Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents a 2017 journal excerpt about Mammy Wata beliefs among Igbo people in Nigeria, West Africa.
This post also provides selected comments from the discussion thread of Larry Gaaga's 2021 YouTube video "Egedege".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, religious, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the researchers whose journal article is quoted in this post. Thanks also to all others who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/10/igbos-memories-of-theresa-onuorah.html for Part III of a three part pancocojams series on "Egedege". Note that besides the comments from the discussion thread for Larry Gaaga's "Egedege" video, a few comments from other discussion threads in that compilation refer directly or indirectly to Egedege and Mami Wata.
Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/01/excerpts-about-meanings-of-color-white.html "Excerpts About The Meanings Of The Color White In Seven Traditional African Cultures" to read other excerpts about Mami wata beliefs and carving descriptions in West Africa,
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JOURNAL ARTICLE EXCERPTS
From http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222017000300076
On-line version ISSN 2072-8050
Print version ISSN 0259-9422
Herv. teol. stud. vol.73 n.3 Pretoria 2017
The disappearing Mammy Water myth and the crisis of values in Oguta, South Eastern Nigeria
Lawrence N. Okwuosa; Nkechi G. Onah; Chinyere T. Nwaoga; Favour C. Uroko
Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Nigeria, Nigeria
[...]
Introduction
The era of myths has been variously described as the pre-logical time in human's history when people believed in gods and goddesses, whose existence and powers were merely the figments of human's imagination. Popular understanding views this to mean that myths are untrue and without any historical backing (Anyacho 2005:12). This kind of submission makes so little of the human spirit, which conceives truth in various ways, especially from its functional aspect. According to Armstrong (2009):
myths may have told stories about gods, but they were really focused on the more elusive, puzzling, and tragic aspects of the human predicament that lay outside the remit of logos. Myth has been called a primitive form of psychology. (p. xi)
As psychology, a myth was aimed at forming people's mind. Before African cultures succumbed to the dominant external cultures and, now globalism, myths were one of the most reliable sources of education, communication, character moulding, installation of peace and unity in the community. Okpewho (1983) narrates that the real basis of myth is not thought but feeling, in it the sensible present is so great that everything else dwindles before it. Hence, it formed part of the unwritten codes of human behaviour written in people's hearts and transmitted from one generation to another unbroken. As this was done in the spirit of communal duty, people's sense of origin and future were formed and sustained. They were drawn into communion with their forebears, who represented their past and in a way their future. Then, for Africans, there was no existential dichotomy between the past and present generations with myths. The different ages were nourished by the same knowledge source. They were expected to act and behave alike with regards to the culture and tradition of the land. This is because according to Mbiti in myths lies a rich wealth of ideas, beliefs, values, literary expressions and the exercise of human imagination (Anyacho 2005:13).
Taking these things into consideration, it is obvious that if Africa's cultures have abandoned the myths that nourished and sustained them like their forbearers that they would not act and live like them anymore. They are bound to fall to the basic principle of change, which is the only permanent thing in life. But what are the possible consequences of this change? What could be the nature of this change? Would it allow for the essential continuity between the past and the present that has sustained African societies in terms of the African identity and the rich African cultural values?
The choice of Mammy Water myth and Oguta people is critical in the sense that though the myth is well known among the Igbo ethnic group of Nigeria, her abode is Oguta Lake. It is a myth, which in the past greatly influenced the people's social, ethical and religious life. This was extensively documented by Flora Nwapa, Nigeria's First Lady of Letters and a native in her masterpiece, Efuru written in 1966 (Nwapa 1966). In her over 20 years of study of Mammy Water in Igbo Culture, Jell-Bahlsen's subject matter was the Mammy Water (Ogbuide) of Oguta Lake (Jell-Bahlsen 2014). Even though these studies tried to bring into limelight the myth's importance in the people's lives, no real study has examined the possible effects of its disappearance in the town. In view of this, there is the need to investigate the social, ethical and religious life of the people without the goddess.
The course of this research would include the following: studying the general understanding of the myth in Oguta, identifying Igbo values that are inherent in the myth, fathoming factors responsible for the disappearing of the myth, the resultant crisis of values, the way forward and conclusion.
The Mammy Water myth in Oguta cosmology
Oguta is an ancient lake town in Igbo land. Because of its water link with the famous River Niger, it became a big economic centre for palm products, yams and fish (Agorua 2015). The people's belief and worship of Mammy Water is as old as the history of the people's sojourn in the land. According to oral tradition, it was the goddess of the lake that chose the people. In the early 19th century when the town was migrating from the old Benin Empire, a certain fisher man Eneke Okitutu, strayed in his fishing expedition and found himself in the lake. He was moved by its glamorous beauty and fish that he went home and mobilized his people. They succeeded to ransack Awa people who were the original inhabitants of the town (Ofili 1998).
The goddess of the lake Mammy Water is known to the natives as Ogbuide or Uhamiri. She is described as a black beautiful woman with the tail of a fish and long black hairs flowing down her shoulders, which she combs with a golden comb. Around her neck are pythons. She is very wealthy and used different kinds of fish as firewood (Nwapa 1966:146). Unlike the other deities in the town, which are worshipped by specific families and villages, she is worshipped by the whole town. She is the reference point in the people's daily life. In the past, as soon as a child was born, it is fed with water from the lake and the mother before resuming her social life put her legs in the lake (Nwapa 1966:33). This rite is performed when somebody dies. The dead person is washed with water from the lake water before burial and the partner at the end of the prescribed mourning period takes his or her bath in the lake. The lake is believed to be the entrance and exit points of every human life in the town. In fact, the natives are called Ndi Mmiri [people of the lake]. The woman of the lake, as the goddess is also called, is worshipped as the goddess of fertility and productivity. She is believed to give barren women children after they agreed to serve her (Jell-Bahlsen 2014:29).
With the bond established at birth, all the natives are believed to be connected to the goddess. This notwithstanding, she has her strict worshippers or ministers, whom she chooses and empowers. Among them are Eze Ugo [the goddess' priest], Eze Nwanyi [the goddess' priestess], Dibia Mmiri [water herbalists], Ogbuides [the goddess' reincarnates], Dada [chosen ones], Nwa Mammy Water [a special devotee], ndi egwu amara [lake dancers], etc. These special worshippers besides having the lake water as shrines in their homes are to keep her taboos. Some of the taboos as recorded by Nwapa (1966) are:
Orie day is her great day. You are not to fish on this day … you should persuade others not to fish. You are not to eat yams on this day. (On this day too) You are not to sleep with your husband (wife). You have to boil, roast or fry plantains on Orie day. Uhamiri likes plantains so much. You can even pound it if you like. When you go to bed, you must be in white on Orie nights. You can sacrifice a white fowl to Uhamiri on this day. When you feel particularly happy, or grateful, you should sacrifice a white sheep to her. Above all you will keep yourself holy. When you do all these, then you will see for yourself what the woman of the lake would do for you. (p. 151)
Other ordinances include forbidding of the killing or eating of aquatic tortoise, crocodile, and python, that are her favourites animals. Menstruating women, mourning widows and widowers and people under oath are also forbidding from bathing in the lake. Likewise, teenagers are not allowed to bath with their clothes in the lake (I. Ezeugo, pers commun, 12 March 2015).
Besides giving children to women, the woman of the lake is known to make people especially women wealthy. She protects the town from invaders, diseases, and misfortunes. The lake naturally serves as a protective shield for the people from invaders. It is believed among the natives that people with dangerous charms, murderers, adulterers, rapists, thieves cannot cross the lake without any negative consequence on them. According to oral tradition, the goddess protected the town during the Nigeria-Biafra war in 1968 by capsizing all the enemy's gunboats that ventured into the lake to attack the people (I. Ezeugo, pers commun, 12 March 2015).
Fundamental Igbo values in the Mammy Water myth
The myth of Mammy Water is adduced as a religious belief. Like every other religious belief in Igbo culture, it is a gift from Chukwu [God] rich in traditional values. Some of the values easily discernible from the myth are given in the following.
Respect for life and human dignity
Life, among the Igbo people, is considered the highest gift from the Supreme God, Chukwu. Every other gift from God is founded on life and among all the things that have life human being is the most precious thus buttressing the name Mmadu, which means the beauty of life. Human life is very precious that the murder of a relation, suicide, euthanasia, and abortion are considered abominations and desecration of the land.
To portray the inestimable value of life among the Igbo people, we have Igbo names like Ndubuisi [life is supreme], Ndukuba/Ndukaaku [life is more precious than wealth], Ndudi [with life there is hope], Ndubueze [life is king], Nduma [life knows all], Ndulaka [life decides all], etc. In the same vein, to show how close human life is related to God, we have Igbo names like Chibundu [God is life], Chinwendu [God owns life], Chilendu [God is life's provider], Chikwendu [God wills life], etc.
Because of the value attached to life, the people perpetuate it via procreation and the belief in reincarnation. These are two basic beliefs that the Mammy Water myth propagates. The goddess, as we have pointed out already, is known for giving children to barren women. Her ordinances are pro-life and deter the natives from doing anything that might endanger other people's lives. Her disdain for death is unequalled in the sense that anything dead does not pass through the lake without appeasement. In this culture, euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment is unheard of. They are intolerable and merit immediate punishment from the goddess. On the contrary, Christianity, though it does not support the above vices, tends to be merciful to the offenders (Mt 5:7).
Gender sensitivity
Igbo culture is adduced to be patriarchal by nature and tends to limit the operational sphere of the womenfolk (Achufusi 1994:159). On the contrary, this is not the case in Oguta. Even though in some Igbo communities, some women are priestesses, the office is majorly dominated by men. In the mammy water cult in Oguta, it is purely all women's affairs at the top cadre. The Eze Ugo who is a male priest is an exceptional case. In fact, in the history of the town, only one man has held the position and he was the father of the Eze Nwanyi, Ifunaya Ezeugo (I. Ezeugo, pers commun, 15 March 2015). Mammy Water's ministers and strict members are mostly women and they are abundantly blessed. This is what the native doctor explained to Efuru, a new recruit of the goddess, concerning her calling in Nwapa (1966):
You are a great woman … It is a great honour. She is going to protect you and shower riches on you. But you must keep her laws. Look round this town, nearly all the storey buildings you find are built by women who one time or another have been worshippers of Uhamiri … Uhamiri is a great woman. She is our goddess and above all she is very kind to women. (p. 153)
Invariably, the myth recognises and promotes women in the society. Mammy Water is the symbol and patron of women's wealth (Jell-Bahlsen 2014:145). In fact, Oguta women, who are more successful traders than their husbands, are believed to have received their wealth from Mammy Water. Because of this, they are socially and economically independent and mobile. Even today, Oguta women may marry other women for her husband or marry wives for her son. Following Mammy Water's requirements of sexual abstinence for 2 years after a child's birth, an Oguta woman would at most bear two children in 6 years. This practice has been adjudged beneficial to women and puts lesser burden on the family (Jell-Bahlsen 2014:143, 250).
Recognising the physical weakness and vulnerability of women, the goddess never failed to protect Oguta women at their moments of needs and against exploitations. A good example is the story of an Oguta girl whose pot of soup was tampered with by another patient in a hospital at Onitsha. After crying, the girl prepared another pot of soup with fresh fish from the lake. As usual, the thief went again for the soup but this time in the attempt to take fish from the pot, her hand hooked to the fish's head in the pot of soup. She cried out in great pains and was thus caught red-handed. The Oguta girl on seeing what has happened started singing and praising the goddess in these words: 'The woman of our lake has fought for one of her daughters today' (Nwapa 1966:130). The general belief of the people is that the woman of the lake protects not just the women and children but everybody. It could then be said that the myth is the champion of gender equality against the Christian impression that women are merely a rib of man (Gen 2:22) and his helper (Gen 2:18).
Promotion of respectable togetherness
In Africa, the community is the supreme custodian and strength of all. The individual person belongs to the community who forms and guarantees each individual's identity. In view of this, the individual person believes what others in the community believe (Mbiti 1969:67). This is the case in Igbo land, where the individual is regulated and measured according to the acceptable norms of the society. A person's importance and dignity are measured according to his or her integration into a given community and active participation in its beliefs and traditions.
In Oguta, the rallying point for the community in terms of identity, beliefs and occupation is the lake and its goddess. They derive their identity from the lake as Ndi Mmiri. They also derive their sustenance as farmers, fishermen and traders and social norms for peaceful coexistence from the ordinances of the lake goddess. For example, despite the fact that the lake is the people's centre of interaction, there are basic norms to uphold in order to curb immoralities in the town. For example, men and women, even when they are married, are prohibited from swimming together in the lake (Nwapa 1966:137), going out together at night (Nwapa 1966:118) and kissing in public (Nwapa 1966:122). Furthermore, anyone who killed his kinsperson atones for it till death (Nwapa 1966:151), anyone who stole was sold into slavery (Nwapa 1966:176) and anyone who took a false oath and died of it was thrown into the evil forest (Nwapa 1966:183). In this way, a healthy togetherness was built that guaranteed everyone a safe space to operate. Women, men, and children have their different but complementary roles to play in the house, farm and society. According to Achebe (1958), Christianity has touched the things that have united the traditional people making the centre not to hold anymore for them. Christianity in Igbo land is multifaceted. It has different denominations whose doctrines contradict themselves and put their members at loggerheads.
The Sense of the sacred
In Igbo traditional culture, profanity does not exist. Everything is sacred because everything belongs to the gods or inhabited by the gods. The Igbo existential experience is one that involves fully the participation of the divinities in various ways. Hence, Igbo life is roundly religious and sacred. It is the same value that the myth of Mammy Water creates in the life of Oguta people. The woman of the lake is their daily companion. She is revered at all times, at birth when people are happy and at death when they are sorrowing and invoking her help. Accused persons swear in her name to prove their innocence while the guilty dread mentioning it. The belief is that wherever her shrine is enthroned the place and the people involved must be pure and honest. Hence her ministers, Eze Ugo (the priest), Eze Nwanyi (the priestess) and Dibia Mmiri (water herbalists) in order to be effective must avoid evil. They cannot divinise anything if they commit evil or work effectively for a person who is evil. Evil blinds them from seeing the gods (Nwapa 1966:152).
With the myth, the people are conscious of their relationship with the gods and their dead ancestors, especially with regards to the observance of the numerous rites and ordinances prescribed by the lake goddess. Christian understanding of the imperative 'subdue and lord over the earth' (Gen 1:28) creates a dichotomy among created realities. Christians kill at will local totems to exhibit this dominion against the tradition of the local people (Achebe 1958:112).
Factors responsible for the disappearing Mammy Water myth
Western civilisation in its varied forms has been blamed for the cultural change in Africa. According to Omirima, the village gossiper in Nwapa's Efuru, said that: 'The world is changing. It is now the world of the white people. We and our grandfathers don't seem to count these days. We are old' (1966:194-195). Ajanupu another prominent character in the celebrated novel reiterated this: 'Only school children are ignorant of our customs and traditions' (Nwapa 1966:212). The fact remains that culture clashes and changes are inevitable phenomena in the world that is continuously turning into a global village. In this situation, one culture freely and gradually assimilates qualities from another or one culture is enforced on another based on superiority complex or supremacy theory. In the later case, inestimable values are lost with the negation of people's unique life experiences and beliefs.
In the case of the Oguta people, formal Western education and Christian religion were craftily introduced to displace the people's cultural practices and traditions. This religious colonisation and foreign incursion affected greatly the Mammy Water myth.
Formal Western Education: Ukeje (1978:2) defined education as a process by which people are acclimatised to the culture into which they are born in order that they may advance. In the simplest language, it is the process by which people are prepared to live effectively and efficiently in their environment. Using this as the benchmark for our study, we can say that education is a process of self-discovery, which includes the mastering of oneself and environment. Through education, one becomes not only useful to oneself alone but also relevant to the entire community of provenance. Resultantly, education enhances community values.
Prior to the advancement of the colonial masters in Nigeria and the arrival of Christian missionaries, each ethnic group had its own traditional form of education based on its own culture and tradition. The curriculum that is informal comprises developing the child's physical skill, character, intellectual skills and sense of belonging to the community as well as inculcating respect for elders and instituted authority and giving specific vocational training and the understanding and appreciation of the community's cultural heritage (Imam 2012:182). The family system played an important role in this form of education. Grandparents most of the times had the duty to look after their grandchildren and in this way inculcate to them the customs and tradition of the people. Obviously, the wisdom, ageless cultural values and traditions of forbears were effectively passed to the younger generation.
With formal Western education, the priority shifted from local content preservation and enhancement to that of sustaining the interest of the colonial masters, which was mostly commercial. Enwo-Irem (2013:165) noted that the motive behind the introduction of formal education by the colonialists was not really aimed at enhancing the development of their colony Nigeria. The colonial agents had a series of problems in administrating the people and in the exploitation of natural resources in the land. They had the problem of acceptance of the colonial agents in some parts of the country and that of language barrier in areas where the local people appeared to have accepted the colonial agents. So they decided to use education to tackle some of the problems and not empower the people to be self-reliant, confident and proud Africans, who would uplift their culture and tradition.
Because the interest was more on educating vital personnel who would service the chains of production in the colonial administration and serve as internal eyes and ears, a kind of saboteurs, for commercial and economic imperialists, the scope and standard of education received by the natives were limited. They were trained merely as gardeners, carpenters, masons, tailors, clerks, interpreters, catechists and local school masters (Nwankiti 1996:36). These 'chosen' few were made to feel privileged and important over others. Armed with the power of a foreign language that others did not understand, a well-paid job and the connection of the masters, they became little 'lords' over their own people, in imitation of their arrogant and rapacious colonists. They started treating their people, especially the village heads and chiefs, with scorn and even challenged their authority. To undermine the local powers and demonstrate their superiority over them, the learned natives started undermining the cultures and traditions of the people without any reprimand from their colonial masters. Consequently, the individual interest was enthroned over the communal interest. The traditions and customs were eroded. Seeing this new-found liberty and the largess that goes with it, so many people, especially those who felt disadvantaged and deprived in the society, embraced Western education as a way of emancipating themselves. A new culture was enthroned displacing the people's culture and tradition.
Consequently, according to Jell-Bahlsen (2014:1-2), local myths were seen as old garbage, fetish, pagan and meaningless ramblings of primitive minds that have no place in the modern world of science and technology. They were seen as imageries without the capacity whatsoever to salvage man or help him discover the true meaning of life. Hence, colonial research was slow to accept the notion of an African water goddess. The conquerors of territories were more interested in the earth than in water they could not control and whose importance they would not fathom. Yet, African villagers have long known about the importance of water and its goddess to their existence, survival, and well-being. Though women bring children and life into this world, there is no life without water and the goddess that guarantees it.
The colonialists' reluctance to learn from the natives or incorporate their culture into the new emerging culture is an old rhyme recited everywhere in the black African continent. It shows the culture of obliteration, which the Mammy Water myth was subdued. By discrediting the myths as credible educational sources, the natives were denied not only a didactic means akin to their cultural nature but also a unifying link with their ancestors. By discrediting the myths, the people's worldview and values were debased.
Christian Religion: Christianity in Nigeria, as anywhere else in Africa, was motivated by the will to evangelise and extricate the people from the devil's jaws and eternal hell fire. With this objective, Christian missionaries in Africa worked tirelessly to substitute African Traditional Religion (ATR) with Christianity. There was no design for religious dialogue, enculturation or acculturation. To justify their mission, according to Ugwu and Ugwueye (2004) ATR was contemptuously described as native, pagan, heathen, juju, fetish, animism, idolatry, primitive and polytheism. It was associated with anything denigrate like witchcraft, ghosts, hobgoblins, charms, superstitions, evil omens, magic, etc.
This dialectical approach employed by the missionaries which negated any form of dialogue with the people in terms of ethos, socio and religious values, in their proclamation of the gospel, put the gospel and the recipient culture at loggerhead. There was complete derision, condemnation and destruction of Africa Tradition Religion's native rites, arts and artefacts by overzealous churchgoers. Shrines and native places of worship were burnt and sacred observances violated. Sacred totems were killed (Achebe 1958:112). Mammy Water was not spared. Awfully, the act of demonising the other, which happens to be the Christian tactic, was employed on the myth and it was roundly condemned. She was called a mermaid and queen of the coast. Jell-Bahlsen (2014:237) revealed that diverse water gods and goddesses were all lumped together as 'mammy water' and branded as 'aquatic evil spirits'. The term Mammy Water was used as a simplified synonym for all water deities and, moreover, placed on the same level or associated with physical properties such as barrenness, accidents, untimely death, etc.
The resistance by the natives was not enough to forestall the incursion and destruction of their culture by the combined efforts of the missionaries and their nationalists, the colonial masters (Achebe 1958:114). Native culture and tradition yielded to the demands of the gospel involuntarily and cosmetically. The result is that today many Africans are inwardly more Traditionalists than Christians. In their different Christian denominations, they have imported certain aspects of ATR like songs, titles, clapping of hands and superstitions. Some of these Christian believers in their moments of crisis seek help more from the native religion than from Christianity."...
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SOME COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR LARRY GAAGA'S VIDEO "EGEDEGE" THAT I BELIEVE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY REFER TO MAMI WATA
These comments are all from 2021 and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
1. Oseni Enemayi Michael
"This Woman did a good job in the Chorus,I don't understand
Igbo bit the rhythm is mad gan.😍"
**
Reply
2. Martez Uwa
"She own the original song , the song is more than 30yre old
, what she is saying in the music is it’s time to have fun and who will come
and dance with me , this is a moonlight music in the olden days , where people
come out at night and gather to dance together mostly when there is a full moon
🌕"
**
3. The Watcher
"Wow. very soon your pastor will tell you this
heavenly song is inspired by evil spirit and you stupid fool will follow him or
her. Igbo culture is divine. egedege all
the way"
**
4. nnaji emeka
"It’s great to bring Theresa out for the new generation to know and see her . It’s good to
put her image out to many youth who grew up to know her as ( mami water)
musician that she’s just a good musician without any negative name attached to
her . Much respect ."
**
Reply
5. Maryjane Okpala
**
6. Tiktok funny kings and queens
"Dis woman is not far from mami water 💦
aswear her voice is too beautiful 🤩"
**
7. Soughtafter
"That maami water ish is So true🤣🤣🤣🤣"
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