mami wata | PURCHASE THE BOOK
Mami Wata traces the visual cultures and histories of Mami Wata and other African water divinities. Mami Wata, often portrayed with the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish, is at once beautiful, jealous, generous, seductive, and potentially deadly. A water spirit widely known across Africa and the African diaspora, her origins are said to lie ‘overseas’, although she has been thoroughly incorporated into local beliefs and practices. She can bring good fortune in the form of money, and her power increased between the 15th and 20th centuries, the era of growing international trade between Africa and the rest of the world. Africans forcibly carried across the Atlantic as part of that ‘trade’ brought with them their beliefs and practices honouring Mami Wata and other ancestral deities. —UCLA Fowler Museum
Image courtesy of the UCLA Fowler Museum. For more information, visit the UCLA Fowler Museum online.
wrapped in pride
mami wata
hand + made
the global africa project
second lives
manufractured
pricked
african american art & artists
choosing craft
masters: beadweaving