A /' \\ i

1\ 91
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 Contents
9 Foreword
13 Preface
19 Acknowledgments
21 Notes on Orthography
23 Introduction: Sources and Currents Henry John Drewal

P A R T i : M A M I W A T A IN A C U L T U R A L C O N T E X T

73 Chapter 1 Jolly Masquerades and Mammy Wata in Sierra Leone John W. Nunley
81 Chapter 2 Mami in Baule, Guro, and Yaure Arts and Cultures Henry John Drewal
89 Chapter 3 Dreamscapes: Sacred Arts for Mami Wata along the Togo-Benin Coast Henry John Drewal
io 3 Chapter 4 The Bourian Masquerade: A Rite of Memory and Identity Henry John Drewal
109 Chapter 5 The Many Manifestations of Mami Wata among the Igbo Henry John Drewal
117 Chapter 6 Mammy Wata among the Annang Ibibio Jill Salmons
127 Chapter 7 Mami Wata/Mamba Muntu Paintings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Bogumil Jewsiewicki
i 37 Chapter 8 Surfing Mami’s Virtual Watas: Mami Wata Resources on the Internet Amy L. Noell

P A R T 2 : M A M I ’ S S IS T E R S IN T H E A F R I C A N A T L A N T IC

143 Chapter 9 Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou: Lasiren, Queen of Mermaids Marilyn Houlherg
179 Chapter 10 Santa Marta la Dominadora—Afro-Catholic Saint and Dominican Vodu Power Henry John Drewal
167 Chapter 11 Celebrating Salt and Sweet Waters: Yemanj a and Oxum in Bahia, Brazil Henry John Drewal

P A R T 3 : M A M I IN S P IR A T IO N S
179 Chapter 12 Mami as Artists’ Muse Henry John Drewal

211 Notes to the Text

215 References Cited
221 Index
227 Contributors
 Mami as Artists’ Muse

H E N R Y JOHN D REW AL

In addition to their continually transforming histories of influence in Africa and its diasporas, 1 2 .i B o la ji C a m p b e ll
(b. 19 5 8 , Z a r ia N ig e r ia ;
Mami Wata and other African and African Atlantic water spirits have gained an even wider
a c tiv e P r o v id e n c e ,
audience, as well as new meanings and import, by capturing the imaginations of a number R h o d e I s la n d )

of contemporary artists. This chapter will serve as a brief introduction to the work of several Yeye Odo (M o th e r W ater),
199 6
artists—men and women from Africa, Europe, North America, and the Caribbean—who have A c r y l ic o n c a n v a s
found in Mami Wata and her cohorts a highly intriguing subject matter. It will examine as 9 1 .4 x 6 1 c m
Private Collection
well the nature of the unique understandings and involvements of these artists with water
spirits and how they employ Mami Wata and other underwater denizens to address issues of
gender, race, morality, identity, economics, environment, and politics.

In a large, bright blue canvas entitled Yeye Odo (Mother Water; fig. 12.1), Nigerian Yoruba artist
Bolaji Campbell pays tribute to Oshun, the goddess of cool waters. She is one of innumerable
“aquatic divinities (orisha) that straddle the landscape of the Yoruba universe.” Orisha represent
the source of existence, and Oshun is regarded as a provider of children. Her presence thus
evokes such praise names as abeja gbooro (owner of countless big fishes) or yeye omo eja (mother
of fishj Campbell, personal communication, 2007).
The ambivalent attributes of these water divinities and the ways in which they deal with
human weaknesses preoccupy Campbell. He likens his painting Yeye Odo to an African Ameri
can tradition associated with Simbi, a Kongo aquatic goddess from Central Africa. Simbi was
brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans and reinvented there, particularly in Haiti and

179
 the low country ol South Carolina where Campbell spent a year as a scholar in residence at
the Avery Center for African-American History and Culture at the College of Charleston. He
notes that Sitnbi and Oshun celebrate the power of women. At the same time, they test and
punish human aspirations and weaknesses. For Campbell, the mermaid icon represents oppo
sites: disruptive consumption versus regeneration and survival. It also stands for unrestrained
passion and seductive sexuality. Simbi, Oshun, and Mami Wata wait at the bottom of oceans
and rivers occasionally surfacing to entice the weary or misguided traveler who may be
unaware of their ability to dominate, terrorize, and destroy using the lure of material wealth
(Campbell, personal communication, 2007).
In Yeye O do, Campbell pays particular attention to the brass mirror that Oshun holds.
Although it shines like gold, it should serve as a caution against being seduced by possessions
(Campbell, personal communication, 2007). He further explains that the painting “is a meta
phor for transformation and change.” Oshun presides over two realms of existence, the world
of the living and the unfathomable realm of the departed. Given this distinction, she cannot
be ignored and requires constant recognition in the form of sacrifice and praise. Only in this
manner can her potentially transgressive activities be turned to positive purposes. Yeye Odo

is a painted prayer urging caution, self-reflection, and beneficial transformation (Campbell,

personal communication, 2007).

Oshun also appears in the work of another Yoruba artist, Twin Seven-Seven. One of the
seventh set of twins born to his mother, he embodies the extraordinary and troublesome
spiritual powers attributed to twins (i b e ji ) among the Yoruba. Twin Seven-Seven multiplies
these unpredictable powers by a second seven (a number evocative of energy, potentiality,
and action), thereby asserting his uniqueness. He is at once a singer, dancer, musician, com
poser, magician, fashion trendsetter, politician, entrepreneur, storyteller, and artist. In many
ways he epitomizes the artistic flowering that took place in Nigeria at Ibadan, Nsukka, and
Oshogbo in the 1960s and 1970s during the heady first days of the country’s independence.
Nigerian universities at Ibadan, Ife, Zaria, and Nsukka were among the very best on
the continent at the time, and they attracted artists, writers, performers, arts advocates, and
patrons—including John Pepper Clark, Duro Ladipo, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Chris
topher Okigbo, Uche Okeke, Obiora Udechukwu, Demas Nwoko, Ulli and Georgina Beier,
Suzanne Wenger, David Driskell, and others—who created an artistic fervor that fostered
remarkable work. After discovering the artistic movement and center known as the Mbari
Mbayo Club in Ibadan and Oshogbo (founded by Ulli Beier, Duro Ladipo, and others), Twin
Seven-Seven began to flourish, bringing his many talents together to create daring and outra
geous performances in local nightclubs, as well as striking mixed-media works on board (oil,
pastel, and ink), such as his folktale-titled piece T h e F is h e r m a n a n d the R iv e r Goddess w it h H is

C a p tu r e d M u lti-C o lo r e d F ishes a n d the R iv e r N ig h t G u a r d (fig. 12.2).

180 PART 3 • M A M I IN S P IR A T IO N S
 Twin Seven-Seven’s imagery unfolds like the stories he heard as a child growing up in 1 2 .2 T w in S e v e n -S e v e n
(b. 1944, Ogidi, Nigeria)
the Yoruba town of Ogidi. These narratives incorporated fantastic forest spirits and deified
T h e F ish erm a n a n d th e R iv e r
kings and queens like Shango and Oshun, the patron divinity of Oshogbo where the artist Goddess w it h H is C a p tu red

came to settle. Oshun, whose sweetness cuts like a knife of honey, provides sustenance for her M u lti-C o lo r e d F ish es a n d th e
R iv e r N ig h t G u a rd , c ir c a i 9 6 0
children, the people of Oshogbo, through the “multi-colored fishes” that issue from the sacred O il, p a s t e l, in k , o n w o o d
waters of the Oshun River (Murphy and Sanford 2001). In his painting, Twin Seven-Seven 6 7 .J X 1 0 8 .5 c m

also incorporates the figure of a river night guard. Night security guards became a common National Museum of African Art,
Smithsonian Institution, 97-6-1;
sight in rapidly expanding Oshogbo, which faced a burgeoning crime rate. Usually such guards Gift of Merton Simpson

were elderly hunters, or non-Yoruba peoples from northern Nigeria (Kanuri and others), who Photograph by Franko Khoury

had reputations as fierce warriors. Mythic goddesses, fishermen, and night guards populate
Twin’s compositions, mixing cosmic and worldly forces in fascinating ways. This particular
work, painted and drawn on plywood, anticipates his later pieces in which he adds several
layers of board, cut-out figures, and other media, including newspaper clippings and bottle
caps, to create relief collages and intricate inked line patterns over the entire surface. The
final effect energizes the work and powerfully expresses the restless and unpredictable per
sonality of the artist.

CH APTER 1 2 • DREW AL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 181

Born in the small farming village of Ijesha-Ishu in western Nigeria, Moyo Ogundipe was raised
in a succession of Christian school compounds where his father served as an educator. His know
ledge and experience of Yoruba culture and history were minimal during those years. Instead,
he immersed himself in his family’s library, which reflected the assimilation of English customs
and Christian values that occurred during the colonial era. Surrounded by books on ancient
Greek and Roman history and mythology, Ogundipe focused his studies on Eurocentric material.
He nonetheless recalls two important moments that opened his eyes to Yoruba art (even
if he was inclined to see it through the prism of Cubism). One was the annual Egungun
(ancestral masquerade) festival:

Between the months of June and July, when the food is plentiful and the sweet
potent sap of the palm trees is abundant, ancestral spirits descend from their celes
tial adobe in the skies to wine, dine and dance with mere mortals.... The Egungun
festival and its intricately carved masks of cubism is the invocation of the supreme
powers... It is a sight to behold! [Ogundipe 2003]

The second moment occurred when the artist saw the majestic carved posts that embellished the
palace of the Ogoga, or king, of Ikerre. It wasn’t until he attended the University of Ife, however,
that Ogundipe began seriously to explore Yoruba aesthetics. Following his studies, he joined the
Nigerian National TV and became a filmmaker. By the early 1990s, however, he had relocated
to the United States, fleeing Nigeria’s oppressive military dictatorship. Time and distance spent
away from his homeland have become major factors in his work. As he explained to fellow
Yoruba artist Moyo Okediji:

When I was in Nigeria, in Yorubaland...there were a lot of things I took for granted
because they were always there.... It was not until I left my cultural home in Yoruba
and came here to the United States that I really began to miss these things.... They
now have more impact on my life, on my attitude and beliefs than they had when I
was in Nigeria. That is the irony. Now that I am physically removed from home, the
things of home mean so much more to me. [Okediji 2002,109]

Ogundipe’s exile gave a major impetus to his emerging Yoruba consciousness, breathing
new life into his paintings. When asked about his identity as an artist, however, he has replied
that “It is futile to classify me as a Yoruba, African, or Nigerian artist. I am a human being.... We
try as human beings to express the deepest joys and sorrows, the feelings and emotions of this
[cosmic] harmony” (Okediji 2002,100). He finds those harmonies and rhythms in a creative
process that fuses Western and Yoruba sensibilities. He often begins by splattering many colors
on the canvas, citing the spontaneity of the Abstract Expressionists as his inspiration (Sytsma
2006). Then, he imposes a kind of loose irregular grid over the entire surface. Finally, he blan
kets this surface with a second layer of colors that interpenetrates the first. His forms evoke
'toruba sculpture—simple, firm, and direct—and the rhythmic pulse of the composition’s fluid
lines and vibrant colors recalls his childhood experience of Egungun festivals:

PART 3 • M A M I IN S P IR A T IO N S
 fek^ A 7 Y-- -n.^Tv h ^SI:

I try to simulate in my paintings, the montages o f imagistic and kinetic possibilities 1 2 .3 M o y o O g u n d ip e

(b. 1 9 4 8 , I je s h a - I s h u ,
that the participants o f this sacred ritual of the Egungun festival often experience.
N ig e r ia ; a c tiv e D e n v e r ,
I want my paintings, like the Egungun festival, to reflect the vastness of the stage of C o lo r a d o )

life and the depth and complexities of human drama. I have borrowed and adopted M a m i W ata, 1 9 9 9
A c r y l ic o n c a n v a s
the spirit and energy and the colors and motions and textures and patterns and 1 2 1 .9 x 1 5 2 .4 c m
sounds of the Egungun spectacle. [Ogundipe cited in Sytsma 2006] Collection of Chike obianwu

Ogundipe’s painting Mami IVata is filled with streams of patterns, colors, fish forms, and
undulating waves that flow across the surface of an aquatic world (fig. 12.3). A band of warmer
colors floats in the middle, suggesting the various depths and temperatures of the ocean’s waters
and the fickle temperament of Mami Wata, the queen who rules over this realm. Her clean and
distinct image unites the water’s foamy surface with its depths. Mami’s clearly delineated form
follows Yoruba canons of abstraction, likeness, visibility, and completeness. Her elegant long,

CH APTER 12 • DREW AL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 183

 •-'V
1 2 .4 B ru ce O n o b rak p eya
(b . 19 3 2 , A g b a r a - O t o r ,
N ig e r R iv e r D e lt a , N ig e ria )
A ro E m a m iw a ta (M a v ii W ata
S h r in e ), 6 / J 0 , 1 9 7 6
T h r e e - c o lo r lin o e n g r a v in g
o n u n b l e a c h e d r ic e p a p e r
9 5 -6 x 6 3 .7 c m

Museum for African Art, New York

Photograph by Karin L. Willis

184 PART 3 MAMI INSPIRATIONS

ringed neck epitomizes beauty. The delicate patterns etched on her torso are inspired by Yoruba
indigo-dyed textiles known as a d ire. Making a d ire is a woman’s art that resonates with the pres
ence of Oshun whose home, Oshogbo, is one of the centers of a d ire production. The deep blue-
black luster of indigo evokes the depths o f a river or ocean.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, an artist known for his humility and generosity, was born into a family
of artists in the Urhobo town of Agbara-Otor in the Niger River Delta. Onobrakpeya graduated
from the College of Science and Technology in Zaria, Nigeria, and taught art at St. Gregory’s
College in Lagos until he opened his own studio, school, and cultural center in Lagos in 1979
and later helped to establish the Society of Nigerian Artists. He has been strongly influenced by
the art of Benin and, like Moyo Ogundipe, by Yoruba a d ire patterns. Urhobo oral traditions, rites,
myths, and body art traditions associated with the initiation rites of girls are also at the center of
his work.
After beginning his career as a painter, he decided to master printmaking and developed an
original technique that he refers to as “plastography,” which employs epoxy or polyester resin to
build up surfaces for engraving. Using this method, he has been able to create flat or low-relief
lines, textures, and colors, as well as higher-relief sculptures that he calls “plastocasts.” Artist
and art historian Dele Jegede has described Onobrakpeya’s art as “like the riverine Delta region
from where he hails, fluid and shimmery. Its strength stems in part from expected accidental
streams which wind their way this time not through the green, swampy forest traversed by the
tributaries of the Niger River but through chemicals and plate, onto paper” (1992,10).
The fluidity o f his approach to form and line served Onobrakpeya especially well in a
series of four works on the theme o f Mami Wata completed while he was an artist-in-residence
at the famous Haystack Mountain School o f Crafts in Maine. The series explored ways to create
the illusion o f underwater worlds in his plastographs, which he populated with real and imagi
nary sea creatures. As the artist has noted, “Although I have always wanted to work on this
subject [Mami Wata] with my own interpretation, the idea did not mature until I saw blurred
figures of bathers under the warm waters of Echo Lake, near Bar Harbor in Maine” (Onobrakpeya
1992, 230). He transformed those ethereal images of swimmers into the fish-tailed Mami Wata
inspired by the stories and dreams o f his childhood in the watery world of the Niger Delta.
One o f the ubiquitous Mami Wata stories that circulated in colonial Nigeria inspired three
of Onobrakpeya’s Mami Wata works completed during his stay at Haystack Mountain School
of Crafts. He has given these works the general title Mamiwata Jebba Bridge Myth (1976). The
works were individually titled Egodo E m a m iw a ta (A b o d e o f M a m i W ata), M a m iw a ta v ’oyibo (M a m i

W ata a n d th e W h ite M a n ), and A ro E m a m iw a ta (M a m i W ata Shrine-, see fig. 12.4). As Onobrakpeya

explains, the Jebba Bridge Myth series concerns one o f the major British colonial construction
projects to link northern and southern Nigeria across the Niger River at a location that also
happened to be the abode o f Mami Wata:

C H A P T E R 12 • DREWAL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 185
 The story says that the mamiwata (water spirit) who resided under the water over
which the Jebba bridge was to be built took offense at the disturbance caused by the
construction works. The engineer (a white man), himself spiritually versed, went
under the water to have a dialogue with the goddess. When persuasion failed, he
resorted to the use of magical power. He transformed himself inside a bottle and
mysteriously came out of it. Responding to the challenge, the water spirit did the
same but before it could come out of it, the engineer had placed a lid on the bottle,
so he won. After that encounter there was peace, and the famous Jebba bridge was
finally built over river Niger. [Onobrakpeya 1992, 233]

This is another wonderful example of Mami’s complex relationship with strangers from
overseas. In the first of Onobrakpeya’s lino engravings in this series, the engineer appears inside
his spirit bottle wearing a pith helmet, shirt, and shorts and smoking a pipe as Mami swims
around him; in the second (fig. 12.4), set in Mami’s shrine, she holds a three-headed vessel with
the engineer inside; and in the third, Mami, having accepted the challenge, has entered the vessel
as the engineer wearing his magical pendant dives down to trap her inside (Onobrakpeya 1992,
234-233). Like the clever engineer, Onobrakpeya has “captured” the fantasy and presence of
Mami Wata in creating a vibrant and fascinating series of works in her honor.
A work that Onobrakpeya created in 1980, The Hydras Head (fig. 12.3), also known as Izobo
CSacrifice), demonstrates his sustained interest in the potential of Mami Wata as a subject. While
the Hydra of Grecian mythology is a metaphor for relendess batdes fought against myriad
negative forces, for Onobrakpeya, the multiheaded monster represents the coundess economic,
social, religious, and political challenges that the newly independent nation of Nigeria had to
face. As the artist explains, the work “draws attention to the multiplicity of human problems.
A priest offers sacrifice to a deity, and as one of its many heads seems satisfied, another makes
a demand” (Onobrakpeya, personal communication, 2007). For the artist the Hydra evoked the
snake companions of Mami Wata and her potential for both positive and negative actions, as
well as Mami’s voluminous head of thick wavy hair, which is often rendered as long, serpentine
braids. Among the Urhobo, Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, and others, such abundant hair has deep and wide
spread associations with African water divinities (See Drewal 1986; Jell-Bahlsen forthcoming).

Geoffrey Nwogu grew up in Ibgoland in southeastern Nigeria and spent his childhood watching
his artist father carve “great and beautiful” images of Mami Wata for the many devotees and
communities that patronized him in the 1930s (Nwogu, personal communiation, 2007). Although
as a very young child he was not permitted to work in his father’s studio, by age seven he began
to play with the knives and chisels. He recalls that “At that time Mami Wata was one of the major
images my father created often for worshippers, admirers, and collectors. I loved to help father
with the finish as far as applying the underpainting or priming of his pieces. My interest in
Mami Wata derives from this early exposure” (Nwogu, personal communication, 2007). Nwogu’s
father worked “assembly style,” carving a torso out of one block and the arms separately. Geoffrey,

186 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

 1 2 .5 B race O n o b rak p eya
(b. 19 3 2 , A g b a r a - O t o r ,
N ig e r R iv e r D e lt a , N ig e r ia )
T h e H ydras H ead, 19 8 0
D e e p e tc h in g o n p a p e r

J2-3 x 39 cm
National Museum of African Art,
Smithsonian Institution, 91-n-l;
Gift of Warren M. Robbins
Photograph by Franko Khoury

I n 2 0 0 7 , th e a r tis t s u g g e s t e d
a n a lt e r n a t iv e title f o r th is w o r k :
Izo b o (S a crifice).

however, now carves an entire piece, whether three-dimensional or a relief, from of a single
block of wood. In the relief illustrated here (fig. 12.6), he created the illusion of an aquatic envi
ronment with bubbles popping up around Mami Wata in order to capture what he refers to as
“the elegance of the water queen.”
His own vision of Mami Wata derives from his research into the pantheon of Igbo gods.
He found that Mami Wata was somehow “alienated” from the “native deities of the Igbo.” Even
in Mbari houses (see chapter 5 of this volume), she was different from the indigenous divinities
among whom she resided. Nwogu determined to “naturalize her in the family of Igbo deities by
assigning her an Mbari personality,” which he felt gave her “more dignity and freedom in the
land of her residence. She has become one of us and can now eat ‘gari’ [cassava] and.Jkolanuts’
instead of Coca Cola and cookies as offerings” (Nwogu, personal communiation, 2007). In his
relief sculpture, the artist enthrones Mami Wata, presenting her in the way that the revered Igbo

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 187

I

1 2 .6 I n t h is r e l i e f c a r v in g o f
1 9 9 2 , I g b o a r tis t G e o f f r e y N w o g u
(b. 1949, E z in ih it t e - M b a is e , N ig e r ia )
a tt e m p t s to t r e a t M a m i W a ta in
a m a n n e r r e s e m b l in g o t h e r I g b o
d e itie s . H e t h u s p o r t r a y s h e r s it t in g
m a je s t ic a lly a s i f s h e w e r e a f ig u r e
in a n M b a r i h o u s e .

earth goddess Ala might be seen in an Mbari house. As he explains, “By making Mami Wata
look like the natives, it is easier for them to pay her homage from deep down, thereby heed
ing the musician Victor Uwaifo’s advice—‘If you see Mami Wata, never, never, you run away’”
(Nwogu, personal communication, 2007).

Obiora Udechukwu presently lives and works in the United States, but his passion for Mami
Wata goes back many years to the 1970s when be wotdd see her devotional images in his Igbo
homeland, hear the countless stories and songs about her that filled the air, and observe the
passing references to her in the fiction of Chinua Achebe and especially in the exquisite poems
of the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo. Udechukwu’s Watermaid I (fig. 12.7) was inspired by
Okigbo’s poem of the same name. The artist found the following excerpt from that poem par
ticularly moving:

188 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

 ...BRIGHT

with the armpit-dazzle of a lioness,

she answers,
wearing white light about her;
and the waves escort her,
my lioness,
crowned with moonlight.
So brief her presence—
Match-flare in wind’s breath—
So brief with mirrors around me.
Downward...
the waves distil her
gold crop
sinking ungathered
Watermaid of the salt-emptiness,
Grown are the ears of the secret.
[Okigbo 1962, 25]

Udechukwu has called “The Watermaid sequence...one of the most beautiful in Okigbo’s work.”
He goes on to explain that by the early 1960s in Nsukka, Nigeria, the Watermaid or Mami Wata
had become something of an “African Muse,” inspiring many artists for “Mamiwata is capable
of giving certain gifts in exchange for love or devotion.... I listened to a female singer with an
Arnold dance group from the riverine area recount the origin of that music/dance. She told of a
certain woman who went under water for four days during which period Mammy Water taught
her the dance” (Udechukwu 1984, 82).
In Udechukwu’s Watermaid 1 , Mami Wata floats on top of swirling waves, her slender torso
and arm parallel to her rectangular mirror. The moon shines overhead as she makes her sud
den “match-flare” noctural appearance before, “sinking ungathered” as in a dream. The briefly
glimpsed, ephemeral qualities of Mami and her inspiration are captured in this aquatint etching.

South African artist Claudette Schreuders became fascinated with the contradictions and com
plexities inherent in the character of Mami Wata after having read essays on the subject. Sub
sequently, she began a series of works involving MamiWata. In these she also fused references
to female religious figures (such as Christian saints and martyrs) and to prostitutes and thieves
who pray for protection and prosperity. A visit to Mexico also contributed to the inspiration
for this body of work. While there, Schreuders learned about a saint of the barrios actually a
skeleton in saint’s clothing. As the artist has explained, “you could pray [to this saint] that your
robbery goes successfully, or that you get a lot of clients.... It’s a saint that won t judge you.... It s
not virtuous; it’s like good and evil aren’t that simple, they’re connected” (Murinik 2004,128).

c h a p t e r 12 • DREWAL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 1H9
 riesof
Obiora Udechukwu In 2004 Schreuders was invited to create a piece for a major exhibition of South African
(b. 1946, Onitsha, Nigeria;
artists organized by the Museum for African Art in New York. Inspired by Mami Wata, Schreuders
active Canton, New York)
IVatermaid I, 6/2$, circa sculpted a wooden figure surrounded by a circle of glowing white candles, calling it The Free
1993 Girl. In this installation the artist combined Mami Wata of West Africa, the Watermeisie (water proto
Etching, aquatint
65.4 x 48.9 cm
spirit) of South Africa, and the Madonna. It’s “a confusing saint—you won’t be sure what it H id e
Collection of the Artist stands for,” Schreuders has commented (Murinik 2004,128). The Free Girl stands with a snake Unite
wrapped around her shoulders. Her raised left hand holds the neckline of her plain dress and create
12.8 Claudette Schreuders
(b. 1973, Pretoria, South seems ready to caress her snake-necklace, while she presses another snake underfoot. Schreuders
Pray \
Africa) muses “I guess its about the idea of either acting on something or repressing it” (Murinik 2004,
The Lost Girl, 2000
133). Good/bad, positive/negative, white/black, African/not African—these are the contradictions
Enamel, wood in a t
68.6 cm that Schreuders struggles with in her own life and identity as a white South African woman.
Collection of Sue and Joe Berland
These very same ambiguities have swirled around Mami Wata as viewed by academics as well as
aver
devotees. Her hybridity confounds categorization, for she is beyond simplistic dualities, being all
and none of them simultaneously.
the

190 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

 The Lost Girl (fig. 12.8), created in 2000, stands as a prelude to The Free Girl. In creating
the earlier piece, Schreuders, who used the mermaid form of Mami Wata/Watermeisie, may
have been inspired by a story she heard in South Africa about a man who had Watermeisie in
his house. The account says the man kept the spirit in water and fed it blood or semen. He made
sacrifices to the spirit to get what he wanted and promised never to wear shoes to demonstrate
his devotion and never to bring any woman to his house. One day his girlfriend, who had
become jealous, went to his house to see what was preoccupying him. When she entered, she
heard something, and “when she opened the bathroom door a big snake came out and chased
her out of the house.” The fact that this story contained elements of “truth and myth” fascinated
Schreuders (Murinik 2004,131). The Lost Girl shows Mami sitting on her fish tail, gesturing with
the open palm of her right hand. The left hand is bent over her breast, similar to the pose of The
Free Girl of 2004. Mami’s snake companion circles around her tail like a ripple as she emerges
from her watery home. Perhaps the tide, The Lost Girl, marks a moment of indecision and per
sonal struggle in the artist’s life or underscores the perpetual ambiguities embodied by mermaid,
Mami Wata, and Watermiesie.

In Aqua Allure (fig. 12.9), Sonya Y. Clark creates a sparkling surface composed of plastic combs
on holographic paper. The work is “inspired by the reflective quality of water, the dramatic
luminescence of underwater life, and the narcissism of Mami Wata” (Clark, personal commu
nication, 2007). Embedded within the work is another message, written with combs whose
forms are mirror images of each other: mw mw mw mw mw , a Mami Wata mantra evoking the
ubiquitous, infinite presence of the water spirit through time and space. The letters M and W
are also sewn into the combs themselves. Beneath the calligraphic combs, the holographic paper
“creates an illusion of depth, glistens like sunlight on water, and flashes brilliant color like that
found in phosphorescent marine life” (Clark, personal communication, 2007). Inducing memo
ries of what draws us to the seductive beauty of water, Aqua Allure embodies the essence of
Mami Wata and the sound of her siren serenade, MamiWataMamiWataMamiWata.
This interest in “hidden” texts began in 1997 when Clark began to ponder the power
of the unseen. As she explains, “text that is not readily available to the eye asserts its presence
provocatively.” Amulets found throughout the African continent and Diaspora containing
hidden text (e.g., ejoka of the Ewe of West Africa, tiraa of the Hausa, the mojo of the southern
United States, and the pak'ets kongo of Haiti) further piqued her interest. Out of these ideas she
created a contemporary collaborative art project based on amulets with hidden text, the Beaded
Prayers Project. Between 1999 and 2004, over four thousand participants from thirty-five
nations created beaded amulets containing secrets, aspirations, or prayers that are now included
in a worldwide, traveling exhibition (Clark, personal communication, 2007).
As a woman of African Caribbean heritage who grew up in Washington, D.C., Clark has
a very personal relationship with combs. Her visceral multisensory memories of hair culture
include: oily pomade on palms and fingertips massaged into parted hair; the buzz of clippers;
the smell of lye in relaxers; the pungency of burning hair; the slice of scissors through thick

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • MAMI AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 191

12.9 Sonya Y. Clark
(b. 1967, Washington, D.C.)
Aqua Allure, 2005
Thread, combs, holographic
paper, foam-core board Ik
208.3 cm 1
Collection of the Artist
oil

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192 PART 3 MAMI INSPIRATIONS

locks; the rhythm of braiding; the sound of bristles against a scalp; and the tug of a tangle being
forced into conformity. Growing up, she disliked having her hair pulled, combed, and plaited, a
tiring and painful process. Now she works through those unhappy memories in her art, creating
a series of sculptures that transform the dreaded combs into works of beauty.

African American artist Gerald Duane Coleman was born and raised in Milwaukee beside the
vast watery expanse of Lake Michigan. Several years ago he created a large multimedia wall
hanging, Lady on the Lake, which honored Oshun, the Yoruba goddess of sweet waters, as part
of a commission for the Midwest Convention Center. In another of his works, a mixed-media
shrine house called Our Lady of the Sacred Waters (fig. 12.10), Coleman honors Mami Wata who,
as has been previously noted, shares many affinities with Oshun. Inspired by certain African
Mami Wata shrines that create the illusion of her aquatic abode, Coleman images a sparkling
blue-green underwater realm populated with fish, dolphins, swimming maidens, and seashells,
some of them painted gold to evoke the riches Mami can provide. Mami as snake charmer
dominates the center and circus posters of her as an animal tamer emphasize her control of
nature and the environment (Coleman, personal communication, 2007). A string of blue beads,
amulets, and milagros (symbols of miracles and cures) remind us of Afro-Latin and Afro-Brazilian
religious practices. Just below the peak of the roof of this shrine house is Mami’s fan. On the
beam above and the floor below, Coleman has clustered a diverse array of offerings to Mami
Wata—perfumes, toys, shells, and combs, whose marks are shown undulating on the blue-green
background. Details of Kuba raffia-textile patterns cover the walls, roof, and ceiling of the shrine,
as well as snippets of sentences from articles about Mami Wata. A playing card tucked into one
side reminds us of her role as the fickle “Lady Luck” (Coleman, personal communication, 2007).
Coleman’s art has been inspired by his participation in the practices of a variety of African
and African American religions in Senegal, Brazil, New Orleans, and other locales. As the artist
relates, “historically water has played a dominant role in black faith, music, and literature. African
Americans have always believed a river or ocean could take them “home” spiritually and physi
cally” (Coleman, personal communication, 2007). In Haitian Vodou, the way back to Ginen
(Guinee), the African homeland, and to the ancestors and ultimate freedom was across the wide
waters they had traversed in chains. “Enslaved African-Americans would implore the river or
ocean to return a lover, to grant a pregnancy, to find a lost loved one, or to cure a disease or
disorder.... water has given us tragedy and hope.... we ask Mami Wata to help us overcome the
obstacles in our lives” (Coleman, personal communication, 2007).

Eve Sandler’s Mami Wata Crossing (originally presented as part of the exhibition Soothsayers:
She Who Speaks the Truth at the Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia, 1999) incorporates live
fish, sound, video and still projections to evoke the sea as a site of crossings, loss, and continuity.
Calling upon her ancestors, Sandler, an African-American, creates a powerful allusion to the

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 193

12.10 Gerald Duane Coleman
(b. 1948, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin)
Our Lady of the Sacred Waters,
2003
Mixed Media
122 cm
Private Collection

194 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

horrific Middle Passage, legendary African mermaids, and the legacy of slavery. Using multiple 12.11 The interior of the altar
drawer from the original instal
senses, we are led on a journey through an aquatic realm, a labyrinth of suspended glass vessels
lation of Eve Sandler’s (b. 1957,
with live fish, moving toward an ethereal video image of the artist performing a water ritual, New York, New York) mixed-media
a “Baptism” with water being poured over her head. The water is saturated with brilliant blues work Mami Wata Crossing (Painted
Bride Aits Center, Philadelphia,
and greens signifying the presence of the mermaid. Moving closer, we catch a veiled glimpse 1999) contains a perfume bottle,
into a cloistered space containing an altar laden with branches of cotton, tobacco and peanuts, snuff, cowries, and jewelry, all
objects coveted by Mami Wata and
all crops grown in Halifax County, North Carolina, by relatives of the artist since the time of
other water spirits, as well as a
slavery. An open drawer contains family artifacts amid mementos of the African mermaids who statue of the Madonna, who, like
protect and destroy (fig. 12.n). Rare and precious images of the artist’s great-great-grandparents Mami Wata, is frequently petitioned
by those seeking protection.
Luke and Ludy Wade, who were born into slavery, are projected onto the wall above. The empty
Photograph by Eve Sandler.
frame between their images memorializes all those African ancestors whose names are unknown,
and whose faces we can only imagine and conjure up in our thoughts of a distant, yet ever-present
past (Sandler 1999b). Sandler’s poem-prayer, which accompanied the original installation of
Mami Wata Crossing reads:

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • MAMI AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 195

 Mami Wata African woman
African mermaid/goddess/siren name unknown
Her nature bound to cross over
Snatch you up with a shell
If you not careful Cole got land
Who can live without water got maps
got her
Mami Wata/Olokun/Yemeja/Oshun at Jamestown
African mermaids converge
swim with fish women African mother
sing to you woman
Wooden carvings name unknown
on the bows of tall ships Cole got her
bound to cross over with child
African woman
Mami Wata with baby
wash your trouble Luke born in tides
swim bound to cross over
siren song
embrace wood Ludy
and flesh swim
the water siren song
embrace arrowheads
Halifax County African/Indian
North Carolina medicines
tobacco plow fields names unknown
cotton/bo weevil
arrowheads Luke and Ludy
and peanut plow fields
plant babies
A place down the road grade tobacco
marked by a tree nurse
read by starlight the water
build a church
Wade land [Sandler 1999a]
Deacon/midwife/farmer

For the Fowler Museum exhibition, which will accompany this publication, Sandler will create
an adaptation of Mami IVata Crossing, one that retains the themes described above.

196 PART 3 ■ MAMI INSPIRATIONS

 12.12 NancyJosephson (b. 1955,
New Jersey; active
New York, New York,
and Chicago, Illinois)
La Siren, 1999
Sequins, beads, rhinestones,
mannequin
228.6 cm
Private Collection

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 197

I2.IJ Artist Bertrand Grosol
created the vessel MamilVata
L820L650H320 as part of his
larger work Le MamilVata—
Projet de navigation interieure
('The MamilVata—An Internal
Navigation Project), 2004-2007.
Photograph by Bertrand Grosol.

Nancy Josephson, who was born in the United States, has been working in Haiti for the last
decade, integrating her spiritual and artistic sensibilities. She first visited Haiti because its arts,
materials, and ways of working felt so familiar. On her initial trip, she was “yanked into the
spiritual path that is Vodou.... It made total sense to me that the spirits would take me as I am,
with nothing left out” (Josephson, personal communication, 2007). The spirits worked with her,
interceding and mediating to help her be “cooler.” As she reflects,

I call on La Siren to help me flow.... I’m a [New] Jersey girl. I think there’s something
in the water there that made my cylinders rev at a higher speed than sometimes is
necessary. I’m sure La Siren chose me because of this. She cools me down. My work
centers on my appreciation of the blessings I have been given and the knowledge I
receive as I go forward. The power in the work is an offering to the spirits who help
me negotiate the weird and wonderful, [personal communication, 2007]

Josephson’s large-scale beaded and sequined sculpture La Siren began as a male manne
quin that had been relegated to a dumpster in Chicago, a casualty of the downsizing of a sports
store. Her friend, artist David Philpot, rescued the fiberglass hunk from the crusher and made
Josephson the recipient of his treasure. She remarked how the form was “terrifically strong
looking with beautiful musculature.” She added breasts, a tail, cascading hair, a crown and
snakes to turn this former sports figure into an homage to the power and beauty of her met’ tet
(head spirit or spiritual guardian), La Siren.

198 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

Across Atlantic waters in France, artist Bertrand Grosol received inspiration from conversations
he had with two friends, Frederic Khodja and Francois-Victor Lepargneur, in 1995. Subsequently,
over a three year period (2004-2007), Grosol created a fantasy vessel and performance event
entitled Le MamiWata—Projet de navigation interieure (The Mami Wata—An Internal Navigation
Project).' Born in Fort-de-France, Martinique in 1959, Grosol now lives and works in Lyon. His
MamiWata L820L650H320 is an extraordinary tripartite vessel, a tubular skeleton of wood and
metal covered in a skin of clear plastic (fig. 12.13). It is a fusion of spaceship and submarine, a
vessel that knows no boundaries. It undertook a fictitious voyage in 2004, and in 2005 it floated
on the Rhone and Saone Rivers before being exhibited at the Musee d’Art Contemporain de Lyon
in 2007. An excerpt from the poetic text that Grosol composed about the Mami Wata project
(2006) gives a sense of his musings on displacement (literal and figurative), the north/south
global divide, and moving “against the current” :

On an imaginary floating structure

To join three seas: the Mediterranean Sea—the North Sea—the Baltic Sea through
waterways and canals.
A path against the current from the South to the North. A reversed flux. A unique
experiment

Toward a fiction of displacement

The Mami Wata project,
Project of internal navigation, contains in itself its share of fiction: the itinerary,
its mental space.

The journey of displacement is two-fold. There is the real time, through some
selected itineraries. A fictional time, where the fiction of the locations increases,
amplifies the experimental possibilities, the creative charge.

The invention of this journey against the current motivates the invention of a tool
of displacement specific and made to order: MamiWata L820L650H320.

Mami Wata L820L650H320 allows a navigation on internal waters, on waters

without depth, linked to the behavioral flow of the river.

2003 the MamiWata project becomes a solitary embarkation.

The Mami Wata, fiction-voyage has been transposed in its entirety to an elaborate
embarkation, and allows one to see the floating structure. It passes from the surface
of the words to the luminous depth of the structure.

[Bertrand Grosol]

DREWAL • MAMI AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 199

CHAPTER 12 •
12.14 Hochi Asiatico (b. date
unknown, Dominican
Republic; active New York,
New York)
Santa Marta la Dominadora,
1998
Drawing, iron, whips
274-3 x 177-8 cm
Collection of the Artist

As a child in the Dominican Republic, Hochi Asiatico, who is of African, Spanish, and Asian
descent, learned very little about Vodu (Vodou). The religion was disparaged by his family who
characterized it as “devil worship” practiced by “maids,” that is, dark-skinned, lower-class people.
Although his grandmother was African, his uncle was black, and his aunt was nicknamed
“la n eg rita his family warned him that if he ever brought home a black girlfriend, he would be
ostracized (Asiatico, personal communication, 2000). These views are characteristic of the deep
denial that many Dominicans maintain about their African heritage.
On a visit to the Dominican Republic from his home in New York undertaken in 199 J,
however, a friend invited him to attend a Vodu ceremony. The first person that Asiatico saw
become possessed was a man who turned into Santa Marta la Dominadora (see chapter 10 of

2 0 0 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

this volume). Asiatico recalls that the man crouched in a corner, twitching in a dramatic way,
his tongue flicking in and out like that of snake. Then the man slithered across the floor. Soon
after he stood up twitching and moving like a snake, and finally, he began to pray and prophesy.
He spoke to people about their partners, relationships, and lovers (Asiatico, personal communi
cation, 2000).
Deeply moved by this experience, Asiatico began to research Santa Marta la Dominadora.
He learned that she was the only black saint in the Dominican Republic and that she was juxta
posed with Saint Martha of Tarascon and the popular and powerful Santa Anaisa, regarded as
the patron saint of the Dominican Republic. Santa Marta epitomizes the dominatrix who controls
men. She works for women who want men, men who want women, and those who seek same-
sex relationships. She also offers protection, and one tale recounts how she saved a lost child from
forest snakes. Her prayer specifically describes her protective powers and requests that the person
named be rooted to the spot until he or she submits to the will of the one reciting the prayer.
Vodu soon became a major source of inspiration for Asiatico’s work. In May 1998 he
opened an exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo titled Pantheon de los
dioses (Pantheon of the Gods). It included altar-like installations for several Vodu “saints,” who
are more commonly referred to as misterios, or mysteries, in the Dominican Republic. One altar
was dedicated to the Mater Dolorosa/Ezili, one to Yemaya, goddess of the sea, one to Santa Anaisa,
a fourth to Shango, god of thunder, and the last to Santa Marta la Dominadora (fig. 12.14).
For Asiatico, the name “ Santa Marta,” specifically her initials, S and M, evokes the saint’s
dominating personality and deep involvement in sexual matters. She personifies the dominatrix,
the sadomasochist who mixes pain with erotic pleasure. The artist visited a botanica (Latino
religious goods and herbal medicine store) to ask about her and what was needed to work with
her. Though he received little information, one person mentioned leather whips, explaining
they were used at the start of rites to “chase away negative forces,” a ceremonial act in Haitian
Vodou. For Asiatico, whips were perfect symbols of Marta’s domineering character so he added
them to his piece along with her name in metal letters. Certainly her work is about using force
ful even violent action to get something accomplished. Santa Marta la Dominadora does not
compromise or negotiate. She is a warrior. On viewing Asiatico’s altar to Santa Marta, art critic
Gustavo Valdes wrote:

Hochi Asiatico [is] arm in arm with Saint Martha Dominatrix: half woman, half
snake. Her complexion is the most brilliant color of ebony. She is a post-modern
centaur, sheathed in a very tight corset and lustrous stiletto boots. She resembles
a heroine fabricated by Almodovar. Her garments seem to favor sin rather than
holiness and to stimulate the mortification of the flesh through pleasure [which
brings to mind] the thought, if Christ loved sinners so much, wouldn’t He love us
more, the more we sin? The saint is a masterful absurdity, an impossible article in
an absurd inventory. [Valdes 1998,11]

c h a p t e r 12 • DREWAL ■ MAMI AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 201

 m. ■
A. * X ■

/' »
* i >■ *> ■ F t jI n Jdl H ' r fM r. A]
U \ 'm

Jmx j
■f? y J

12.i£ Charo Oquct (b. 1953, Like Hochi Asiatico, Charo Oquet comes from the Dominican Republic, a country divided and
Dominican Republic;
richly hybrid, like Mami Wata herself. The island of Hispaniola is half-Haitian, half-Dominican;
active Miami, Florida)
M a m i W ata D re a m , 2 0 0 £ half-black, half in denial of its blackness. It is Creole/French, Mestizo/Spanish, Vodu Catholic.
Paint on canvas These Caribbean multiplicities give Oquet’s works their vibrancy and impact.
172.7 x 15T.1 cm
Collection of the Artist
Oquet has had a long and tempestuous love affair with the idea and imagery of Mami
Wata. It began in the 1980s while she was living in New Zealand with her husband. Far from

202 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

home and the nurturing presence of Mami Wata, Oquet began to confront and explore her own
African roots and mestizo identity. At one point, however, the artist decided to leave her husband
and go to New York. After her move, she began to experience vivid dreams of women with long
flowing red hair, snakes, and mermaids. Only later did she realize that the spirits of Mami Wata
and Santa Marta la Dominadora were calling her.
Out of these indelible dreams and visions she created an important series of paintings. The
work illustrated here, Mami Wata Dream (fig. 12.15), is actually a newer version of one of the very
first Mami Wata/Santa Marta works she had created in New Zealand. The original was lost during
her move. As she explained to me, the painting “had to do with love and separation.” Oquet
remarked that after she had to leave him, her husband “was lured by many but he stayed faithful
to me” (Oquet, personal communication, 2007). Mami Wata and Santa Marta, who regularly
insinuate themselves in affairs of the heart through feelings of longing, desire, temptation,
jealousy, and loss, filled Oquet’s mind and canvases with images of floating females, snakes,
passages, and bleeding, enflamed hearts. One critic likened Oquet’s early paintings to the salve,
a medieval liturgical musical form, consisting of devotional chants to the Virgin Mary. These
chants are “interpreted by Dominican women workers as love songs” (Birbragher 2002, 21).
Oquet’s paintings certainly sing, their colors rich and resonant. Cool blues and striking reds sug
gest violent mood swings and heartache, feelings of longing, anger, loss, and ultimate redemption.
Oquet has continued to pursue a variety of projects, including performance pieces and
installations, that revolve around Mami’s role in relationships and issues of identity. Recently,
she created a series of pieces in the Dominican Republic as part of ReMapping the Caribbean, a
collaborative project undertaken with other artists (Oquet, personal communication, 2007). Her
portion of the project was titled Los caminos de Mami Watta (The Paths of Mami Wata). For it, she
held several children’s workshops, showed photographs, and performed. The photographs were
part of an interactive event in which she told Mami Wata myths and described her as having
long red hair. She also explained that if Mami possessed someone, the person would become
beautiful, powerful, and rich. She passed out red wigs to symbolize possession by Mami Wata
and then asked audience members what or whom they wanted to become. In her performance
piece Oquet impersonated Mami Wata complete with a mermaid’s tail and a bright red wig.
She held a snake in her arms while lounging in a plastic swimming pool.

Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrie strives to give concrete form to the ancient gods and
goddesses of Africa, mysterious and unknowable spiritual entities who are venerated in Haitian
Vodou and referred to as hva or loa. Two of these spirits are Ayida Wedo, the celestial serpent
whose rainbow colors glisten through drops of illuminated water, and Ezili, one of several water
divinities in the Vodou pantheon (see chapter 9 of this volume). Duval-Carrie has titled the work
reproduced here Aida Whedo (fig. 12.16), yet as he explained to me, “the name...could be Ezili
if you are so inclined. They are all goddesses, after all” (Duval-Carrie personal communication,
2007). His own words eloquently express his personal perspective and artistic intentions:

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • M A M I AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 203

 I’ve always been enthralled with Aida Whedo. I have painted her many times since I
began my project of giving the Mysteres, the Loas a more concrete look. Though quite
a spectacular art form, the Veves [ritual ground drawings used to invoke the Iwa] are
the way in which these spirits are commonly represented. I thought those magical
symbols did not do them justice...truly it’s been two hundred years since Haitians
took their independence so I don’t see why we have to perpetuate solely a form
designed to be erased quickly in case a [Vodou] religious service was discovered by
some dreadful slave master. These masters are long gone but the tradition, which in
no way I mean to disregard much less alter, has come down to this day unperturbed
by meddling artists.... It will probably continue for a long time for they are symbols
steeped in magic with a very rich and quite ancient history. But in all innocence
I truly believed that there was an urgent need to give Loas, these dreamy creatures
that I had concocted in my head, a face worthy of their importance. This has been
a program that I’ve adhered to for the longest time. But as I learnt more about those
divinities the concept that describes them best is that of Mysteres. I think that they
have revealed themselves to me at times but ultimately they remain quite inaccessible
and somewhat rather distant. They are truly big teases. But again my incantations are
12.16 Edouard Duval-Carrie probably not so strong and as heartfelt as they should be! Or maybe the case can be
(b. 1954, Haiti; active Miami made that they are mysterious and as such should remain distant from a mere mortal
Beach, Florida)
such as I. But I won’t be deterred and I will merrily continue to pay them my humble
Aida Whedo, 2004
Mixed media in artist’s frame homage and hopefully they will drop the haze that envelopes them most of times,
127 x 127 cm [personal communication, 2007]
Collection of David Wallack

The Haitian Vodou pantheon is divided into two grand families of Iwa, the hot and aggres
sive Petwo spirits, generally thought to derive from Central African Kongo/Bantu religious tra
ditions, and the cooler, less aggressive Rada entities that came to Haiti from several West African
“places of no return,” among them Ouidah and Allada (both in present-day Benin), the latter is
considered the origin of the term Rada (Cosentino 2004,40). Duval-Carrie’s deep, cool Rada
blue circle holds the mysterious Aida Whedo/Ezili. It seems that 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 may be references to the Vodou tradi
tion of pwen—points of light and mystic energy that signal the presence of the Iwa. These points
of light or energy bejewel Aida Whedo/Ezili, creating an exquisite corporeal art that merges
with and emerges from the “haze” that surrounds these barely glimpsed mysteries. Duval-Carrie
pays his “humble homage” in images worthy of their presence and importance.

204 PART 3 • MAMI INSPIRATIONS

CHAPTER 12 • DREWAL • MAMI AS A R T I S T S ’ M U S E 205
 California artist Alison Saar loves to play with the idea of transformation, turning old, abused,
and discarded materials into inspiring art. Her “recycling” makes us reflect on the past and
confront the future. For Saar, Mami Wata is “a bridge between past, present, and future” (Saar,
personal communication, 2007). She is as ancient and eternal as the oceans, yet as modern and
fashionable as a Nigerian “ Cash Madam.” The title of Saar’s sculpture La Pitonisa (fig. 12.17) >s a
name invented by the artist to suggest a “pythoness,” a woman dancing with snakes, not merely
charming them. She wanted to convey the kind of contemporaneity in this work that she had
captured in two others involving female snake dancers, Boa Agogo and Mamba Mambo, the latter
piece a sequined banner inspired by Haitian Vodou flags.
Guided by two water guardians, Yemaya and Mami Wata, and by the fiery powers of
Ogun (since she 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. She has also created a
number of pieces in which female figures balance a series of water containers on their heads or
stand in basins meant for water. As she explains, these basins on the head or below suggest the
lave-tete (a head purification rite from Haitian Vodou) which purifies, empowers, and spiritually
balances the person (Saar, personal communication, 2007). Alison Saar balances too—between
past and present, fire and water—forging imagery that sings and dances for our pleasure.

Like the unfathomable depths of the world’s oceans, the imagining of Mami Wata and other
water deities in Africa and its Diasporas appears limitless. Over a five hundred year period,
Mami has surfaced in the guise of a mermaid, snake charmer, Hindu god or goddess, African-
Catholic saint, and dominatrix, as well as other intriguing and magical characters. She has
seduced and charmed many, who have given visible form to this spiritual entity as an integral
part of the process of self-definition, self-realization, and empowerment in countless cultural
worlds over time and space. Where, when, and in what form she will next swim into our mind’s
eye remains anyone’s guess.

206 PART 3 ■ MAMI INSPIRATIONS

ISBN 9 7 8 - 0 - 9 7 4 8 - 7 2 9 9 - 5