Mami Wata altar

The worship of Mami Wata is a transnational cult of West Africa and Congo, which holds together African, European and Indian elements, showing the global involvement of Africa itself. The iconographic origin of Mami Wata comes from the chromolithographs produced in Europe at the end of the 19th century and widespread in India and Africa starting from the 1940s and 1950s. These images portray a woman with long black hair who holds a snake in her hands and around her neck, which is defined, depending on the place, Queen of women, or Queen of the waters or Mermaid. Its worship is linked to Western consumerism: its beauty and its richness are excessive, she charms and she is associated with the wellness by her worshippers. Despite being strongly linked to feminity, her sexual identity is ambiguous and can aslo take on male features, such as that of Densu, a Hindu deity with three heads and six arms placed in Togo.