Devotees of Mami Wata

"Devotees of an African Water spirit known as Mami Wata take exotic objects, interpret them according to indigenous precepts, invest them with new meanings, and then re-present them in inventive ways to serve their own aesthetic, devotional, and social needs (Article 2)." 

"Her relationship with her devotees is more as a lover than as a parent (Article 2)." 

"As persons who are often troubled by questions of self-identity, Mami Wata devotees evaluate and transform external forces to shape their own interior lives and lives of those around them (Book 3)."  

Women as Devotees:

Mami Water, identified as the local divinity, functions strategically to alter traditional cultural expectations.  Jell-Bahlsen has observed that Mami Water devotional service attracts people, especially women, who are 'extraordinary and creative.  They do not easily conform to established norms and they are often marginal, yet highly recognized, in their own communities.  Many Mammy Water worshipers are prophets, or mediums of the water spirits.  As performing artists they express new ideas and forms.  Their native doctors are frequently women who possess extra-ordinary powers (Book 3).  Wealthy women often become devotees.  Once initiated into Mami Wata's community, a devotee must set up altars to Mami Water in their bedrooms, where they carry out weekly rituals in private.  A devotee is expected to observe one or two days a week of sexual abstinence.  Sometimes as a devotee, a dietary restriction and initiation into the service of other divinities is associated (Book 3). As performing artists they express new ideas and forms.  Their native doctors are frequently women who possess extra-ordinary powers (Book 3)

 

 

 

 

Negative Impacts

Sometimes, a devotee can obtain negative impact on their lives.  "(She is thought to be responsible for inflicting laziness, madness, infertility, and sickness...A lovely woman of the evening may turn out to be Mammy Wata in bed, bringing gonorrhea a few days later...She wreaks havoc in markets.  She talks to and steals children playing near rivers...and as a python, swallows goats and ruins houses (Book 3).  More examples are on the Liberia page

The threat posed by a spirit like Mami Water, who can intervene in their lives and seduce them even against their wills, makes them even more dependent on the power of their own deity and on solidarity with their own religious communities (Book 1)

 

 

Positive Impacts

Some of the wealthy devotees use Mami Wata's powers as a modern deity in the sense of getting into schools, passing exams, getting a position at a job, and purchasing a new car (Book 1).  She also offers other positive impacts on the community.  If followed right, Mami Wata can bring fertility and wealth to a devotee. 

 

 

 "While Mami Wata followers possess a certain awareness of foreign ways, they do not use alien objects primarily to analyze or understand the ideas or values of the Other, but rather to examine and construct themselves and their own society.  As persons who are often troubled by questions of self-identify, Mami Water devotees evaluate and transform external force to shape their own interior lives and the lives of those around them  (Article 2)."

 

 

Images Exotic Foreigners Music Religious Infusion Devotees
Wealth and Fertility Colors Snakes and Water
Origins Spirits and Diviners Shrines
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