Who Is Mami Wata: My Encounters from Africa to Asia
Who Is Mami Wata: My Encounters from Africa to Asia
My father (center), my brother (left), and myself (right)in Kpando Volta Region, Ghana in 1996
Although I was born and raised as a third-generation Ewe Vodu priest, I didn’t learn or experience Mami Wata until adulthood. My father, who has run a Vodu shrine, Afrikan Magick Temple, in Ghana for over 30 years, was deeply skeptical about Mami Wata, warning us about "charlatan priests using the name Mami Wata, promising get-rich-quick solutions because of its popularity." Despite hearing its name in songs, films, and stories growing up in Ghana, I never learned about it deeply as a boy.
Even today, Mami Wata represents a truly pan-African deity. Contemporary Afrobeats songs like Omah Lay's "Holy Ghost" (2023), French-Guinean Gazo and Tiakola’s "Mami Wata" (2024), or the global African surf brand Mami Wata prove this. Scholars like Henry John Drewal (1988) have explored Mami Wata's pan-African presence, iconography, and cultural significance across Africa.
Mami Wata, meaning Mother Water in pidgin English, refers to a pantheon of African marine deities from various water bodies. Although the term is relatively new, it includes age-old African and non-African deities, including even Hindu ones.
Despite its name, Mami Wata can be male, female, or both and may appear in vivid dreams, through sleep paralysis, or as humans, mermaids, and various animals. For devotees, Mami Wata aids in clairvoyance, healing, love, good fortune, childbirth, and more. While some have an innate connection, initiation is essential for safe and effective interaction. Many born with this innate connection often have a close affinity with water.
At Tanah Lot Temple in Bali, Indonesia, which is home to the “Holy Snake” and Hindu-Bali Sea Deity, Dewa Baruna
My First Encounter With Mami Wata
Togbe (Bokor) Dafliso blindfolded me and did the eye-opening ritual for me in Nsawam in 2013.
My first encounter with a Mami Wata priest was my late elder, Togbe Agbovi Dafliso, a revered Togolese Afa (Ifa) and Yewe Vodu priest and a close friend of my father. My father and I would often travel hours from Accra to his village for divination sessions. Togbe's abilities always left me in awe; he could reveal details like what food you ate before arriving through Afa divination.
Herbs and oils being placed on the eye during the ceremony
Togbe Dafliso washing my face during the ritual
When it was time for me to undergo rituals to “open my eyes” to enhance my skills as a priest, my father entrusted me to Togbe. I vividly remember the intense ritual: Togbe washed my face with herbs, applied burning oils to my eyes, and blindfolded me before taking me inside his Mami Wata shrine to pray for me. I vividly remember it was a painful experience, but Togbe reassured me, "Nothing will happen to you, Sena. To acquire power is not an easy thing."
What struck me most about his Mami Wata shrine were the depictions on the walls: a Hindu-like deity with blue-green skin, a three-headed light-skinned deity, and a white horse. “Who is Mami Wata? Why would an African deity not be depicted as black? ” I thought to myself, but remained silent and just observed.
Posing in front of Togbe Dafliso’s Mami Wata Shrine during the filming of ReVodution: Voodoo Education in 2015
After returning from school abroad a few months later, I visited Togbe during Christmas. He told me that a river Mami Wata had possessed him during his annual rituals and instructed him to give me a silver ring. This ring, consecrated with specific rituals, was the last gift Togbe gave me before he passed away a few months later.
My Mami Wata Initiation
My mother (left), me (center), and my father (right) during my gradation from Middelbury College in Vermont, USA.
Almost ten years passed, and I had forgotten about the ring. After graduating from college, I finally got initiated into Mami Wata by a trusted priest. Although we were all initially skeptical, we decided to learn from him.
The night of the initiation, I had a dream where I heard a voice say, “I have been with you for a long time, it is just now you are seeing me.” That same night, my father experienced sleep paralysis and had three entities—two male and one female—appear in his bedroom.
My father, Bokor Christopher Voncujovi, in his hometown, Hohoe, Volta Region, Ghana
The female entity sat on his bed and placed her hand on his leg while the two male entities, who appeared Caucasian, had faces that continuously transmuted. Although he was quite uncomfortable with their visit and temporarily immobilized, Mami reassured him, “Don’t worry, we are not here to harm you, just to visit,” before they left.
“It was very uncomfortable, but at least I am happy that what they taught us is real.” my father told us. (You can hear his full account on ReVodution: Voodoo Education here).
This reminded me of a similar experience I had a few months after Togbe Dafliso performed the eye-opening ritual for me. As a freshman in an American college, I was violently woken one night by my bed shaking like an earthquake. Paralyzed and only able to move my eyes, I saw something snake-like approaching me. Terrified, I closed my eyes until the shaking stopped. My roommate felt nothing, and there was no record of an earthquake.
At the time, I knew nothing about Mami Wata. I was so shaken by this encounter (even though my divination indicated it was a good spirit that visited me) that I stopped following the eye-opening rituals Togbe had taught me for a few years until I grew older and more knowledgeable.
Mami Encounter in Asia and the World
Bokor Sena Voncujovi divining Afa for Japanese clients in Tokyo, Japan
Soon after my initiation, I left for Tokyo, Japan. Despite my father's and my doubts, I wanted to test the deity myself. It was in Japan that the deity began to reveal itself in its full complexity and diversity.
Benzaiten
One day, I had a hunch to collect seawater at Enoshima Shrine, about an hour and a half from Tokyo. There, I discovered the 1900-year-old shrine of Benzaiten, one of Japan's seven lucky gods and the only female deity among them. Benzaiten, originating from the Hindu goddess Saraswati but syncretized into the Japanese Shinto religion, is associated with water, music, and learning- everything that flows.
Sanja Festival — Benzaiten Palanquin Carried Into The Sea In Japan
During the annual Sanja festival, her palanquin (mikoshi) is carried into the sea to purify it, and she is linked to dragons and a white snake.
Itsukishima Shrine In Japan On The Sea
In Japanese folklore, Benzaiten appears in the Enoshima Engi tale, where she tames a five-headed dragon named Gozuru by transforming him into a protector. Enoshima, Itsukushima, and Hogon-ji are her major shrines, with Itsukushima famously built on the sea. Discovering this was fascinating, and I commemorated my visit by buying a Benzaiten talisman and an Ofuda scroll, which I later placed on my Mami’s shrine as instructed through divination.
Linking Mami Wata with Japan’s Sea Goddess Benzaiten
Enoshima Shrine — Over 1900 Years Old
A few months after my experience at Enoshima Shrine, I received a request for an Afa divination from a friend in Tokyo, facing very serious career and health challenges. Although she was not a Vodu practitioner or even of African descent, my Afa divination indicated that Mami Wata was following her and that she needed to get initiated to resolve her problems.
She later told me that before consulting me, she had contacted a Japanese diviner who told her a marine spirit associated with a dragon named Benzaiten was following her. The name didn't initially ring a bell, but when I cross-checked the Chinese characters (kanji), they matched the characters on the Ofuda scroll on my Mami Shrine. This revelation linked Benzaiten and Mami Wata to me, and I was ecstatic to discover it.
Global Connections and Discoveries
Since then, I have encountered and worked with marine deities from different cultures. I discovered Phaya Nak, the Thai water serpent-dragon deity, and Mazu, the Chinese sea goddess from Fujian, associated with the Chinese white dolphin. (During my first visit to Xiamen, while discussing Mazu, two white Chinese dolphins made a very rare appearance, surprising even locals, some of whom had never seen them before except in legends.
Phaya Nak Shrine — Thai Water Serpent (King of Naga) In Thailand -the shrine of Khun Yuwaree who taught my father over 40 years ago when he lived in Bangkok.
I also discovered Astarte, the patron sea goddess of Cyprus, and Adonis, worshipped by the Phoenicians as far back as 900 BC. These deities included both male and female ones, Caucasian ones, dark and light-skinned ones, and even Asian-looking ones. Each is unique, and it is up to each initiate to cultivate their relationships with them.
The diversity of Mami Wata, I learned, is as varied as the human race, contrary to the narrative that they can only be one race. They often appear not just in human form but also as various animals, both aquatic and non-aquatic, such as crocodiles, turtles, seahorses, and lions. Those I have initiated have ranged from practitioners of African traditions like Isese to non-practitioners from Africa to Europe to Asia to the Americas, and their experiences have given me a more holistic understanding of what Mami Wata is.
The depictions on Togbe Dafliso’s Mami Wata Shrine wall now make sense: the Indian deity, the horse, and the three-headed man. Now for me, the race, gender, or appearance of Mami Wata is irrelevant; what matters is the efficacy and proper initiation for the deity to reveal itself. We don't dictate its nature; we do the right things so they will reveal themselves to us.
Although the term “Mami Wata” is relatively new, the divinity behind it is as old as the universe itself. Scientific finds have revealed that some particles, even in the water we drink, are over 4.8 billion years old. By connecting to one, we connect to all.
Excerpts from Henry John Drewal (1988)’s Performing The Other: Mami Wata Worship in Africa
If you are interested in learning more about Mami Wata, you can follow our pages on Instagram (@voncujovi) and Facebook (ReVodution: Voodoo Education). If you’re unsure or want clarification about your connection with Mami Wata, you can book a consultation (divination sessions) with our team here.
