Religious Infusion
A large painting in the priest's reception area is dominated by a female Mami
Water with African features She is flanked on either side by two men, who
are positioned lower than she is in the painting but on the same level with
each other. One of them is the priest and the other is a non-African Jesus.
The composition as a whole suggests that both the priest and Jesus gain their
power from Mami Water and they are equally her representatives (Book
3). This is a Christian connection but most foreign cultures follow this
too. Mami Wata is a higher figure in their everyday interactions and
culture.
Water divinities are often thought in traditional religion to take specially
selected people under the sea with them to teach them philosophic wisdom or
healing skills or to give them poetic inspiration
(Book 3)
|
The essence of vodun...lies in the need for one to be calm and composed. One
must take the time to sit quietly rather than rushing through life...vodun
constitutes a philosophy which places a primacy on patience, calmness, respect,
and order both in the context of acquiring life's basic necessities and in the
pursuit of those extra benefits which make life at once full and pleasurable.
The priest Abidjan Mamiwater identifies himself as a practitioner of Vodun.
Mami Water is the feminine counterpart of the Abidjan Mamiwater ((Book
3) |
 |
She is generally thought to have been created and empowered by Chineke or
more recently, Jesus Christ (Book
1).
In Akpan Chukwu's compound, the Christians, cannot erect shrines in
their own compounds for fear of repercussions from their churches, who expel
members known to be maintaining 'pagan' traditions and burn any traditional
shrines they come across in their compounds. By keeping their own shrines
at the dibia's (diviner) compound, however, these followers are able to
make the necessary sacrifices to the water spirit without incurring the wrath of
their fellow Christians
(Article
5)."
