Watramama/Mami Wata: Three Centuries of Creolization of a Water Spirit in West Africa, Suriname and Europe

Full text

;., ;i;*,iÊu1i,j93ff"Ï*
Matatu #

Alrx vAN
SrrprueaN
Watramama/ MamiWata
Three
Centuries
of Creohzatton
of aWater Spirit
in West Africa, Surinarcre
and Europe
LTHoucH wE srrl-t- Do Nor KNow what
we mean
exactly
by
creolization, until recently we at least agreed
that it was related, one
way or another, to slavery and to the Caribbean or the New World.
Today we do not even share that tiny piece of cornmon ground any more.
Now the term is increasingly used - and contested
- by social scientists who
study processes of globalization and/or multiculhrral complexity.r And
although these globalists never conceal that they have borrowed the idea of
creolization from Caribbeanisfs, fl1ey seem to have given it a different, or
wider, meaning. To them creolization seems to refer particularly to quite
recent struggles and their cultural outcome in societies all over the world: i.e.
struggles between hadition and modemity, between westernized global cul-
ture and local cultures.
In this essay I argue that, despite major contextual differences in time and
geography, both groups still refer to the same phenomenon and that a com-
t ulf Hannerz,
cultural complexity:
studies
in the
socíal organizaíion
of Meaning
(New York: columbia w, 1992);
Jonathan
Friedman,
cutnràl ldentitv ánd Gtobat
Process (Theory,
Culture
and Society
3
I ; London:
Sage, 1994).
@ Á Pepper-Pot
of culturcs: Aswrs of crcolization in lhe c'aribban, cd, Gordon
Collier & (Jlrich Flelschmann
(Matatu 27-2gi Amntcrdarn
& Ncw york: Hdltlons
Itoclopi,
20011),

tJ
è
F
Itl
x
z
a
-l
z
Ë ï
F
[ + s
g
í*
I
g
*3 iË
iË
*Ë
rr
ËË
;Ëë
gË
i s
g
iff
Ë
t
Ë
*
1ËË F r
ï
Ë
F
t
+Ë
+
ËË
á
3Ë
á
i i íE
$ H
ï $i 5a
A
*
i "ë 33 3: F i r! 5 Ë.Ë
í; Ë
ËÊqË; +g Rq': H'É
.' ili
I
$ËÉ:ËiË 1Ë
iga
ïË5€
ÉËË+ËÊ
FËiËíïg$Ë
E íí
Ë:+
í[Ê$iàÊ
i
r
rËË
A ía
rË
$
Ë
r
i
ËË
Ë
E
I
ii
'
is
Í
íg1ííiËi$ËïFÊiËai*+Ës$Ëí
íí 1Ëi
Ei$
íÉsË=
gË
;ÉFiËË[gs$Ëíás, eelË$Ëg íËÊ
H
ËrÊÍiËáFËËËËi*[ÉËË[ííqíí+rat
3ri
il[flËffF+Ë
g
sËii
Íí*Ë;íàgíis
FaËs
ii=
Í x iË 3
á
=
íi iig=
i
ài iË i
g:
*
g
F i i
iË
Ë àË
i
; ïíqëË
*ïË
g
sË nF+[Ëi;
+*ÍFiË
íiË
ïËs
ËiiËi
iE É+á3í *ïiË
*Ê
í€Ë;
+sÊïáï
Ë'*
*ÊaegB Í
t
iË
rs Ë
eFseFrF
Ëafis ai
iÉ [Fë
É FF
ilqVQa
É=?qH
<rË41
ۃ-E.b'
Rë;EÊ
;i a ó3 x
tslo Ë
g : O'"rO
áKË=:e"
{ H E;>
xë
H
Ss
É:.iË I (
ÈS*!rÈ
eË.H$á
E:,j
- c
E.
iÈ S"Ë
eI *;
í\ \ AID
e à !'x
S; S'ë
LL" d H
Xa :á
*G $cn
;: F2
2Y ëo
6'oo Q o
EJ- :'É
*if I E
-á
9H>:
YE^.
- o5 !t rri
^'d aX
sË $g
;F o.o
ê
È
É
S
*
o
6
.{
s
h
^'
h
È
6
^s
lr)
N)
s ,'ËígigËËíígËíg;íËggËËr
Ë á:
Ë
tr FË E
+H
q$Ë
-
iË
Èi$g*FiH
+rË
í íË
í
*
ËË
+
5
í
$Ë
íá
gË
+
+$ËË
fËgË ï
ïï ËrË +ËïiË
FfËËï*iií
rca+al;Fs
í*gË
*ËíggA
gíËgËg*ËÊ*gglg
íííi
ss
1r s1ËËg
ËiËËÍgnËfËíÍËËïFËi
gË
FÍ ;
"*3,át
;=*argÉsaËFá
H.H-E*gë
Ê^Á3 r ? g?E
i=
\ F ,Q -i -=.9
íig9*=irie
=uo: g" gFi-:-
g.iï#'e=-:fFF
e=ÊBíiË íF iÉ
eeÉ8.\r3:Sà e
ërÁ*q-Ít+"-S
1!;::Ë?c:;
:g i'a\n=\.:X'
íÉrH:+á.*'*"'
;SÍ; b
F
r+I5
' S 9l á* <* goq
<È-4*9íE!L9
3:5'g=í 3 s'r":^
É.*qt$r;É Ë
ëiSssF-Ë1
;
c+f ËB!.-o' B
-t---=o--Í'{.
-s'É8"-&>E o
lF-Í,S+ F ?
S''ePá s q
\:èÈi' \ ?
,. S . P" * I
S.:r = S 3
iÈá @ À'
S\5 o S Oa
ss.x 3 ; s
i>'s :1
sia n F t
^=j- i Á- =
i-i =
:iË i 1 s
sii ó ? s
p

326 Alnx veN STIPRIAAN
Here, however, the similarities between the African and the Caribbean
Mothers of the Water more or less cease.
In Africa, during the twentieth century, local water goddesses
have become
increasingly standardized, or homogenized, under the general name of Mami
Wata, with an autonomous and institutionalized cult (priests, temples, initia-
tion rites, healing sessions etc) particular$ in urbanized ateas, and with a
variety of more or less standardized icons. This homogenization, however, is
not a top-down process by a dominant group or culhre. Rather, it is a bottom-
up process of creolization in a context of modernization: i.e. rapid urbaniza-
tion, industrializalion and mass communication. Some hold that the mass
popularity of the Mami Wata cult is a reaction against and an individualistic
critique of the postcolonial construction of national cultures with their empha-
sis on national authenticity.T Day{o-day reality is characterized
more by inter-
cultural interaction and changes influenced by global culture than by mono-
lithic authenticity, which has no answers for a society undergoing transforma-
tion. Mami Wata does have, however. She is as unpredictable, materialistic,
aggressive, individualistic and culturally uprooted as life in Africa's fast-
growing cities. And, for others, she is especially important to women, whom
she offers new opportunities in sometimes highly sex-segregated
societies.s
The number of cultures contributing to Mami Wata's formation is still
growing today.e She is now known in at least twenty African countries; her
roots might be traced in all twenty of these, but also in Europe, as I mentioned
before, and even in India and probably the Muslim world too; and she has a
number of sisters
in the New World.
Years Windwmd Coast Gold Coast Slave Coast Loango total
rï Mami Wala: L'r.-olizaÍion of a Water Spirit 327
I)crpite being sisters,
however, in the New World no such supranational
rrtnndgrdizution
proccss
has taken place.
Although there is, or has
been,
a pro-
nrinent watcr goddess
in probably most Afro-religions in the Americas, and
although they have some or most of the characteristics
I have described
abovc,
only a few have
a more or less institutionalized
cult of their own com-
parable
to Mami wata in west Africa. In the caribbean there is not even a
common name for her: Watramama (Suriname, Guyana), Mamadjo (Gre-
nada), Yemanya/Yemaya (BraziVCuba), La Sirène, Erzulie, Simbi (Haiti),
Lamanté (Martinique) etc. And, unlike their Vy'est-African sister, the Afro-
caribbean water mothers seem to have stopped creolizing a long time ago
and, therefore, might now even be in a state of de-creolization.
It might be useful, therefore, to take a look at historical developments on
both sides of the Atlantic. I will focus on the areas
of Benin/Nigeria (the
slave coast) in west Africa and Suriname in the caribbean. During the
formative era of the Guyanese plantation economies: i.e. at the end of the
seventeenth
and the beginning of the eighteenth century (16g0-1720), the
Slave coast was the chief supplier of slaves to Suriname (almost three-fifths).
To my knowledge, no West African source at that time, nor during the two
centuries thereafter, ever mentioned a water spirit named Mami v/ata. In
suriname, on the other hand, the first mention of watramama was made in the
1740s
by an anonyÍnous
writer:
It sometimes
happens
that
one or the
other
of the
black
slaves
either imagines
truthfully, or out ofrascality pretends
to have
seen
and heard
an apparition
or
ghost
which they
call waíer
mama,
which ghost
would have
ordered
them
not
to work on such or such
a day,
but to spend it as a holy day for offering
with
the blood
of a white hen, to sprinkle
this or that
at the water-side
and more
of
that monkey-business,
adding in such cases
that if they do not obey this
order,
shortly Watermama
will make their child or husband
etc. die or harm
them
otherwise.rl
During the 1770s
the colonial authorities
in suriname for the first time issued
a law against "the watermama
and similar slave dances,"
which were con-
sidered to have "dangerous
effects" on the slaves. In that same
period, the
later
govemor Nepveu
noted
that
the Papa,
Nago,
Arada
and other
slaves
who commonly
are
brought here
undcr
the name
of Fida [Ouidah]
slaves, have
introduced
certain
devilish
practiccs
into thcir
dancing,
which
they have
transposed
to all other
slaves;
1680-1699
1'.70íU_-1719
t72o-1739
174G'1759
1760-1779
(Mandingo)
1%
47%
44%
stoÁ 17,100
t9% 1s,200
s%o 27,300
32% 47,sN
36% 60,500
(Cromanti) (Papa)
2yo 47 %
5 % 760/o
6t% 32%
20% loÁ
19% lYo
Tenln 1: African place of departure of slaves
imported into Suriname,
1680-178010
'Wendl, Mamiwata.
t Paxson, "Mammy Water: New World Origins?" and Sabine Jell-Bahtsen & Eze
Mmiri Di Egwu, "'The water monarch is awesome': Reconsidering the Mammy
Water Myths," Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences 810 (1997).
e Wendl. Mamiwata.
t0 Source: J. PosÍna, The Dutch ín the Atlantic Skne Trade, 1600-1815 (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge
UP, 1990). rl Anon, Ontwerp
ht een
hettthntvlng
van
Surlnuamcn
(ca,
1744):
317,

328 Artx veN StrprrelN
when a certain rhythm is played
[...] they are
possessed
by their god,
which is
generally
called
Watramama.
| 2
When speaking about the occurrence of mermaids in the rivers of Suri-
name, the illustrious John Gabriel Stedman was told by several old Africans
and Amerindians that, "though they were Scarce,
Nothing was more Dreaded
by their Vy'ives and Children than the Watra Mama, Which Signifies the
Mother of the Waters."" This indicates that, beginning in the second half of
the eighteenth century, Amerindian and West-African water spirits had gone
through a process which merged them into one Surinamese Watramama ac-
companied by a household of lesser water spirits.
Gradually, in the nineteenth century, Watramama - and her inflammatory
dance - seems to have lost her dominant position, becaming just another
goddess
in a creolized Afro-Surinamese religious complex called Winti.ta
This may be due to the creolizing influence of other etlnic groups who had
come to Suriname at a later stage, such as Coromantins and Mandingos.
Another explanation might be that, since the end of the eighteenth century, the
slaves, and later ex-slaves, gradually became transformed into (proto-)
peasants.
Landed property thus became the single most important item in their
lives, whereas the dominant position of water slowly decreased. They had be-
come rooted in Suriname soil. As a result, Mama Aisa, the Mother of the
Earth, became much more important than Watramama. Moreover, starting at
the end of the nineteenth cenhrry, most Afro-Surinamese apart from the
Maroons migrated to the towns. In town there was little room to practice
Winti, which remained ofFrcially forbidden until the 1970s. Life in town was
dominated by Westem colonial education and Christian churches, and a
'decent' life-style was required. Consequently,
Afro-Caribbean religion lost
some of its power, particularly among those groups that were upwardly
mobile; and, as part of that process,
Watramama lost ground again.
A reverse development can be observed in West Africa. Probably most
cultures had a knowledge of water spirits, but three developments are said to
t' J. Nept e,r, "Annotaties op het boek van J.D. Herlein 'Beschryvinge
van de volk-
plantinge Zurinwne"' (MS, ca. 1775).
t'J.G. Sted-atr, Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted
Negróes of Surinam, hanscribed & ed. Richard & Sally Price (1790; Baltimore MD &
London: Johns
Hopkins tlP, 1988): 457.
ra In this religion, West-African cultural and ethnic diversity is ritualized in a com-
lex of Papa, Loango and Kromanti spirits or Winti, who all have their own drums, their
own songs, their own dances
and even their own rifual languages.
.? Muttti Wala: Creolization of a Water Spirit 329
huvc contributed in west Africa to a process
of creolization,
standardization.
lnd growing
popularity.
l"irst, there seems to have been the influence of the Kru people from
Libcria, who had worked for European
fraders
since
the end of the eishteenth
ccntury and who had themselves
became a major trading people ar-ong
the
wcst coa-st (from Liberia to cameroon) since the end of the nineteenth
ccntury.rs At that time, there were several
thousand
of these
Kru living in
Southeast
Nigeria alone.
They are said to have spread
their variant of pidgin
English along these
coasts,
and it is not hard to imagine that their wealthy
appearance
was convincing enough to make their version of the water spirit
and her power quite influential. There is evidence
that in some societies
the
name of Mami wata was only used after Kru men had come to live there. The
general acceptance
of the pidgin-English name Mami wata even in franco-
hone
societies
might be further proof of the Kru thesis.
A second standardizing and at the same time creolizing development was
the inhoduction of an etching made in Germany in lggi of a sàmoan girl
who worked as
a snake
charmer
in a circus-like travelling exhibition of exotic
people.l6
Europeans
brought this picture to Nigeria, and from there its career
started as the ultimate icon of Mami wata.l7 until that time no masks or
sculptures
were known of Mami wata, so this picture obviously fitted exactly
the way people
had imagined her. probably the presence
of snakes
was deci-
sive in this popularity, because
in many west African religions snakes, parti-
cularly pythons, are feared and respected,
as they are considered to be
immortal messengers
from the gods.
Therefore,
they symbol.oethedivination
element which is fundamental
to the Mami wata cult, and Afro-religions in
general.
for that matter,
and they underline Mami wata's po*", ou"rlife and
death.rs
sacred snakes
and divination are part of Afro-surinamese winti and
other Afro-religions in the New world, too. However, these characteristics
seem
to be much less
specifically tied to water goddesses.
. The snake-charmer
poster
also has an Asian connection.
Not only had this
picture
been
printed by thousands
at a time in India since
the 1950s,
tut it also
bccame
influenced
by posters
of Indian gods (like the many-armed
vishnu) as
n rcsult of the presence
of Indian trading communities in East and west
15
Wcntll.
Mumi
wotct,ll3 16.
rí'l'hi$ cxhibition
wus.wncd nnd
dircclcd
by the family of carl Hagenbeck
from
llnmburg.
l7
Í)rewul hnn
delccted
the inlluencc
oí'this prinl in nt lcast l4 countrics,
covcring
4l dillbrerrt
culrurer: "lrrtcrpretnrion,
lnvcntion,
und Re-lrrescntution,"
9ír.
It Jell llnlrherr
& Di Flgwu,
""l'he wnror
rn'rurch ir 'wcsonre'," r0ó r
(x).

330 AlEx vnN Srrpnree.N
Africa since the end of the nineteenth centr.rry,
who were economically very
successful. According to Henry Drewal, "Africans determined that there was
a direct connection between
these Indian images, the beliefs associated
with
them, and Indians' success in financial matters, just as mermaids and other
European icons had been linked with wealth and power."le And, we might
add,
just like the Kru traders.
The third element which influenced the pan-African creolization process of
Mami Wata was urbanization. Urbanization means a loosening, and some-
times even the complete loss, of communal ties such as kinship or village;
instead come individualization, feelings of insecurity, and changing social and
gender relations. In fact, Mami Wata symbolizes all this in one. According to
Barbara Paxson and Sabine Bell-Jahlsen, for instance, she is as unpredictable
and aggressive as city life: she can make people rich or dump them, she
appeals to the individual, not the community, and she gives women in par-
ticular new means of empowerment in sometimes highly sex-segregated
societies
(such as priesthood and the possibility of sudden
wealth;.2o Spirit
possession,
in this case by Mami Wata, is part of this as well. It is a familiar
means of attaining social and psychic harmony and balance, particularly in
crisis situations. At the level of group cultures, it is often regarded as an
escape
valve for frustrated feelings or ambitions, a means of protest against
social exclusion. Some even hold that spirit possession,
as in the case of
Mami Wata, is a means of incorporating the powerful 'Other', and Mami
Wata might herself even be the ultimate 'Other'.2r At least it is her role to be
the symbolic Other in a world in which human 'Others' - Etropeans, Asians,
other Africans - have become increasingly and dominantly present.
Mami V/ata-like cults help people, not only Africans for that matter, to
cope with grcat transitions, and with their sense of being uprooted. That is
exactly what is happening in modemizing postcolonial Africa, and that was
exactly what happened during the Middle Passage and on the slave planta-
tions in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Caribbean. The Mother of
Waters helped people to find a new individuality and at the same time created
a new 'we' in a context in which most people
were 'others', and as a reaction
to a dominant culture, be it colonial or a (westemized) global culture.
The difference between African and Caribbean developments is the time of
her creolization.
In Africa, the psychological
and cultural chaos
and the socio-
le Drewal, "Mermaids, Mirrors, and Snake
Charmers," 40.
'0 Paxson, "Mammy Water: New World Origins?- 413 16,436, and Jell-Bahlsen
& Di Egwu, "'The water monarch
is awesome'," 126-29.
2r Drewal, "Mermaids, Mirrors, and Snake Charmers," l0l-103.
ív A'liltni Wít\,il:
L'ru-olization of a Water Spirit 33r
eeononric
lrarrsitions
in which the Mami wata cult flourishes
took and
take
plncc i' thc cra of (developing)
mass
communication
and increasins
mobilitv.
'l'lris lurs
doubtlcss
contributed
to Mami lvata's intemationalirirrg
Ào-"rto-
tuttd
ncw crcolizing force.
caribbean mothers
of water, such
as
the Surinamese
watramama, creolized and gained momentum during the traumatic experi-
cncos ol' slavery, when mobility within (let alone between) these slave
socictics was limited as much as possible. Intra-African creolization, there-
lilrc, was confined to the (insular) borders of these
individual colonies.
And
dcspitc many more crises after slavery, increasing
intra-caribbean mobility
and communication,
there was probably not enough
coÍlmon ground, and it
was not substantial
enough
to create
a pan-caribbean
water godáess.
However, although creolization of the water Mother in the caribbean
$ccms
to have stopped
a long time ago, it would not surprise
me if she had
startcd
a new cycle of creolization in the caribbean diaspora
in Europe and
thc USA, particularly in New york and Miami. paradoxically, there she has
cvcn expanded
from popular culture to elite culture, as she has become the
subjcct of works by a number of caribbean and African painters, scurptors
and writers which can be fo'nd in westem private collectiÀns,
museums
and
hook shops,
and which are admired by a western public. caribbeans in the
diaspora
now actually meet the Mother of waters in the (art) temples
of the
dominant
or even global culture.
Worrs
Crrro
Achcbc,
Chinua.
Girls at lltar (London: Heinemann,
1972).
Anon. OnÍwerp tot een beschryving van Surinaamen, ca. 1744.
I)rcwal, llcnry J. "lnterpretation, Invention, and Re-presentation
in the worship of
Marni Wata,"
./o
urnal of Folklore Research
25.1-2 (lggg).
. "Mcnnaids, Mirrors, and snake charmers: Igbo Mami wata shrines,,,
African
Arts
21.2
( |
9lltt):
38 45.
lrt'icdmun, Jonathan. cultural ldentity and Global process (Theory, culture and
Socicty
3l; [,ondon:
Sagc,
1994).
llrrrrncrz. ull'. ('ttltunil (implexiÍy: studies in the social organization of Meanmg
(New
York:
('olurrrbia
(.,p,
lg92).
,lcll llnlrlscrr,
Stbinc.
& lizc Mnriri Di Egwu.
'.. Thc water
monarch
is awesome,:
Re_
errrrsitferirrg
thc Mtnrnry wnÍcr Myths," Ánnals of the New york Academv
oí
,\'r'lrzrrls
ltl0 (
l()()7).
Krrurrcr'.
ltrrtt.,'l'lr tlul l,i'z; Árr ttttl spirit
l\n,t<,s.rirtn
in A/ricu,
tr. Malcolm R. Green
( I
r)lí7;
| ,rxxkrrr
& Ncw York
: Vcrso,
|
9r).1).
Nclrvcrr.,l. "Aruroíutics
r4r
lrcl
hock vtur.l.l),
ller.lcin.llcscrhryvirrgc
vitn
rlc volk_
plrrrrlirrgr.
Ziu'itrnutt'"'
(MS.
r,, |
775).

332 Ar,Ex v,tN SrtpnIenN
Oostindie, Gert, & Alex Van Stipriaan. "Slavery and Slave Cultures in a Hydraulic
Society: Suriname," tn Slave Cultures and the Cultures of Slavery, ed. Stephan
Palmié (Knoxville: U of Tennessee
P, 1995).
Paxson, Barbara. "Mammy Water: New World Origins?" Baessler-Archiv'NeueFolge
3l (1983).
Postma, J. The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge
uP,1990).
Salmons,
Jill. "Mammy
Wata,"
African
Arts 10.3
(1977):
8_l3.
Stedman, J.G. Nanative of a Five Years Expeditíon Against the Revolted Negroes of
Surinam, transcribed & ed. Richard & Sally Price (1790; Baltimore MD & London:
Johns
Hopkins UP, 1988).
Wendl, T. Mami wata, oder ein Kultur zwischen den Kulturen (Kulturantlropolo-
gischen Studien
19, Miinster: 1991).
.? Mami Wata: Creolization of a Water Spirit
&*f *tV/o,N$ 4;- g,.{*"**o.
Ft(f t,Rt{
l: F)un4te,
lupported
h.y
Á.lrk,u
& Ámerica,
from
J.G,
slcdnrsn,
Nurrullve
qf'u h'lve,yeors
llxpaditlon
Águinst
the
Revoltctl
Negnre,r'
rl'liurlmm,
Mnnuncript
1790.
ed. R.
*, S.
price
filultinruro
Ml);,lolure
l
lopkilur
t,1,,
l
qtiit)
JJJ

JJ+ ALrx veN STIPRIAAN
-W*"p
d"S "a&
**t)Ë*x,
ffiff"
F I
G
u R E 2: F am ily of Negro Sloves
from Loango, from J.G.
Stedman,
Narrative oJ
a
Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, Manuscript 1790, ed.
R. & S.
Price
(Baltimore MD: Johns
Hopkins LT, 1988)
,ll.ttttr ll':tl;t: t'rt't>ltzation of a Water Soirit
I
i t
t
; t
t
H t, -l
: ('alabash
decorated with a Watramama
Íisure.
ca. I 830
335

tJt
336 Allx veN STIPRIAAN Mmi Wata: Creolization of a Water Spirit
F tti u n n 5: Compound
of Mami Wata
priestess
in Togo, ca. 1978,
from G. Chesi,
Voodoo,
Afrikas geheime Macht (\Nórgl: Perlinger, 1979)
FIGURE 4: Mami Wata
poster