffure), but it also incorporates features that are very
surprising, including a bird, goat’s head, and figured vessel. Its
black, sack-like costume with raffia trim was painted with a skull
flanked by two swords.
4 Agbagli Kossi (b. circa 1945, Lome, Togo; active 1960–1990s)

Standing figure of Mami Wata, 1970s (?)
Wood, pigment; 91.4cm (36")
Ignacio and Caroline Villarreal/Ignacio A. Villarreal Collection;
L2007.16.1
The Ewe sculptor Agbagli Kossi was famous for his fantastic
repertoire of mami wata spirits combining mermaid and Hindu
iconography. Here, he presents one such spirit with a double-
headed snake wrapped around her torso, another angularly
jointed snake held aloft in her hand, and a Hindu bindi dot
painted on her forehead between the eyes to protect against
negative forces and to signify her devotion to Mami Wata.
(this page)
5 Sowei/Nowo headdress
Sherbro-Bullom peoples, Sierra Leone
Late 19th century
Wood, pigment; 41.9cm (16½)
Fowler Museum X65.4778; Gift of the Wellcome Trust
This rare late nineteenth-century masquerade headdress alludes

to Tingoi/Njaloi, a primordial female water spirit who epitomizes
ideal beauty, power, and goodness and presides over female
initiation rites among various peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
It is worn by a female elder during initiation rituals. The snakes
that appear coiled on either side of the head are among the most
frequent motifs on such headdresses. Snakes, considered water
creatures, are the guardians of the medicines of women’s mas-
querade societies.
generating, rather than limiting, meanings and signiicances: exhibition and the book that accompanies it aim to trace various
nurturing mother, sexy mama, provider of riches, healer of streams of the far-lung, diverse, and complex artistic and devo-
physical and spiritual ills, embodiment of dangers and desires, tional traditions for Mami Wata. Some may share sources and
risks and challenges, dreams and aspirations, fears and forebod- directions; others with shared sources may diverge; some with
ings. People are attracted to the seemingly limitless possibili- diferent sources may converge; and every combination of the
ties she represents, and at the same time, they are frightened by above may occur at diferent times and in diferent places.
her destructive potential. She inspires a vast array of emotions,
attitudes, and actions among those who worship her, those who SOURCES AND CURRENTS
fear her, those who study her, and those who create works of art From the earliest images on the continent and throughout the
about her. What the Yoruba peoples say about their culture is millennia, diverse African cultures have stressed the value and
also applicable to the histories and signiicances of Mami Wata: power of water not only as a source of sustenance, but also as a
She is like a “river that never rests.” focus of spiritual and artistic expression. Many early depictions
“Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diaspo- of spiritual entities assumed the form of hybrid creatures, part-
ras” is an attempt to tell the story of the magical world of mer- human, part-aquatic. In other words, the cosmological and artis-
maids and other fantastic creatures, their myths and seductive tic frameworks were already present in many local contexts to
powers. It is also about art, belief, globalization, capitalism, make the introduction of newer water divinities, such as Mami
and the power of traveling images and ideas to shape the lives Wata, a natural progression.
of people and communities. Further, it explores how human A primordial female water spirit sometimes known as Tin-
imagination and cross-cultural exchange serve as catalysts in the goi/Njaloi epitomizes ideal yet unattainable beauty, power, and
artistic representation of these marvelous water divinities. he goodness. She presides over female initiation rites among various

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6 Saltcellar
Sapi peoples, Sherbro Island
Late 15th century
Ivory; 16cm (6¼")
The National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen; L2007.89.1
This saltcellar bears the earliest known African image of a mermaid. It was commissioned by a visiting Portu-
guese client who supplied the carver with an image of a European mermaid. The sculptor immediately “Afri-
canized” her: she is flanked by two crocodiles.
7 Edward A. Asamani (b. circa 1880, Ghana; active 1900–1930s)

Mermaid staff finial, circa 1910–1914
Ivory; 25.4cm (10")
Bernard and Patricia Wagner Collection; L2007.69.3
About 1900, in the northern Ewe town of Kpando, Edward A. Asamani, a missionary-trained carpenter who
had become an artist, carved souvenirs for German soldiers and colonial officials. Following the departure
of the Germans at the end of World War I, he began carving ivory and ebony chiefly emblems for British and
local patrons. This ivory mermaid may have been a finial for a royal counselor’s staff or umbrella.
peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia, including Mende, Temne,

Bullom, Vai, Gola, Dei, Krim, Kissi, and Bassa (Lamp 1985,
Boone 1986, Phillips 1995:37). Tingoi/Njaloi is oten likened to a
mermaid (Phillips 1995:53–4), and Muslim Mende peoples speak
of her as a female jina, or spirit, with the lower body of a ish.
Sowei/Nowo initiation headdresses from this region ofer deep
and complex allusions to Tingoi/Njaloi as well as to social prac-
tices and cosmic forces. hey are worn by women elders during
the initiations of young girls. A zigzag motif found on the fore-
head of some of these headdresses may be a glyph for water, and
young Sande/Bondo girls are said to “go under the water” during
the irst part of their initiation (Boone 1986:50, 170). Among the
Temne, as Frederick Lamp notes, “water is the gestating luid of
rebirth, called, in the esoteric language of initiation, yankoila,
‘Mother Water’” (1985:42).
A rare and elegant late nineteenth-century Sowei/Nowo head-
dress from the Sherbro-Bullom peoples of Sierra Leone features
the idealized attributes and beauty of a young woman (Fig. 5).
he ringed neck suggests ripples of water, as if the spirit has just
emerged from the depths (ibid., p. 36). It may also resemble the
chrysalis of a moth or butterly as a sign of beauty and female
transformation (ibid., p. 32). he snakes that appear coiled on
either side of the head are among the most frequent motifs
depicted on Sowei/Nowo headdresses. Generally considered to
be water creatures, snakes reveal a constellation of ideas about
ancient African water spirits and, later, Mami Wata. hey are the
guardians of the medicines of Sande/Bondo, and shrine sculp-
tures oten depict a female-headed coiled snake or a female head
and neck encircled by a snake (Phillips 1995:146, Fig. 7.6). Wall
paintings of Tingoi/Njaloi sometimes show her as a serpent-ish
with a human head adorned by elegantly arranged and luxuriant
hair (ibid., p. 54, Fig. 3.6).
his elaborate coifure resonates with later descriptions and rep-
resentations of Mami Wata. Among the Sherbro, rich, full hair is
a sign of beauty and health, and women interweave black cotton
with their own hair to achieve volume (MacCormack 1980b:106).
For the Mende, the thickness and length of hair are emblematic of
the productive organic growth and fertility essential to feminin-
ity (Boone 1986:96–7, 138; see Jell-Bahlsen forthcoming for a dis-

8 Ritual bell
Edo Kingdom of Benin
18th–19th century
Ivory; 22.9cm (9")
A janus, double-tailed figure crowns

this Benin ivory ritual bell. Below it, the
standing, “mudfish-legged” figure with a
crown, sword, staff, snake, and fish repre-
sents the king of Benin, the oba, and his
divine link with Olokun.
9 Wooden box lid

Owo-Yoruba peoples, Owo, Nigeria
18th–19th century
Wood; 45.7cm (18")
Bernard and Patricia Wagner Collection;
L2007.69.1
The imagery on this box lid portrays a

female fish-tailed figure who grasps her
breasts as her tail curls around behind
her. Such containers were the possessions
of high-status individuals or rulers, who
might have used the mermaid to associ-
ate themselves with Olokun, divinity of
the sea, and by extension, the oba.
cussion of Mami’s hair among the Igbo.). he lat circular form of mythic creatures—dragons, griins, unicorns, centaurs, and
over the broad forehead in the illustrated headdress may be a mir- especially the mermaid. hese images assumed diferent forms
ror or older form of amulet. Mirrors oten refer to the surface of within the material culture of sailors, merchants, and explorers
water and are attributes of mermaids, as well as of the graduates and might appear as book illustrations, prints, playing cards,
of Sande/Bondo who, during their “coming out” ceremony, sit in lags and other heraldic devices, trademarks (like the mermaids
state and gaze meditatively into them (Phillips 1995:84, Fig. 4.12). and mermen on Dutch clay pipes traded in many parts of Africa
since the seventeenth century), watermarks, and perhaps tattoos.
TH E M ERM AID—A EUROPEAN WATER SPIRIT ARRIVES Songs, dances, games, and the playing of musical instruments
Mermaids, and to a lesser extent mermen, have populated may also have made direct reference to sirens or mermaids. Euro-
the human imagination for millennia. Some of the earliest have pean belief in the existence of such creatures is conirmed by the
their origins in the fertile river valleys of Mesopotamia (e.g., the fact that in January of 1493 Christopher Columbus recorded the
merman spirit of River Urat, circa 900 bce, in the Museum of sighting of three mermaids of the coast of Haiti, then known as
Ethnology, Berlin-Dahlem), Africa’s Nile Valley, and later the Hispaniola. He wrote that they “came quite high out of the water”
Mediterranean world of the Phoenicians, Minoans, Greeks, but were “not so beautiful as painted, though to some extent they
and Romans. For the Greeks and Romans, mermaids—like the have the form of a human face” (Columbus 1493 [2001]:154).
part-bird, part-human sirens—symbolized danger. In Christian At about the same time that Christopher Columbus was see-
Europe of the Middle Ages, the mermaid entered bestiaries and ing mermaids in the Atlantic, an African sculptor, a member of
other arts in the twelth and thirteenth centuries, where she usu- the Sapi peoples living on Sherbro Island of the coast of Sierra
ally appeared in a strongly moralizing context as a symbol of Leone, was carving the image of one on an ivory saltcellar, com-
vanity, immorality, seduction, and danger (see Hassig 1999). missioned by a visiting Portuguese explorer or merchant (Fig.
By the iteenth century, when Europeans began to explore 6). As his model, the artist used an image supplied to him by
beyond Mediterranean waters, they carried with them images his Portuguese client.1 hough the mermaid was copied from a

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10 Armband
Owo-Yoruba peoples, Owo, Nigeria
16th–17th century
Ivory; 12cm (4¾")
The National Museum of Denmark, Copenha-
gen; L2007.89.2
The double-tailed mermaid was probably intro-

duced into the Benin Kingdom and adjacent
areas in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century
by the Portuguese. This armband depicts
fish- and crocodile-legged figures alternating
with mythical snake-winged bats with ears who
hang upside down.
11 Oshugbo Society lodge door panel

Ijebu-Yoruba peoples, Nigeria
19th–20th century
Wood; 151.8cm (59¾")
New Orleans Museum of Art 89.283; Museum
Purchase, Robert P. Gordy Fund
This Oshugbo lodge door panel presents

Olokun as a fish-tailed figure holding two
mudfish. The themes of life and death, sac-
rifice, transformation, continuity, and infinity
run through the three major divisions of this
door panel: a huge coiled snake devours a man
with a sword; a frog and chameleon represent
liminality and transformation; and intricate
interlaces without beginning or end are signs
of infinity.
European model, the Sapi sculptor immediately “Africanized”

her, for she is lanked by two crocodiles, ancient African symbols
for water spirits and a central image associated with water spirits
among the Sapi’s descendants, the Bullom and Temne.2 As their
familiarity with European mermaid lore increased, Africans
interpreted, adapted, and transformed the image of a European
mermaid (and, later, other images) into a representation of an
African deity—Mami Wata—evolving elaborate systems of belief
and sacred visual and performance arts in the process.
Although the wellspring of the visual culture and history of
Mami Wata will always remain conjectural,3 I would suggest that
much textual and visual evidence indicates that the concept of
Mami Wata, if not her name,4 originated long before the mas- African coast in the Benin Kingdom and among the neighboring
sive dispersal of Africans to the Americas (from the sixteenth to Owo- and Ijebu-Yoruba.
nineteenth century) and the colonial era (1900–1957). he antiq- At Benin, images of the Portuguese were quickly incorpo-
uity and prevalence of indigenous African beliefs in water dei- rated into the royal arts of the court (ivories, bronze sculptures,
ties, widely imaged as hybrid human-aquatic creatures,5 served plaques, musical instruments, textiles, and so forth) because
as a basis to understand and translate European mermaid myths these newcomers were immediately associated with wealth from
and images (Fig. 7) into African ones from the irst momentous the sea, with Olokun, the god of the sea, and therefore, with the
Euro-African contacts in the iteenth century. divine ruler on land, the king, or oba. Judging a motif ’s “cen-
trality to culture” can be highly problematic. Its reception and
TH E DOUBLE-TAILED M ERM AID—BENIN AND YORUBA integration depend on where and how it its within an existing,
Another version of the mermaid, one with a double tail, was evolving cultural system, a concept that is crucial in the complex
probably introduced by the Portuguese in the iteenth or six- histories of Mami Wata images and ideas. I believe the striking
teenth century. his image has had a major impact on the West imagery and popularity of the double-tailed European mermaids

of the twelth through sixteenth centuries, which were carried to
Africa in various forms by Portuguese travelers and others from
the late iteenth century onward, are a likely source for the ish-
legged igure in Benin and Yoruba cultures.
A janus-faced, double-tailed igure crowns a Benin ivory ritual
bell (Fig. 8). Below this, a standing, “mudish-legged” igure with
a crown, sword, staf, snake, and ish represents the oba and his
divine link with the god of the sea and wealth, Olokun. Juxta-
posed on the opposite side, the image of a Portuguese man with
straight hair, a beard, and a hat refers to Benin beliefs about the
visitors from overseas, their luxury goods, and their connection
to the watery realm and riches of Olokun.6
Two Yoruba-speaking peoples, the Owo and Ijebu, have had
close, long-term interactions with the Kingdom of Benin, espe-
cially during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. his is
clearly evident in their arts, which share a number of images,
including the mermaid. he lid of an Owo-Yoruba wooden box,
which was probably used to hold kola nuts or perhaps precious
gits, is dominated by a relief image of a female ish-tailed igure
(counterclockwise from top left) (Fig. 9). She grasps her breasts as her tail curls around behind
12 This detail of a “People Show” is taken from a circus poster created by her. An interlace pattern runs above and below the igure, echo-
Adolph Freidlander in the 1880s in Hamburg, Germany, for Carl Hagenbeck. It
illustrates the snake charmer Maladamatjaute, who was almost certainly the ing the curve of her tail. In the absence of other contextual data,
model for the snake charmer print that by 1900 would be interpreted as an
image of Mami Wata in Africa.
PHOTO: HENRY JOHN DREWAL, 1980, REPRODUCED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF RUTH
MALHOTRA
13 A studio photograph of Maladamatjaute taken in Hamburg, Germany, circa

1887, shows her attired for her performance. Notice the style and cut of her
bodice, the stripes made of buttons, the coins about her waist, the armlets, the
position of the snake around her neck and a second one nearby, the non-func-
tional bifurcated flute held in her hand, and her facial features and coiffure—all
identical to features in the print that became Mami Wata’s image in Africa.
PHOTO: PUBLISHED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF WILHELM ZIMMERMANN
14 Adolph Friedlander Company (possibly Christian Bettels)

Der Schlangenbandiger (The Snake Charmer), originally commissioned 1880s;
reprinted 1955 Chromolithograph (reprinted from the original by the Shree Ram
Calendar Company, Bombay, India)
35.6 cm (14")
Private collection

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15 This photograph of a water spirit headdress was
taken by J. A. Green in the Niger River Delta town of
Bonny by 1901. It demonstrates the influence of the
Friedlander snake charmer chromolithograph (Fig.
14), which was clearly the inspiration for its subject.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM,
NEG. NO. 106.94.17
we cannot know much about its other possible meanings. Such ents a fabulous array of intriguing images, among them a ish-
objects were, however, the possessions of high-status individu- tailed igure that holds in its large hands two mudish (Fig. 11).
als, chiefs, or rulers, who would presumably have had interac- his is Olokun. he themes of life and death, sacriice, trans-
tions with court oicials from Benin, and therefore might have formation, continuity, and ininity run through the three major
used the mermaid to associate themselves with Olokun and, by divisions of this door panel. hree is an Oshugbo/Ogboni sacred
extension, the oba. number, referring to woman, man, and creator/witness (Drewal
Owo ivory carvers were probably the primary sculptors work- 1989a:243, n. 54, Drewal 1989b:70; see also Lawal 1995). At the top
ing for the courts in Owo and Benin City between the sixteenth a huge coiled snake devours a man with a sword, while another
and eighteenth centuries (Abiodun 1989:104). An intricately diminutive warrior rides his steed. A frog and a chameleon sug-
carved armband (Fig. 10) with dangling ivory bells depicts ish- gest liminality and transformation. Intricate interlaces, signs of
and-crocodile-legged igures that refer to Olokun as well as to ininity, have no beginning and no end. In the center section, a
the mystical aspects of the divine king. hese alternate with mounted warrior grasps two kneeling igures who wear amulet
mythical snake-winged bats that hang upside down (see Wil- gourds suspended from their belts. At the bottom of the panel is
lett 1988:121–7, Drewal 1989:120f.). Such an alternating arrange- Olokun, the ish-tailed igure with oblique lines radiating from
ment suggests multiple perspectives and the luid, liminal space the head and mirroring the ish tail. hese lines suggest the feel-
between worldly and otherworldly realms. ers (barbells) that issue from the heads of mudish.
An intricately carved Oshugbo lodge (iledi) door panel pres-

16 Joseph Kossivi Ahiator (b. 1956, Aflao, FROM M ALAM ADAM ATJAUTE TO M AM I WATA
Ghana) Half-human, half-serpent images for water spirits, widespread
Indian King of Mami Wata, 2005
Pigment, cloth; 267cm (105")
throughout Africa—like the half-human, half-ish creatures dis-
Fowler Museum X2005.5.1; Museum Purchase cussed above—set the stage for the arrival and incorporation of a
very particular European image of an “Oriental other” that reso-
Ghanaian artist Joseph Kossivi Ahiator,
inspired by a Hindu print of Vishnu, created
nated deeply within African water spirit arts: a snake charmer.
this complex painting of a host of Mami Wata he West has had a long and enduring fascination with the
spirits that he calls “India Spirits.” Kossivi was “exotic.”7 By the second half of the nineteenth century, this
born with India spirits and he visits India often,
sometimes in his dreams, sometimes while at European interest in the exotic had spread beyond the Euro-
the beach along Ghana’s coast. In 2005 Kossivi pean upper and middle classes to a much wider audience. Dur-
had vivid dreams of a nineteen-headed Indian ing the Victorian era, with its rigid social norms, people turned
king spirit together with his nine-headed
queen. He dreamed that he was swimming to the exotic to provide a “temporary frisson, a circumscribed
with them in the ocean and thereafter called experience of the bizarre” (Cliford 1981:542). Institutions such as
the male “King of Mami Wata” and his queen
botanical and zoological gardens, ethnographic museums, and
“NaKrishna.” He has gathered these spirits
under the ancient African celestial rainbow especially circuses provided vehicles for such escape.
serpent deity Dan Aida Wedo, thus forg- One of the most signiicant centers for such developments was
ing links between Africa, India, the sea, and
ultimately the African Atlantic where Dambala
the northern German port and trading center of Hamburg, which
Wedo continues to be venerated by Haitians was in many ways Europe’s gateway to the exotic (cf. Bitterli
and others. 1976, Debrunner 1979). here, a man named Carl G.C. Hagen-

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beck worked as a ish merchant in St. Pauli in the port area of lithographic company, the original of which has not yet been
Hamburg, an area that was also a popular “entertainment” cen- found.10 What we do have, however, is a reprint, made in 1955
ter for sailors and others. In 1848, a isherman who worked the in Bombay, India, by the Shree Ram Calendar Company from
Arctic waters brought some sea lions to Hagenbeck, which he in an original sent to them by two (Indian?) merchants in Kumase,
turn exhibited as a zoological “attraction.” he immediate suc- Ghana (Fig. 14). In a letter to me dated June 17, 1977, the manager
cess of this venture led to a rapidly enlarged menagerie of exotic of the Calendar Company stated that the print had been copied
animals from Greenland, Africa, and Asia (Niemeyer 1972:247). “without changing a line even from the original.”
Sensing the public’s enormous appetite for the bizarre, Hagen- here can be little doubt, therefore, that Maladamatjaute was
beck decided to expand his imports to include another curi- the model for the image. Her light brown skin placed her beyond
osity—exotic people. his was the modest beginning of a new Europe, while the boldness of her gaze and the strangeness of her
concept in popular entertainment known as the Volkerschauen, occupation epitomized for Europeans her “otherness” and the
or “People Shows” (Benninghof-Luhl 1984). In order to advertise mystery and wonder of the “Orient.” As Maladamatjaute’s fame
his new attractions, Hagenbeck turned to Adolph Friedlander, a as a snake charmer spread, her image began to appear in circus
leading printer who quickly began to produce a large corpus of lyers and show posters for the Folies Bergère in Paris (see, for
inexpensive color posters for Hagenbeck. example, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, no. 480), as well as
Hagenbeck hired a famous hunter named Breitwieser to travel in the United States. Soon ater, and probably unknown to Mala-
to Southeast Asia and the Paciic to collect rare snakes, insects, damatjaute, her image spread to Africa—but for very diferent
and butterlies. In addition to these, Breitwieser, brought back reasons and imbued with very new meanings.
a wife, who under the stage name “Maladamatjaute” began Not long ater its publication in Europe, the snake charmer
to perform as a snake charmer in Hagenbeck’s production.8 A chromolithograph reached West Africa, probably carried by
chromolithograph poster made for Hagenbeck by Freidlander’s African sailors who had seen it in Hamburg. European mer-
company in the 1880s featured her (Fig. 12; Malhotra 1979:99). chants stationed in Africa, whether Germans or others, may
A Hamburg studio photograph taken about 1887 shows Malad- have also brought Maladamatjaute’s seductive image to decorate
amatjaute attired for her performance (Fig. 13).9 he style and cut their work or domestic spaces.11
of her bodice, the stripes made of buttons, the coins about her For African viewers, the snake charmer’s light brown skin
waist, the armlets, the position of the snake around her neck and and long black wavy hair suggested that she came from beyond
a second one nearby, the nonfunctional bifurcated lute held in Africa, and the print had a dramatic and almost immediate
her hand, and her facial features and coifure: all duplicate those impact. By 1901, about iteen years ater its appearance in Ham-
seen in a snake charmer chromolithograph from the Freidlander burg, the snake charmer image had already been interpreted

(opposite page)
17 Print of the Hindu deity Dattatreya
Before 1975
Chromolithograph; 20.3cm (8")
An Indian print depicting the Hindu god Dattatreya, sold in the
markets of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, as well as elsewhere in West
Africa, is interpreted as a male Mami Wata spirit, or papi wata.
Often described as Densu, Mami Wata’s husband, he is said to be
the “gift giver” who through dreams shows the path to riches, as
evidenced by the gold jewelry he holds in his hands.
18 Standing male figure

Ibibio peoples (?), Nigeria
Date unknown
Wood, pigment; 38.1cm (15")
Yale University Art Gallery 2006.51.443; Charles B. Benenson, B.A.
1933, Collection
This sculpture of the papi wata spirit Densu, whose many hands
provide riches, would have graced an altar or Mami Wata table.
(this page)
19 Janus Densu/Mami Wata figure
Ewe peoples, Ghana
Early 20th century
Wood, pigment; 62.9cm (24¾")
Collection of Rene Bravmann
This figure of a Mami Wata spirit was inspired by the multiheaded
and multiarmed images of Hindu gods and goddesses. It also
draws upon Mami’s earlier mermaid iconography (note the small
fish tail at the back) and evokes as well her snake charmer mani-
festation with a coiled snake resting on top of the sculpture.
as an African water spirit, translated into a three-dimensional icons, and their ritual actions (Fig. 16).
carved image, and incorporated into a Niger River Delta water A new episode in the development of the visual culture of
spirit headdress that was photographed by J.A. Green in the Delta Mami Wata began in the 1940s–1950s. he popularity of the
town of Bonny (Fig. 15).12 he headdress clearly shows the inspi- snake charmer lithograph and the presence of Indian merchants
ration of the Hamburg print. Note especially the long, black hair (and ilms) in West Africa led to a growing fascination with
parted in the middle, the garment’s neckline, the earrings, the Indian prints of Hindu gods and goddesses. In various places,
position of the igure’s arms and the snakes, and the low-relief especially along the Ghana-Nigeria coast, people began to inter-
rendering of the inset with a kneeling lute player surrounded by pret these deities as representations of a host of mami wata spir-
four snakes. he image of Maladamatjaute, the “Hindoo” snake its associated with speciic bodies and levels of water. Using these
charmer of European and American renown, had begun a new prints as guides for making icons in wood, clay, and other media,
life as the primary icon for Mami Wata, an African water divin- performing rituals, and preparing altars known as “Mami Wata
ity with overseas origins, joining and sometimes replacing her tables,” devotees expanded the pantheon of water spirits, foster-
manifestation as a mermaid. ing an ever-growing complexity in Mami Wata worship, which
includes elements of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, astrol-
M AM I WATA ICONS IN TH E TWENTIETH CENTURY ogy, European spiritualist and occult beliefs and practices, and
Between the iteenth and nineteenth centuries, the vast major- so forth (Drewal 1988a,b,c, 2002b). he openness of such belief
ity of visitors from overseas that Africans encountered were Euro- systems ofers “eternal potential” (Rush 1999:61, 1992). As Dana
pean or American. By the early twentieth century, however, as Rush notes, the Hindu chromolithographs that have looded
Europeans established a colonial presence in Africa, other peoples vodunland (i.e., Ghana, Togo, and Benin) possess both exter-
from European-inluenced areas, such as Lebanon and the British nal and internal mobility. hey are easily reproduced and trans-
colony of India, began to arrive. hey came as traders and, like the ported, and they are “inwardly mobile” since their “inherent
Europeans before them, were associated by Africans with wealth forms and meanings do not remain stationary” (1999:62). hey
from overseas. In the 1930s and 1940s (possibly inspired in part continually move, change, shit, and multiply.
by Mahatma Gandhi’s successful campaign for India’s indepen- Take for example, the chromolithographic image of the tri-
dence and by African soldiers serving in South Asia during World ple-headed, multi-armed Hindu deity Dattatreya (Fig. 17). For
War II), Indian material culture in the form of images in books, Ewe Mami Wata worshippers, it represents Densu, a papi wata
pamphlets, ilms, and popular devotional chromolithographs (Bae spirit associated with a river in Ghana. He is called the “triple
2003), as well as the votive practices of Indian traders in Africa, git giver” and is a source of enormous wealth as explained by
came to have a profound impact on Mami Wata worshippers, their the artist of the mural in the shrine of renowned Mami Wata

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20 Kwame Akoto, aka Almighty God (b. 1950, Kumase, Ghana)
Self Portrait with the Artist’s Tormentors, 1997
Paint on wood; 92cm (36¼")
Fowler Museum X97.10.5; Museum Purchase
The artist Kwame Akoto, who has adopted the name Almighty God,
founded a prolific painting workshop in Kumase, Ghana, in the 1970s.
Over the years Akoto complained about being bothered by Mami Wata
(and seductive women in general), the forest spirit Tata Buta, and Saint
Anthony. In 1991, Akoto underwent a religious conversion and joined Within the last twenty to thirty years, however, Mami Wata’s
the Living Faith Centre Pentecostal Church. Since that time he has cre- engagement with modernity, morality, Christianity, and Islam
ated moralizing pictures based upon his new faith and expressing his
opposition to smoking, drinking, and prostitution. In Self-Portrait with
has led to dramatic transformations in the ways she is depicted
the Artist’s Tormentors, Akoto depicts himself trying to paint while being and understood. For some, her dangerous and seductive attri-
tormented by Tata Buta, Mami Wata, and Saint Anthony (believed by the butes align her with the forces of Satan. Mami has thus become
artist to be Satan in disguise).
a primary target of a widespread and growing religious move-
ment led by evangelical (Pentecostal) Christians and fundamen-
talist Muslims who seek to denigrate and demonize indigenous
African faiths (Fig. 20; see Gore forthcoming and Nevadomsky
priestess Ai Yeye in Benin. An Ibibio (?) variant copies the print forthcoming for more contemporary disputes and negotiations
closely (Fig. 18) and another, from the Ewe, combines Hindu and between Mami Wata followers and Pentecostal Christians in
mermaid elements (Fig. 19). Benin City, Nigeria). For these groups, Mami Wata has come to
As Mami Wata’s popularity increased and spread from the personify immorality, sin, and damnation. She is considered one
colonial period to the 1970s, many devotees came to conceive of the most powerful presences of Satan, one whose work is to
of her as resembling a Christian saint who used her spiritual seduce women and men away from the “path of righteousness”
powers for the beneit of her followers. Seeking to strengthen (See essays on this topic in Drewal forthcoming: Meyer, Gore,
this resemblance, they modeled their arts and devotional prac- Elleh, Hackett, Kisliuk, and Moyer; see also Michelle Gilbert
tices on those of Christianity and a generalized “European” eti- 2003:353–79 and n. 17, who cites a similar situation in Cameroon,
quette (see Drewal 1988c:176–80 for a description of he House the DRC, and Sierra Leone in the works of Geschiere 1997, De
of the Holy Trinity [La Maison de la Sainte Trinité] in Togo). In Boek 1999, and R. Shaw 1997).
the Republic of Benin (the former Dahomey), “Papa Nouveau,”
the Christian “prophet” of an independent church, became very
inluential because he was believed to be the husband of Mami
Wata (Auge 1969:184–6, 195).

M AM I WATA IN CULTURAL CONTEXT CÔTE D’IVOIRE
Cultural case studies complement the visual history overview Masks and sculptures (Fig. 22) depicting Mami Wata are made
to demonstrate how, why, and where persons and communities by a wide diversity of artists in south and central Côte d’Ivoire,
have created arts honoring Mami Wata for their own speciic and their late twentieth-century styles are oten indistinguish-
purposes. Both historical and cultural perspectives help us com- able from each other. hese artists, who include Baule, Guro,
prehend the extraordinary diversity and complexity, similarities Yaure, Wan, Anyi, and Attie peoples, work for a varied clientele
and diferences, of the circumstances that shape artistic, religious, composed of locals and foreigners. Ivoirians use these artworks
and cultural practices and the lives of people. What follows are a for dances, shrines, divination sessions, or as interior decor in
few examples of works to give you a sense of the richness and modern homes, and foreigners acquire them as souvenirs and
diversity of art for Mami Wata and other water spirits in Africa for decorative purposes. his market situation seems especially
and beyond. appropriate for a subject like Mami Wata, for she herself is a
product of transcultural and transnational encounters and com-
mercial transactions. Created for such a diverse market, these
masks and sculptures relect the ingenuity of artists who are able
to combine indigenous aesthetics with a sensitivity to interna-
tional tastes and to incorporate fantastic new imagery, including
that inspired by a variety of Hindu chromolithographs sold by
itinerant African merchants since the 1950s (Holas 1969:116–17).
JOLLY M ASQUERADES—FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE

Jolly masquerade societies developed in Freetown in the middle of the twentieth cen-
tury as an amalgamation of varied traditions. hey continue to be composed of young
men who perform—primarily at Christmas, New Year’s celebrations, and occasions such
as weddings—in exchange for funds. heir masquerades are held in the streets, private
residences, city parks, and other public spaces. Performing in ornate female attire, Jolly
masqueraders have taken the “fancy” aesthetic of young men’s masquerades to new
artistic heights, splicing together materials and motifs from around the globe (Fig. 21;
Nunley 1981:52–9).
21 John Goba (b. 1944,

Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone)
Headdress, 1980s (?)
Wood, pigment, fabric,
netting, beads, metal fiber; 22 Sculpture of woman with snakes
75cm (29½") Baule peoples, Côte d’Ivoire
Collection of Jeremiah Cole; Circa 1970s
L2007.9.1 Wood, paint; 56cm (22")
The lively imagination of Fowler Museum X95.43.5; Gift of Philip
Temne artist John Goba Ravenhill and Judith Timyan
brings together ferocious This sculpture may have served as a
horned animals, danc- spirit spouse figure, as part of a Mami
ing snakes, a mother with Wata altar, as a display figure for the
children, and a multiheaded, performance of a diviner (komyen),
rainbow-necked Hindu god- or perhaps as decoration in a modern
dess to evoke a fantastic Baule household. It embodies hopes
swirl of forces surrounding and fears through references to wealth
Mami Wata in this masquer- and modernity (the woman’s dress, ear-
ade headdress from Free- rings, and beads) as well as to violence
town, Sierra Leone. Mami’s (the knife held in the figure’s left hand
fish tail is visible at the back and grasped at its tip by her snake
of the headdress. companion).

| 73
GH ANA, TOGO, AND BENIN
he peoples who live in the coastal region ranging from Ghana to Togo
and Benin are culturally and linguistically related and include the Ga,
Ewe, Mina, Aja, Gun, Fon, and Tori. hese groups have an intimate asso-
ciation with the sea and with water divinities, and they worship a vast pan-
theon of spiritual entities generally known as Vodun (Blier 1995). Mami
Wata exists as part of, yet apart from, the Vodun. he Fon, for example,
have their own freshwater deities called Tohosu, and they consider these
to be distinct from Mami Wata, who is regarded speciically as a saltwater
divinity. Others believe Mami represents a vast “school” of female and
male water spirits (mami watas and papi watas), while still others see her
as the source of all Vodun. Given these diverse conceptions, Mami Wata,
who is generally acknowledged to be an African divinity with overseas
origins, is honored in arts that bring together ancient and indigenous
rites; images, beliefs, and practices from near and far; and elements from 23 Akpogla Togbo Ekpon (b. circa 1960, near Porto-Novo, Benin)
the global marketplace. Mami Apouke with mirror and comb, 2004
Terra-cotta; 63.5cm (25")
Tori potter Akpogla Togbo Ekpon is a devotee of the Vodun spirit Dan- Private collection; L2007.59.14
gbe, a deity who deals with psychological issues and is associated with The Tori potter Akpogla Togbo Ekpon makes elaborate “modern”
the python.12 She creates wares for a very diverse, urban clientele seek- shrine sculptures for the guardian spirits of her clients. Ekpon is
renowned for her ritual vessels for the deities.
ing lowerpots and decorative items for their homes, as well as elaborate
“modern” shrine sculptures for their guardian spirits.13 Ekpon, who works 24 Members of the de Souza family (Ouidah, Benin)
in the outskirts of Porto-Novo, Benin, in a small commercial pottery fac- Bourian ensemble for Mami Wata, 2005
Fabric, metal, jewelry, wig
tory that produces utilitarian ware, is renowned for her ritual vessels for Fowler Museum at UCLA; TR2007.6.1a-j
the Vodun. Her work is highly detailed, naturalistic, and “modernized,” The Bourian masking tradition is marked by the appearance of
as she describes it, compared to the older, more abstract vessels that a series of masked figures who dance and parade in the large
family compound, put on short skits, and go about the town to
were made by her aunts and grandmothers. She has emphasized how she perform for relatives and friends. An orchestra of ten to twenty
strives to decorate and reine her forms, create a pleasing symmetry and musicians plays samba or marching music, employing an eclectic
proportion, and inish the work with a smooth, inely polished surface. mixture of African, Brazilian, and European instruments. A chorus
of women and men sings in Yoruba/Nago mixed with Portuguese
One of her pieces (Fig. 23), a mermaid with a comb, mirror, and clay cow- to announce and celebrate the masqueraders as they enter and
ries in a clay shell for divination is Mami Apouke. perform. The cast of masked characters varies greatly and includes
animal and human types—Donkey, Lion, Elephant, Rat, Zorro, Oli-
Ouidah, a town on the Atlantic coast of the Republic of Benin, has a ver Hardy, and political caricatures of Charles de Gaulle, François
hybrid population and a fascinating history of transatlantic connections Mitterand, Jacques Chirac, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. As the
with Brazil over several centuries. It is a history of movement, of ebb and chorus sings, Mami Wata moves majestically through the crowd,
her consort or husband, Papai, at her side along with a bodyguard
low, and the departures and returns of bodies, minds, and arts. he Agu- in a carnaval costume who carries a heavy wooden mallet and
das (which may be derived from “Ajuda,” the Portuguese name for Oui- wears tennis shoes.
dah), one segment of Ouidah’s population, are descendants of liberated or
exiled Africans of diverse backgrounds (Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, Fon, Ewe-
Mina, Mahin, Kongo) who, following enslavement in Brazil, returned to
Africa in the nineteenth century, settling primarily in Lome, Ouidah, Porto
Novo, and Lagos. here they established themselves as a privileged mer-
chant class, acting as middlemen between the indigenous peoples and the
Portuguese and other Europeans. Forming a community in the process,
they came to see themselves as Brazilians of African or of mixed European
and African descent, rather than as Africans returned from Brazil.
One of the cultural traditions Agudas brought from Brazil was the
masquerade known in Benin as Bourian. It probably derives from two
eighteenth-century Brazilian masking traditions, the Burrinha (Little
Donkey) and the Bumba-meu-Boi (Bumba-my-Ox), which combine
Portuguese, Brazilian, and Afro-Brazilian elements. In Brazil these mas-
querades are associated with Catholic celebrations of Epiphany, or the
day of the hree Kings (January 6). In Ouidah, however, Bourian has
become a largely secular entertainment that may occur any time of the
year to celebrate Aguda family events such as baptisms, marriages, grad-
uations, funerals, and reunions. he humorous and oten bawdy perfor-
mances poke fun at human foibles. he de Souza and de Nevis families,
both Aguda, perform Bourian in Ouidah, and it is here that Mami Wata
makes her appearance (Fig. 24).

v NIGERIA
For the Igbo peoples of southeastern
Nigeria, the name “Mami Wata” refers to
a speciic water spirit and to a “school” of
indigenous water spirits with speciic local
names and attributes. Such water deities,
related to, yet separate from, a vast pan-
theon of gods and goddesses (agbara), are
considered “free spirits” who exist out-
side the public cult system (Cole 1982:62).
Mami Wata works with diviners and
priest/healers helping clients with physi-
cal and psychological ailments. She also
intervenes in money matters, since she is
thought to have “been brought by white
men, whom people believe to have end-
less supplies of paper money and coins”
(Cole 1982:64–5; see also Cole and Ania-
kor 1984:75–7, 104–6; Jones 1984:89).
A mask honoring spiritual forces in
the Igbo cosmos depicts Mami Wata with
three Christian images (Fig. 25): Jesus on
the cross, a robed priest or saint, and a
Madonna-like igure. Such juxtapositions
recall conversations I had with Mami
Wata devotees in 1975 and 1978. One Igbo
woman related that Mami Wata was a
Christian and compared the preparation
of a church altar with its candles, lowers,
statues, incense, and chromolithographs
to that of a Mami Wata shrine. Alphonsius
Njoku, a Mami Wata priest and healer,
explained the presence of a Madonna and
Child print in his shrine by asserting that
Mami Wata was a Christian. When I asked
what type of Christian, he replied that she
belongs to “every church, she is nonde-
nominational.”14 Another priestess—who,
25 Mma mask
Igbo peoples, north central Igboland, Nigeria while in a trance, sang a song evocative
Circa 1960 of a Christian hymn to me in a mixture
Wood, cloth, pigment; 76.2cm (30")
of Igbo and pidgin English—remarked
Collection of the African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers; Gift of Dr. Bernard and Patricia Wagner, 2005;
L2007.14.1 that Mami Wata was a Christian and
This mask is a testament to the multiple spiritual forces present in Igboland. Here Mami Wata is depicted with “beat” those who failed to go to church.15
Jesus on the cross, priests or saints, and the Madonna. These masks, probably carved in the 1950s or 1960s,
visualize local religious and ideological negotiations of a particular era.
Before the 1980s, Mami Wata very much
resembled a Catholic saint to her devo-
26 Mami Wata figure tees, and these masks, probably carved in
Igbo peoples, Ogoja (?), Nigeria the 1950s or 1960s, visualize local religious
1950s
Wood, pigment; 145cm (57") and ideological debates, dialogues, and
Collection of Charles D. Miller III; L2007.68.1 negotiations of a particular era (see Elleh
Mami Wata’s image and its significance have been appropriated and transformed by the Ejagham, eastern
forthcoming for a discussion of these reli-
neighbors of the Igbo in the Cross River State of Nigeria. This large figure, carved in the 1950s by an Igbo
sculptor in the vicinity of Ogoja, may have adorned a Mami Wata shrine, but more likely it was commissioned gious contestations and their impact on
by an Ejagham women’s secret society. Other Ejagham women’s societies interpret the figure as a young Mami Wata icons). he Igbo’s northeastern
mother fresh from her seclusion after the birth of her first child. She thus would have embodied the “ideals of
an Ejagham beauty.”
neighbors, the Ejagham, borrowed Mami’s
image to signify their own spiritual enti-
ties for local purposes (Fig. 26).

| 75
IBIBIO
Among the Ibibio, although Mami Wata
could bestow great riches (Fig. 27), she
could also wreak havoc according to her
whim. She could possess men and women
and lure them to her watery kingdom
while they were bathing or entice them to
follow her through fantastic dreams. Her
27 Mami Wata mask
devotees might take on an otherworldly
Annang Ibibio peoples, southeastern
Nigeria appearance and behave strangely. While
1950s–1960s they could become wealthy, they would
Wood, pigment; 46.4cm (18¼")
High Museum of Art 72.40.155; Fred
be unable to bear children, a decided dis-
and Rita Richman Collection advantage in a culture that prizes fecun-
This elegant mask celebrates the dity. Some people, however, reveled in
beauty of young women who have
gone through an initiatory period of
their communication with the spirit and
education prior to marriage. It thus became Mami Wata priests or priestesses
also alludes to the ancient local water in their own right. Great wealth and pres-
deity Eka Abassi, “Mother of God,”
who presides over initiation rites tige could accrue to priests and priestesses
and protects and blesses the girls. from creating private “hospitals” where
Eka Abassi is also called Nnem Mmo
impotent men, barren women, and those
and eventually came to be known as
Mami Wata. suffering from mental problems would
pay high fees to be treated using vari-
ous modalities, including drugs, electric
shock treatment, and lengthy counseling
sessions. Furthermore, traditional Ibibio
society is male dominated, and the abil-
ity of a woman to be possessed by Mami
Wata ofered her nearly her only chance
to achieve the status accorded to men
(Salmons 1977:10).
he commissioning of carvings for these
many Mami Wata adherents explains their
prevalence in the 1970s. Members of the
Chukwu family, who produced many such
carvings, perpetuated Akpan’s unusual
carpentry style of using precise mea-
surements to carve individual segments
of Mami Wata, which were then nailed
together. Other carvers, however, such as
Udunwa Matthew Ekpe and John Onyok,
adopted a much freer approach, while
still incorporating key elements such as
the entwining snake, the bugler/snake
charmer, the elaborate jewelry, and the
long lowing hair of Mami Wata (Fig. 28).
Variations, such as Mami Wata riding in a
canoe lanked by paddlers, or atop a box
tableau surrounded by her devotees, were
commissioned both for the shrine con-
text or for local entertainment groups and
were also sold to tourists or other ethnic
28 Akpan Chukwu or John Onyok, Annang Ibibio peoples, southeastern Nigeria groups through the crat markets of Ikot
Mami Wata figure, 1950s Ekpene and Calabar.
Wood, paint, raffia; 40.6cm (16")
Collection of Herbert M. and Shelley Cole; L2007.22.1
Based on a nineteenth-century chromolithograph of a snake charmer from Hamburg, Germany, this
shrine sculpture of Mami Wata was carved by the Ibibio artist Akpan Chukwu. Through the use of rich
jewelry in the form of a necklace and waist ornament, the figure emphasizes the involvement of Mami
Wata in matters of wealth.

DEM OCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TH E CONGO
In the social imaginary of the western Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC), a wide expanse of water separates the world
of the ancestors from that of the living. It also separates Mputu
(Europe) from Africa. he siren or mermaid, whose element is
water, is preeminently a mediator between these worlds. More
a lover than a goddess, she assists men in their quest for power
and wealth within a universe set in motion by colonial modern-
ization (Figs. 29–31). Her assistance, however, comes at a terrible
price.
he earliest stories of encounters between sirens and local men
appeared ater World War II, written for literary competitions.
At this time urban music inspired by the Cuban rumba was
obsessed with seduction and consumption (early songs adver-
tised cigarettes, margarine, and Coca-Cola). Musicians sang of
men and women forlorn in the urban world and desperate for
money to spend on consumer goods.
While men were wage earners, those described as “free
women” (residing in urban centers away from their families)
were excluded from the workforce and ofered men domestic
and sexual services in exchange for money. hese negotiated
sexual relationships were typically temporary and almost con-
tractual. he social space of men was the bar, where clothing, the
consumption of beer and music could make a reputation.
29 Artist unknown (Lubumbashi area, Democratic Republic of the

Congo)
Mamba Muntu, circa 1980
Acrylic on canvas; 40.6cm x 56.4cm (16" x 22¼")
Private collection
30 Abdal 22 (active 1980s–early 1990s, Kinshasa, Democratic

Republic of the Congo)
Mami Wata, 1989
Acrylic on canvas; 58.4cm x 45.7cm (23" x 18")
From the 1950s to the 1970s, many popular paintings depicting
Mami Wata (also known in the eastern DRC as “Mamba Muntu,”
or “crocodile person”) filled the homes of urban Congolese seek-
ing wealth in a world set in motion by colonial modernization.
31 Shula (active mid-1990s–present, Kinshasa, Democratic

Republic of the Congo)
Quand la sirène s’amuse (When the Siren Amuses Herself), 2002
Acrylic on canvas; 88.9cm x 81.3cm (35" x 32")
This very modern version of Mami Wata paints her Web address
on her portrait.

| 77
AFRICAN ATLANTIC
Sacred waters bathe the histories of African peoples, sometimes as tears of deep sorrow, sometimes as drops of soothing and cool-
ing liquid sustaining life and hope. Water connects—world with otherworld, life with aterlife—for many African and African Atlantic
peoples—Yoruba, Kongo, Fon, and others. And among Africans dispersed across vast oceans, those waters are emblematic of the ulti-
mate journey back home to all those distant yet living ancestors. In Haiti, it is the journey home to Guinee, across the rippling kalunga
boundary of existence, imagined as a vast expanse of water, between life and aterlife. his is the abode of Mami Wata, Simbi, Olokun,
Yemoja, La Baleine, La Sirene, Watramama, Maman d’Eau, River Maids, and all the water divinities of Africa and the African Atlantic.
heir names are regularly invoked to maintain, refresh, and strengthen the spirit needed to endure the hardships and challenges of
lives scattered and shattered by the avarice, arrogance, and brutality of those who would enslave others for their own beneit.

BRAZIL
Every February 2, along the Northeast coast of Brazil that
reaches out toward Africa, descendants of those enslaved, as well
H AITI as many others, turn their eyes and thoughts toward the vast
he Haitian religion of Vodou may be very roughly charac- watery horizon and pray to the “Queen of the Sea,” “Mother-
terized as moving back and forth between cool and restrained Water,” the “Mother-of-Fish,” Yemanja, seeking her love, sup-
(Rada) aspects and hot and energetic (Petwo) characteristics. port, protection, and guidance. People come from all parts of
Water enters the Vodou cosmology in many forms and via many Brazil and every corner of the world to pray for good fortune in
paths. Marine spirits can be contacted through bodies of water the coming year and to give oferings to Yemanja at her princi-
ranging from the sea to the tubs found in Vodou temples. Fish, pal shrine in Bahia, Brazil near the mouth of the Rio Vermelho
whales, and snakes, particularly the rainbow python Danbala, (Fig. 36). On the eve of Yemanja’s festival, her sweet-water sis-
join fantastic composite creatures, such as the mermaid Lasirèn, ter Oxum is also honored with oferings at her sacred lake. his
to symbolize the spirits, or lwa, of the water. Some water spir- is a time for renewal. Families and friends, devotees and tour-
its are associated with the cool and sweet Rada divinities; others ists come bearing gits—bouquets of lowers, perfume, sweet
are Petwo, hot and volatile. Some, like Lasirèn, switch back and fruits, sot drinks, candies, talcum powder, soaps, beads, mir-
forth as they please (Figs. 32–35). rors, dolls, candles, and many other items to please the goddess.
hese oferings are loaded into large woven baskets, placed in
(clockwise from top left) boats, and carried out to sea to be given to Yemanja. When she
32 Yves Telemark/Telemak (b. 1955, Port-au-Prince, has accepted them—her sign of blessing—the party begins with
Haiti)
La femme du Dambalah (Wife of Danbala), 2000 singing, dancing, and drinking into the night and next morning,
Satin, sequins; 104cm (41") when the sun’s irst rays sparkle on Yemanja’s waves.
The fusion of two spiritual entities (lwa) is dramati-
cally portrayed in this flag by artist Yves Telemark. As
indicated by the title of the work, Lasirèn, who clearly
resembles Mami Wata of the German chromolithograph,
is now cast in the role of the wife of Danbala, the rain-
bow python who came to Haiti with enslaved Fon, Ewe
and other African peoples.
33 Evelyn Alcide (b. 1969, Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

Mariage Agoueh LaSirene (The Marriage of Agwe and
Lasirèn), 2006
Satin, beads; 140cm (55")
The lavish wedding of Lasirèn and Agwe, the lwa, or
spirit, of saltwater, is depicted in a finely detailed flag by
Evelyn Alcide. The pink fish tail of Lasirèn gives away her
aquatic identity. “Admiral Agwe” wears his military uni-
form replete with fanciful “joker” boots. A wedding feast
is laid out on a table at the edge of the sea. It includes
a layered wedding cake topped with a plastic bride and
groom and delicacies including cooked fish.
34 Gabriel Bien-Aimé (b. 1951, Croix-des-Bouquets,

Haiti)
Lasirèn, circa 1997
Iron; 58.4cm (23")
Collection of Phyllis Galembo; L2007.17.1
The sculptor Gabriel Bien-Aimé has created a won-
derfully fluid homage to Lasirèn in this sculpture. The
sinuous mermaid floats in a bubble surrounded by her
swimming minions.
35 Pierrot Barra (1942–1999, Bel Air district, Port-au-

Prince, Haiti)
Santa Marta with Hot Snake Spirit on Their Mountain,
1993
Wood, satin, plastic, sequins, beads, pins, metallic rib-
bon, lace; 105cm
Fowler Museum; X94.76.3; Museum Purchase
Haitian artist Pierrot Barra created this reposwa (object
36 Ensemble for a Yemanja priestess (mae de santo)
containing a lwa) for Santa Marta la Dominadora, whom
Bahia, Brazil,
Haitians call La Reine Kongo (The Kongo Queen). Barra
Cloth, metal, beads
believed that Santa Marta’s snake was even more power-
Fowler Museum X83.536a-c, Museum Purchase; X83.542c, X83.561a-c, Gift of Dr.
ful than the lwa Danbala Flambeau, whose force was as
Mikelle Smith-Omari; X83.564, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Seymour E. Bird; X82.1358b,
hot as a lit torch (flambeau). Santa Marta’s icon is based
Gift of Mrs. W. Thomas Davis
on the 19th century chromolithograph of the snake
The ensemble of a Yemanja priestess from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, is saturated
charmer who became the face of Mami Wata in Africa.
with the colors of the “Queen of the Sea”: white for the foam and shades of blue
to mark the varying depths of her watery domain.

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M AM I WATA AS ARTISTS’ M USE 37 Alison Saar (b. 1956, Los Angeles, California)
La Pitonisa, 1987
In addition to their continually transforming histories of inlu- Wood, copper, tin; 167.6cm (66")
ence in Africa and its diasporas, Mami Wata and other African Collection of Justine I. Linforth; L2000.25.1
and African Atlantic water spirits have gained an even wider Alison Saar loves to play with the idea of transformation, turning old, abused,
and discarded materials into inspiring art alive with new meaning. For her, Mami
audience, as well as new meanings and import, by capturing the Wata is “a bridge between past, present, and future.” She is as ancient and eter-
imaginations of a number of contemporary artists—women and nal as the oceans yet as modern and fashionable as a Nigerian “Cash Madam.”
men from Africa, Europe, North America, and the Caribbean— The title of this work is a name invented by the artist to suggest a “pythoness,”
a woman dancing with snakes, not just charming them. Guided by two water
who have found in Mami Wata and her cohorts a highly intrigu- guardians, Yemaya and Mami Wata, and by the fiery powers of Ogun—since she
ing subject matter. Even though they may not worship her, Mami employs iron and other metals—Saar creates works evoking the cleansing, cool-
ing power of water as well as the purifying power of fire and the forge.
Wata has entered the dreams and waking hours of these artists,
seducing them into creating extraordinary works that open our 38 Sonya Y. Clark (b. 1967, Washington, D.C.)
eyes, minds, and imaginations to wonderful possibilities (Cover, Aqua Allure, 2005
Thread, combs, holographic paper, foam-core board; 208.3cm (82")
Figs. 37–41). The unique understandings and involvements Collection of the Artist ; L2007.24.1a
of contemporary artists with water spirits also allow them to A sparkling surface of plastic combs on holographic paper evokes, in the words
employ Mami Wata and other underwater denizens to address of the artist Sonya Clark, “the reflective quality of water, the dramatic lumines-
cence of underwater life, and the narcissism of Mami Wata.” The combs, placed
issues of gender, race, morality, identity, economics, politics, and to mirror each other, as well as the threads woven into the combs, repeatedly
the environment. spell out the water spirit’s initials—MWMWMWMWMW—drawing us to the
seductive beauty of water as we hear in our minds the hypnotic sound of the
siren serenade, MamiWataMamiWataMamiWata.
39 Bruce Onobrakpeya (b. 1932, Agbara-Otor, Niger River Delta, Nigeria)

The Hydras Head, 1980
Deep etching on paper; 52.3cm (20½")
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 91-11-1; Gift of Warren
M. Robbins
Also known as Izobo (Sacrifice), this etching in one of several works featuring
Mami Wata that Onobrakpeya has produced over his long career. The Hydra
of Grecian mythology reminded the artist of the snake companions of Mami
Wata, as well as her own potential for both positive and negative actions. It also
reminded him of Mami’s voluminous wavy hair, which is often rendered as long,
serpentine braids. For Onobrakpeya, the multiheaded monster he depicts repre-
sents the countless economic, social, religious, and political challenges that the
newly independent nation of Nigeria has had to face.

40 Edouard Duval-Carrié (b. 1954, Haiti; active Miami
Beach, Florida)
Aida Whedo, 2004
Mixed media in artist’s frame; 127cm (50")
Collection of David Wallack
A deep, cool blue circle holds mysterious and unknow-
able spiritual entities from Africa. These spirits are vener-
ated in Haitian Vodou and known as lwa. Ezili, goddess
of love and passion, is fused with the celestial rainbow
serpent, Ayida Wedo. She floats in a droplet of water, yet
opens her arms to embrace the whole world. Her snake
tail curls and spirals until it almost disappears into the
optical maze of dots and dashes that refer to the Vodou
tradition of pwen—points of light and mystic energy
that signal the presence of extraordinary powers. These ENVOI
points of light and energy bejewel Ayida Wedo/Ezili,
creating an exquisite corporeal art that merges with and
Like the unfathomable depths of the world’s oceans, the
emerges from the “haze” that surrounds these barely imag(in)ing of Mami Wata and other water deities in Africa and
glimpsed mysteries, les mystères. its Diasporas appears limitless. Over a ive-hundred-year period,
41 Nancy Josephson (b. 1955, New Jersey; active New
Mami has surfaced in the guise of a mermaid, snake charmer,
York, New York) Hindu god or goddess, and African-Catholic saint, as well as
La Siren, 1999 other intriguing and magical characters. She has seduced and
Sequins, beads, rhinestones, mannequin; 228.6cm (90")
Private collection; L2007.20.1 charmed many, who have given visible form to this spiritual
Attracted to Haiti’s arts, materials, and ways of working, entity as an integral part of the process of self-deinition, self-
Nancy Josephson was “yanked into the spiritual path
realization, and empowerment in countless cultural worlds over
that is Vodou …. It made total sense to me that the
spirits would take me as I am, with nothing left out.” She time and space. Where, when, and in what form she will next
reflects, “I call on La Siren to help me flow.… I’m a [New] swim into our mind’s eye remains anyone’s guess.
Jersey girl. I think there’s something in the water there
that made my cylinders rev at a higher speed than some-
times is necessary. I’m sure La Siren chose me because Henry John Drewal is Evjue-Bascom Professor and adjunct cura-
of this. She cools me down. My work centers on my tor of African art (Chazen Museum of Art) at the University of Wiscon-
appreciation of the blessings I have been given and the
knowledge I receive as I go forward. The power in the
sin-Madison. In addition to the Mami Wata exhibition catalogue, he has
work is an offering to the spirits who help me negotiate edited a volume and DVD, Sacred Waters: he Many Faces of Mami
the weird and wonderful.” Wata and Other Water Divinities in Africa and the African Atlantic, to
be published by Indiana University Press in Fall 2008. [email protected]

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Notes the distant lands of Asia, but the Mediterranean (North jaute, alias Mami Wata.
his exhibition preview is based on the exhibition Africa and the Near East) and Eastern Europe (Russia) 9 My sincere thanks to Wilhelm Zimmermann
catalogue. My sincere thanks to all my colleagues and the as well. It was a time when trade goods from around the and his Circus Archive for valuable information and
entire staf of the Fowler Museum at UCLA for their col- world were entering European markets and missionaries permission to publish this photograph. he information
laboration in this project. set out to spread Christian doctrine. he arts relected that came with the photograph was “Maladamajaute ca.
1 A second Sapi ivory saltcellar from Newcastle- this new fascination and tapped the growing popular 1887 im circus C. Hagenbeck spetere Frau Breitwieser.”
on-Tyne on loan to the British Museum depicts “semi- interest in the “other.” In 1749, Jean-Georges Noverre 10 My thanks to Ruth Malhotra for much infor-
nude female igs with ish tails” (Fraser 1972:275–6). choreographed Les fêtes chinoises in Paris. As early as mation on the Freidlander posters and permission to
2 Crocodiles are prominent in stories of Sowo 1759, Arthur Murphy presented a play called he Orphan illustrate one of the posters. She noted that some of the
women among the Temne, Bullom, and Baga: “A Bundu of China, Gluck wrote the opera Pilgrims to Mecca (1764), early examples in the 1880s were numbered—perhaps
woman plays tricks with crocodiles. A strong and fear- and Mozart’s music was set in a Turkish harem in 1785 the “#4” at the bottom of the 1955 Bombay edition was
some swimmer, she dives amidst the reptiles and stirs (Fleming 1980:379–80). Kew Gardens in London had copied from the original. he style of the work is very
them from sleep, calling to them as she lirts the water rococo pavilions, Greek temples, Gothic chapels, a Mus- similar to that of Christian Bettels, the chief lithogra-
into their eyes, making them follow her as she swims lim mosque, a Moorish palace, and a house of Confucius pher and one of the few artists working for Freidlander
rapidly away” (Lamp 1985:34, citing nineteenth and early (ibid., p. 380). At Brighton between 1815 and 1821, John who signed his work (Ruth Malhotra, personal commu-
twentieth-century sources, Butt-hompson and Blyden). Nash built an “Arabian Nights extravaganza” for the nication, 1980).
he irst Europeans to arrive in Africa were the Portu- Prince Regent in a style called “Indian Gothic,” a cluster 11 A nineteenth-century photograph of the Kauf-
guese, who in 1462 made contact with the Sapi people on of minarets, cupolas, pinnacles, and pagodas with an man Traders shop in Caracas, Venezuela, circa 1894,
Sherbro Island of the coast of present-day Sierra Leone. interior illed with Oriental lacquerware, Chinese Chip- shows two men surrounded by walls covered in framed
Establishing trading, they commissioned the sophisti- pendale, and painted dragons (ibid., p. 381). paintings, photographs, and prints of a variety of sub-
cated stone and ivory Sapi sculptors to create saltcellars, 8 he story of Maladamatjaute is a fascinating jects, but mostly women in sedate “pinups” (Museum
pyxes (Christian liturgical vessels), spoons, fork and knife one that will be treated in a future work. I summarize für Hamburgische Geschichte Bildarchiv). he same
handles and oliphants (hunting horns) based on Euro- some of the key aspects of her life here. It seems that could have occurred in Africa. Two major Hamburg
pean models, probably consisting of prints, drawings, or Breitwieser did much of his “hunting” in Southeast Asia companies (Woermann and Brigg) were doing business
book illustrations (Bassani and Fagg 1988:111). and the Paciic, and it seems likely that Maladamatjaute in Liberia, Dahomey (present-day Benin), and Lagos
3 One Mami Wata priestess (Hunter-Hindrew 2004) came from that part of the world, possibly from Samoa by the mid-nineteenth century. See also Anderson and
believes her ancient origins are in Mesopotamia and Egypt. or Borneo. Soon ater she arrived in Hamburg with Peek 2002:62, igs. A3, A4 for nineteenth-century views
One writer (Paxon 1983) has suggested an origin among Breitwieser, about 1880, she began to perform as a snake of a trader’s quarters in New Calabar and a warehouse
Africans in the New World and a return to Africa. Several charmer in one of Hagenbeck’s shows. She may have in the Niger Delta—with many pictures, prints, and
scholars theorize that Mami Wata is a colonial-era inven- been taught by Breitwieser, who went by the nickname photographs on the walls.
tion (Coote and Salmons forthcoming). “snake gripper” (Wilhelm Zimmermann, personal com- 12 Joseph Adande, personal communication, 2007.
4 Historical evidence of a pidgin Dutch name for munication, 1984). Within a short time she had become 13 Ekpon, personal communication, 2004.
Mami Wata in the African Atlantic world comes from an international attraction, performing in the United 14 Njoku, personal communication, May 1978.
Surinam in the eighteenth century (1775) with discus- States about 1885. A circus newspaper/courier shows 15 M. Opara, personal communication, October
sions of Watra Mama dances feared by whites, some- her in a small fenced area surrounded by many snakes 4, 1975.
thing that may have been introduced by Papa/Popo and holding alot two large snakes above her head, 12 I found this image buried in a folder of random
Africans (Ewe-Mina, coast of Republic of Benin) who while another wraps around her body. Her full head of photographs in the archive, along with others by Green,
came in large numbers between circa 1675 and 1775; see hair lares outward, parted in the middle, and her name a Bonny photographer who documented many aspects
van Stripriaan forthcoming. has changed to “Nala Damajanti—the Empress of the of life in the Delta, including the presence of Europe-
5 One African aquatic creature, the manatee—a Reptile World—the Greatest and Most Astounding snake ans. Many of his photographs are in the Unilever PLC
mammal that suckles its young—may have also fostered charmer of Hindoostan—the bravest of the brave— archives. Martha G. Anderson, Lisa Aronson, Chris-
ideas about mermaids and wealth from the sea. See Bor- Python sorceress of mighty power.” She wears a tight traud M. Geary, and E.J. Alagoa are presently conduct-
gatti forthcoming for a discussion of achikobo among bodice, armlets, necklace, and hoop earrings. his was ing research on J.A. Green with the support of a Getty
the Okpella, although the name (achi = horse, kobo = published in Philadelphia in 1885 in a newspaper-like for- Collaborative Research Grant. he project includes
coin money/penny) suggests the colonial era. Holas mat as an advertisement for the circus. Maladamatjaute archival research in the United States and Great Britain
(1952:426–27) notes another widely dispersed tradition must have traveled widely since she appears in a Folies as well as ieldwork in Nigeria. hey plan to organize an
that seems to bridge ancient indigenous aquatic spirits Bergère poster under the name of “Nala Damajanti— exhibition of the late photographer’s work.
possibly derived from manatee lore with Mami Wata. Charmeuse Hindoue,” circa 1890 (aiche 480, Musée des
He discusses and illustrates wall paintings depicting Arts Décoratifs, Paris). According to Hagenbeck (1908 References cited
“Mami Ouata” (a variant of Liberian pidgin English). [1925]:171–2), she also performed for many years in the Abiodun, Rowland. 1989. “he Kingdom of Owo.” In
She is shown with her hair parted in the middle, a ish Adam Forepaugh Circus in the United States. Wilhelm Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and hought, by
body and tail, two human legs, and high-heeled shoes Zimmermann related (personal communication, 1984) Henry Drewal and John Pemberton III with Rowland
on her feet. Holas says that Mami Ouata is widely dis- that Hagenbeck combined with the Willis circus to put Abiodun, pp. 91–116. New York: he Center for African
persed all along the coast among the Putu and Tchien on a big show in the United States about 1900, but we Art in association with Henry N. Abrams.
peoples (Liberia) as well as the Dida, Ebrie, Avikam, know that he was also involved with the Columbian
and Godie peoples in Côte d’Ivoire. World Exposition and World’s Fair at Chicago as early as Anderson, Martha G., and Philip M. Peek, eds. 2002.
6 he Portuguese male igure grasps an object in 1893, for he donated some objects to the Field Museum Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger
his right hand. His closed ist with projecting thumb may of Natural History. he studio photograph of Malad- Delta. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural
allude to the “gathering up of riches” that the people of amatjaute taken in Hamburg is said to date to around History.
Benin link with both the Portuguese and Olokun, god 1887, but it may be earlier. I found it in the very last folder Auge, M. 1969. Le rivage alladian: Organisation et évolu-
of the sea, creativity, and wealth (Cole 1989:143). It may of the private circus archive of Wilhelm Zimmermann, tion des villages alladian. Paris: orstom.
be signiicant that the popular snake charmer image of near Hamburg. She is also photographed in a book about
Mami Wata, showing her let hand clenched in a ist with Hagenbeck by Guenter Niemeyer (1972:278). As her fame Bae, James H. 2003. In a World of Gods and Goddesses:
projecting thumb, may have been understood by Benin grew, she continued to perform internationally in Europe he Mystic Art of Indra Sharma. Novato CA: Mandala.
observers as evidence of her “gathering up of riches.” and the United States under slightly diferent stage Bassani, Ezio, and William B. Fagg. 1988. Africa and
7 By the end of the eighteenth century and with the names. Despite this, the representations of her thick, full the Renaissance: Art in Ivory. New York: he Center for
development of Romanticism, exoticism became a theme head of black wavy hair parted in the middle, and ele- African Art and Prestel.
of growing importance in the arts and in culture. Roman- ments of her “Hindoo/Oriental” dress—jewelry, necklace,
ticism, with its focus centered on “any time but now, tight bodice, and hoop earrings—remain constant. She Benninghof-Luhl, Sibylle. 1984. “Die Ausstellung der
and any place but here” (cf. Fleming 1980:376) sought its and Breitwieser were married for a long time. He lived to Kolonialsierten: Völkerschauen von 1874–1932.” In
inspiration in the past, in nature, and in the exotic. he 94 and died around 1930 (Zimmermann, personal com- Andenken an den Kolonialismus. Tübingen: Attempto.
exotic included almost everywhere beyond a narrowly munication, 1984). his is as far as I have been able to go. Bitterli, Urs. 1976. Die “Wilden” und die “Zivilisierten.”
deined Western Europe. Orientalism meant not only I am currently searching for more news of Maladamat- Munich: Beck.

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Mami Wata Arts For Water Spirits in Afri

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exhibition preview

60 | african arts SUMMER 2008

This sculpture comes from Angola where, as in Zambia, Mami

2 Mami Wata shrine figure

Snakes, ancient and indigenous symbols of African water spirits,

SUMMER 2008 african arts

62 | african arts SUMMER 2008

This masquerade headdress raises more questions than it

4 Agbagli Kossi (b. circa 1945, Lome, Togo; active 1960–1990s)

This rare late nineteenth-century masquerade headdress alludes

SUMMER 2008 african arts

7 Edward A. Asamani (b. circa 1880, Ghana; active 1900–1930s)

peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia, including Mende, Temne,

64 | african arts SUMMER 2008

A janus, double-tailed figure crowns

9 Wooden box lid

The imagery on this box lid portrays a

SUMMER 2008 african arts

The double-tailed mermaid was probably intro-

11 Oshugbo Society lodge door panel

This Oshugbo lodge door panel presents

European model, the Sapi sculptor immediately “Africanized”

66 | african arts SUMMER 2008

13 A studio photograph of Maladamatjaute taken in Hamburg, Germany, circa

14 Adolph Friedlander Company (possibly Christian Bettels)

SUMMER 2008 african arts

68 | african arts SUMMER 2008

SUMMER 2008 african arts

70 | african arts SUMMER 2008

18 Standing male figure

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72 | african arts SUMMER 2008

JOLLY M ASQUERADES—FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE

21 John Goba (b. 1944,

SUMMER 2008 african arts

74 | african arts SUMMER 2008

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76 | african arts SUMMER 2008

29 Artist unknown (Lubumbashi area, Democratic Republic of the

30 Abdal 22 (active 1980s–early 1990s, Kinshasa, Democratic

31 Shula (active mid-1990s–present, Kinshasa, Democratic

SUMMER 2008 african arts

78 | african arts SUMMER 2008

33 Evelyn Alcide (b. 1969, Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

34 Gabriel Bien-Aimé (b. 1951, Croix-des-Bouquets,

35 Pierrot Barra (1942–1999, Bel Air district, Port-au-

SUMMER 2008 african arts

39 Bruce Onobrakpeya (b. 1932, Agbara-Otor, Niger River Delta, Nigeria)

80 | african arts SUMMER 2008

SUMMER 2008 african arts

82 | african arts SUMMER 2008

SUMMER 2008 african arts

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