Sacred Waters

by Drewal, Henry John

• ISBN13: 9780253351562
• ISBN10: 0253351561
• Edition: DVD
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-17
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Sacred Waters focuses on the arts, rituals, and religions associatedwith Mami Wata and other deities in Africa and its diasporas. Mami Wata, pidginEnglish for Mother Water, is a beautiful, seductive water spirit who brings wealthand good fortune to those she favors. Practices associated with winning her favor,widespread in West Africa and the Black Atlantic diaspora, are explored in 46 richand perceptive essays by an international group of scholars and practitioners. Thisbook addresses the diversity of belief and practice, audiences, gender, reception,hybridity, commodification, globalization, dispersal, and religious mutation of MamiWata rituals. It includes more than 129 images and a supplemental DVD featuringnearly 500 images, several photographic essays, and film clips ofperformance/rituals, and music. As the first volume to probe the depth and scope ofwater deity arts and cultures, Sacred Waters is a definitive resource and landmarkreference tool for readers in a wide range of academicdisciplines.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

Note on Terminology and Orthography
Charting the Voyage	p. 1
Mami Wata and the Sierra Leone Diamonds: Wealth and Enslavement in Men's Dreams and the State Economy	p. 19
Enchanted Rivers: True Stories about Water Spirits from the Niger Delta	p. 27
Burumo Painting: Reflections of the Waterspirit World upon the Body of a Waterspirit-Carrying-Woman	p. 49
Water Spirits in Water-less Places: The Case of Madame Sabot	p. 75
Mami Wata, Mr. White, and the Sirens off Bar Beach: Spirits and Dangerous Consumption in the Nigerian Popular Press	p. 87
A Memoir of Mami Wata in Azumini	p. 95
Tale of the Achikobo: It's the Tail That Is Mine	p. 105
Mami Wata, Wealth-Owning Spirits, and Changing Economic Morals in West Africa	p. 115
Congolese Mami Wata: The Charm and Delusion of Modernity	p. 125
Tafisula or The Mami Wata: A Mwondo Theatre Production	p. 143
A Fish Out of Water: The Inland Migration of the Dona Fish to the Luapula Plateau, Zambia	p. 157
Abidjan Mamiwater and Aba Yaba: Two Profiles of Mami/Maame Water Priesthood in Ghana	p. 171
A Tribute to Mami Wata Vodun Supreme Chief Daagbo Hounon Houna	p. 191
The Laughing Vodou Goddess: A Photo-Essay	p. 209
Mami Wata: The Goddess of Water and Beauty Lives	p. 213
The Mami-Wata Phenomenon: "Old Wine in New Skin"	p. 217
Mami Wata, Water Spirits, and Returners in and near the Igbo Culture Area	p. 229
Dada-Dreadlock-Hair: The Hidden Messages of Mammy Water in Southeastern Nigeria	p. 245
Mermaids and Mami Wata on Brassware from Old Calabar	p. 259
The Ejagham Interpretation of a Sculpture of Mami Wata	p. 277
Mami Watas, Miengu, and Mermaids: Water Spirits of Coastal Cameroon	p. 293
Water Spirits and Mermaids: The Copperbelt Chitapo Brian Siegel
Mummy Wata Goes South: An Interview with a Zulu Devotee	p. 315
"Oh hurry to the river!" uMamlambo Models in the Eastern Cape, South Africa	p. 325
Mami Wata: The Slippery Mermaid Phenomenon	p. 339
Mammy Wata, Inc	p. 351
Mami Wata: An Urban Presence or the Making of a Tradition in Benin City, Nigeria	p. 361
Mami Water as a Christian Demon: The Eroticism of Forbidden Pleasures in Southern Ghana	p. 383
Mami Wata: A Vanishing Art in Port Harcourt, Nigeria	p. 399
Mermaids and End-Time Jezebels: New Tales from Old Calabar	p. 405
The Intersection of Evangelism, AIDS, and Mami Wata in Popular Music in Centrafrique	p. 413
The Role of Mammy Wata as an Agent for the Promotion of Ogoni National Identity	p. 423
Of Micro-hydros and Mami Wata: Rural Development Meets Mythological Reality	p. 435
The Bride of the Rain in North Africa	p. 447
Death of the Mermaid and Political Intrigue in the Indian Ocean	p. 451
Somewhere under Dan's Rainbow: Joseph Kossivi Ahiator's "India Spirits" in His Mami Wata Pantheon	p. 467
Inbetweeners: Mamiwata and the Hybridity of Contemporary African Art	p. 479
Jack Akpan's Mammy-Water	p. 493
The Creation and Consecration of a Mami Wata Sculpture	p. 507
Communicating with the Gods: An Altar Dedication to Mami Wata	p. 511
The Ever-Changing Face of Watramama in Suriname: A Water Goddess in Creolization since the Seventeenth Century	p. 525
Saramaka Sea Gods	p. 549
Arts for the Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou	p. 561
Sodo, Haiti, 1997-2001: The Pilgrimage to Healing Waters - A Photo-Essay	p. 569
Misterios: The Making of a Documentary as a Way of Exploring One's Own Faith	p. 573
Mami Wata - "It's in the Blood": A Personal Journal of Ancestral Resurrection in the Aftermath of Slavery	p. 579
List of References	p. 593
List of Illustrations and Other Media	p. 627
Index	p. 657
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.