Minneapolis Institute of Art

Mami Wata figure

Igbo artist

Date

1950s

Medium

Wood, pigment

Culture

Igbo

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

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. Associated with health and wealth, love, and good fortune, she is celebrated throughout Africa and the African diaspora as a being of great spiritual power. Her non-African appearance is perhaps due to the fact that many Africans associated the early European traders and explorers with the sea and water spirits. For her followers today, however, Mami Wata represents modernity, worldly sophistication, and access to a cash economy. Igbo, Nigeria

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