Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Charting the Voyage

1. Mami Wata and the Sierra Leone Diamonds: Wealth and Enslavement in Men's Dreams and the State Economy
2. Enchanted Rivers: True Stories about Water Spirits from the Niger Delta
3. Burumo Painting: Reflections of the Waterspirit World upon the Body of a Waterspirit-Carrying-Woman
4. Water Spirits in Water-less Places: The Case of Madame Sabot
5. Mami Wata, Mr. White, and the Sirens off Bar Beach: Spirits and Dangerous Consumption in the Nigerian Popular Press
6. A Memoir of Mami Wata in Azumini
7. Tale of the Achikobo: It's the Tail That Is Mine
8. Mami Wata, Wealth-Owning Spirits, and Changing Economic Morals in West Africa
9. Congolese Mami Wata: The Charm and Delusion of Modernity
10. Tafisula or the Mami Wata: A Mwondo Théâtre Production
11. A Fish Out of Water: The Inland Migration of the Dona Fish to the Luapula Plateau, Zambia
12. Abidjan Mamiwater and Aba Yaba: Two Profiles of Mami/Maame Water Priesthood in Ghana
13. A Tribute to Mami Wata Vodun Supreme Chief Daagbo Hounon Houna
14. The Laughing Vodou Goddess: A Photo-Essay
15. Mami Wata: The Goddess of Water and Beauty Lives
16. The Mami Wata Phenomenon: "Old Wine in New Skin"
17. Mami Wata, Water Spirits, and Returners in and near the Igbo Culture Area
18. Dada-Dreadlock-Hair: The Hidden Messages of Mammy Water in Southeastern Nigeria
19. Mermaids and Mami Wata on Brassware from Old Calabar
20. The Ejagham Interpretation of a Sculpture of Mami Wata
21. Mami Watas, Miengu, and Mermaids: Water Spirits of Coastal Cameroon
22. Water Spirits and Mermaids: The Copperbelt Chitapo
23. Mummy Wata Goes South: An Interview with a Zulu Devotee
24. "Oh hurry to the river!" uMamlambo Models in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
25. Mami Wata: The Slippery Mermaid Phenomenon
26. Mammy Wata, Inc.
27. Mami Wata: An Urban Presence or the Making of a Tradition in Benin City, Nigeria
28. Mami Wata as a Christian Demon: The Eroticism of Forbidden Pleasures in Southern Ghana
29. Mami Wata: A Vanishing Art in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
30. Mermaids and End-Time Jezebels: New Tales from Old Calabar
31. The Intersection of Evangelism, AIDS, and Mami Wata in Popular Music in Centrafrique
32. The Role of Mammy Wata as an Agent for the Promotion of Ogoni National Identity
33. Of Micro-hydros and Mami Wata: Rural Development Meets Mythological Reality
34. The Bride of the Rain in North Africa
35. Death of the Mermaid and Political Intrigue in the Indian Ocean
36. Somewhere under Dan's Rainbow: Joseph Kossivi Ahiator's "India Spirits" in His Mami Wata Pantheon
37. Inbetweeners: Mamiwata and the Hybridity of Contemporary African Art
38. Jack Akpan's Mammy-Water
39. The Creation and Consecration of a Mami Wata Sculpture
40. Communicating with the Gods: An Altar Dedication to Mami Wata
41. The Ever-Changing Face of Watramama in Suriname: A Water Goddess in Creolization since the Seventeenth Century
42. Saramaka Sea Gods
43. Arts for the Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou
44. Sodo, Haiti, 19972001: The Pilgrimage to Healing Waters—A Photo-Essay
45. Misterios: The Making of a Documentary as a Way of Exploring One's Own Faith
46. Mami Wata—"It's in the Blood": A Personal Journal of Ancestral Resurrection in the Aftermath of Slavery

List of References
List of Contributors
List of Illustrations and Other Media
Index

Promotional Information

A rich, multifaceted appraisal of Mami Wata and other water deities in Africa and beyond

About the Author

Henry John Drewal is Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History and Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Reviews

"A major study, not just on Mami Wata, but also a seminal study in the field of African art history as a whole." Rowland Abiodun, Amherst College "[It] will serve as the definitive volume on Mami Wata and related deities for many years to come." Elisha Renne, University of Michigan