Symbols of the Spirit
Images honoring the water spirit Mami Wata are used to draw in the favor of this powerful and rather vain spirit. Her alters are covered in images of beautiful female snake charmers, as seen here, or mermaid like figures, as well as Hindu goddess lithographs--which are all meant to be depictions of this exotic water spirit. Her alters also may have crucifixes decorating them, because it is thought that she was a Christian. She is thought of as being a foreigner, not as being African. Her worshipers seek her favor in order to obtain wealth, beauty, luck, or fertility, among other things. She is seen as a spirit that can impart increased fertility, in yet she herself cannot have children.