Depictions of Mami Wata testify to the dynamism and creativity with which Africans respond to imported ideas and images. Mami Wata is recognized today by peoples throughout Africa as a powerful water spirit. Her origins can be traced to a late 19th century lithograph of a female snake charmer in Hamburg, Germany.

Gundlach explored the historical contexts surrounding Chukwu’s and Anang’s representation of Mami Wata, and artistic relationships between these artworks and other images of the water spirit throughout the African Diaspora.

This large sculpture was made for Mami Wata, pidgin English for “Mother of Water,” a charismatic being of great spiritual power celebrated in West and Central Africa and reimagined as deities such as La Sirene (Haitian Vodou) and Yemanjá (Candomblé and Umbanda) in Afro-Atlantic spiritual traditions.

Today, the most frequently encountered image of Mami Wata is a long-haired woman with a snake circling her torso, based on a 19th century chromolithograph of a snake goddess.

Beautiful, seductive, powerful, and fearsome—that is Mami Wata, a water spirit usually represented as a snake charmer or a mermaid. Her name may be an African derivation from “Mother Water,” but it is also possible that the term existed long before colonization and the use of English in Africa.

This exhibition explores the visual cultures and histories of Mami Wata, examining the world of water deities and their seductive powers. It demonstrates how art both reflects and actively contributes to beliefs and religious practices, globalization, and capitalism.

Aug 10, 2008 · Works honoring Mami Wata, such as the handmade wooden and terra cotta figures in this gallery, are placed in shrines and temples, to seek her protection and healing. An actual shrine is recreated to show how such objects would function in situ to propitiate the spirit.

First, a selection of Mami Wata headdresses and masks made during the 1970s and 1980s for Jolly masquerades in Freetown, Sierra Leone shows how young men at that place and time were concerned about the spiritual and economic powers of …

Representations of Mami Wata generally depict her as a woman with light skin and long dark hair, wreathed in snakes. Her luxuriant long hair refers to the dada locks worn by...

Mr.Smith has created a drawing of his version of the water spirit, Mami Wata using procreate on the Ipad Pro. He has created a drawing of a beautiful Goddess with flowing hair in her...