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Mami Wata in the African-American Diaspora
Mami Wata Strongly Connected With Descendants of Enslaved Africans
Above: Mama Zogbé initiating African-American man to Mami Wata.
The prevailing literature tends to exclude African-Americans without realizing that they are even more connected to African spirits because of the devastation of slavery in which Mami also suffered. Far too many young black men are suffering mental disorders especially schizophrenia, starting as young as 13 yrs., because the source of their problem is Mami.
New African-American initiate born to Mami Wata. African males serving as priests, mystics, prophets, philosophers, musicians, kings, etc., have been the spouses of Mami since time immemorial.
“The Mami Wata, Mama Tchamba and the Vodou spirits dominate in West Africa, where they honor the many Africans who were enslaved in the New World”.
-Mama Zogbé, USA
By far, one of the most devastating and little written about aspects of slavery in America, was the active suppression and demonization of African religions. The loss of crucial sacred knowledge of the African deities and how they manifest at birth (or any stage of maturation) in the Diaspora, was no longer relied upon or respected by “educated blacks,” desperate to disconnect themselves from what they had been conditioned to believe were “barbaric and primitive African practices.”
As a result, the crucial ritual knowledge needed to reconnect the Diaspora to their deities was lost, greatly contributing to the all pervasive bio-spiritual/psycho-emotional deprivation and social malaise, (i.e. depression, melancholy, schizophrenia, suicide, criminal behavior etc..) that is found in many African-American communities today.Worst, the extreme sense of cultural and spiritual alienation in which mainstreamed (assimilated) middle-class blacks are experiencing in spite of college degrees, and impressive resumes, expresses a great need to critically examine the prevailing myths concerning the religions of their ancestors, and why they had tenaciously clung to them in spite of the specter of ostracism, mockery and death.
Black Americans are born with many spirits that are still connected with their African ancestors. In Togo, West Africa, Mami Wata and Mama Tchamba are strongly connected with the enslaved Africans that were brought over to the New World.
Above: Togolese Mami initiate in full regalia. Mami Wata as the Divine African Mother/God/dess has been worshiped and celebrated around the world for thousands of years.
From Egypt as Isis, in Asia Minor (Ephesus), as Sibyl (Cybele), in Greece as Rhea, Hekate and Artemis, and in Rome as the great Magna Mater, Parvati, amongst her other holy names.
African men maintain a unique distinction amongst the world’s men as being her first and most desired votaries. Prior to the rise of African patriarchy, for more than 6,000 years, African men were originally nurtured under the yoke of matriarchy.
(Photo: © of Hazoumeè & Lionel H.)
Many Africans brought and enslaved in the New World already descend from long lineages of Tchamba and Mami spirits, but are unaware of this based on past and current anthropological literature, which tends to omit them.
Many of these Mami Wata deities are directly connected with the pre-Mohammedan Awussa (Muslim) ancestral lineages that date back more than 1000 years.
In fact, the experience of slavery makes the Diaspora more connected, because of whom Mami and Mama Tchamba represent in Africa and in the lineages that were broken and disrupted.
Black Women are more likely to seek out Mami intuitively knowing their ancestral connection with these ancient deities. However, Black Men who are traditionally initiated to Mami as a balance of their masculine force, are often unaware of their ancestral matrilineal heritage, and pressure is often forced on them to conform to a false machismo not characteristic of ancient African philosophy or culture.
In America, when Black Men are born to Mami Wata, they are often at a loss to explain their spiritual sufferings, and some tend to self-medicate with illicit drugs, alcohol or other dissociative means. Some even resort to crime, or exhibit such psychotic behavior that they are eventually institutionalized.
