Then there is the story of Mamba Muntu which has more western influences in african folktales.
So Mamba Muntu is a mermaid but it's a white woman usually with a lower body of a snake or a fish.
She has blonde hair and a fair skin and she's not kind and benevolent like Oshun or Mami Wata.
She's a seductress and she's evil which we can see as a western influence.
She can torment and kill humans.
The stories about water spirits and different water divinities have been told in Africa for eons,
Very long time.
And the umbrella term for the African water maidens and mermaids is Mami Wata.
And the word Mami comes from the word Mama which means wisdom in old Egyptian and Ethiopian languages.
And Wata from the early languages of Sudan which means a woman.
Lots of the African folklorists believe that Mami Wata is more linked to the African old culture which was matriarchal and more based in sort of a goddess beliefs.
So Mami Wata is an umbrella term for African mermaids and Mami Wata are usually these men and women who have lower body of a fish or a snake.
Many of these African cultures snake used to represent wisdom and spiritual power.
So in a lot of the Mami Wata imagery,
A lot of the pictures about Mami Wata and representations,
She's this voluptuous woman and she has a snake wrapped around her body.
Mami Wata can also be seen as a snake charmer.
In the later representations Mami Wata turned into a singular image of this one specific goddess.
But we are approaching Mami Wata more as a group of mermaids.
In the African diaspora Mami Wata,
They were usually seen as benevolent.
They were connected to the psychos of nature who guarded things like the overflow of the Nile and brought rain with them.
They affected the agriculture and fishing and hunting and so on.
And it was believed that the Mami Wata was more of a helper spirit.
They could help the people spiritually and mentally and physically.
They could provide food and shelter to them.
They could offer healing and protection and all those things that were needed.
Sometimes Mami Wata is connected to wealth and abundance.
Occasionally Mami Watas are seen as seers and mystics,
Mediums and healers.
So they have these supernatural powers.
Depending on the myth,
Mami Wata could be seen as a physical being or sometimes only as a spiritual being that lived in another spirit plane.
So then a person might be able to connect with them spiritually and use the Mami Wata more as a spiritual guide for themselves rather than being this physical being that people actually believe that existed.
These are all different layers in the mythology of the Mami Wata.
There's lots of variety when it comes to spirituality in Africa and different African countries have different belief systems.
And Mami Wata wasn't always a helper or a benevolent creature.
It could be jealous,
It could be vicious and capricious to those people who did not respect them.
But that is the case with all these mermaid myths.
