Mami Wata: How Government Began
Be careful where you step
by the river or by the sea:
Water, she get no enemy.
Do not tread upon the old one.
Mami Wata was the ruler
of Sahara’s rosary:
lakes to the sunrise ceremony,
all the way from western ocean
Papa Legba of the crossroads
was land born from the sea;
fenced in, he believed himself not free:
riparian earth and sediments.
He gathered land-men far and wide
to go to parliament,
claim equality of descent,
to break the circle of Mami Wata.
They swore a suicide a month
until they got their way,
to reduce the mothers’ sway
and establish patriarchy.
Mami Wata ebbed and withdrew
to her palace lazuli
far away from the crazy
genocide of the dusty men.
Such is how we got government…
and Sahara desert…
leaving just aquifers covert…
and children soldiers bearing guns.
--
notes
Mami Wata - goddess of the waters (West African, Haitian)
Sahara's rosary - the string of paleo-lakes and rivers of the once lush Sahara. Of course, we mean all such ancient waters, ocean and all, and referring to the "rosary" of the Sahara is using a part for the whole.
Legba - a male god of the crossroads (West African, Haitian)
The picture is supposed to be a depiction of a lwa. (pronounced "L-WA"), and perhaps Mami Wata, although it does not resemble the usual depictions of her.
SYNOPSIS
Mami Wata is goddess of waters. Here I picture her primeval spirit of the world. The land came later, and it is pictured as male, as seen by Papa Legba. To break the matriarchy of the goddess - and goddesses - of the waters, the oceans, the lakes, the rivers, Legba and like-minded men threatened to kill themselves until they were granted power.
The Mothers could not bear to watch their children kill themselves, so they withdrew from the places of mankind's power and authority, and the patriarchy and all it entails was set up.
(I am late getting this up. I have been back and forth between my parents' place; they had a cat crisis and we had trips to the vet.)
