Mamy Wata: thousands of Mamy Wata shrines exist in Africa, and each presents a slightly different interpretation of her nature, however there is a general agreement that she is a foreign, exotic, light-skinned, long-haired, voluptuous, charismatic, and very beautiful woman with a a penchant for seduction. Her visual image is based upon an early European chromolithograph print of an advertised snake charmer. She is said to emerge from rivers, springs, pools, or oceans. In Benin she is the female equivalent of Olokun and to other regions she is depicted s a mermaid luring men.
Shrine to Mamy Wata, Owerri Region, Nigeria.Visona, Monica Blackmun, Robin Poyner, and Herbert M. Cole. A History of Art in Africa
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008.:292
Shrine to Mamy Wata, Owerri Region, Nigeria.Visona, Monica Blackmun, Robin Poyner, and Herbert M. Cole. A History of Art in Africa
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008.:292