The reading regarding African Mermaids was very interesting and telling of how interconnected the African people are with their environment as all of their gods and deities are linked to some part of nature. The story I wanted to focus on specifically is the one regarding Yemaja the “Mother of Fish”. When we are first introduced to her we are told that she is a water goddess who married her brother Shango, God of Thunder, and that she is associated with women, family, motherhood, and the arts. When the people of Yoruba were taken into the transatlantic slave trade, they took their beliefs about Yemaja with them and she is not worshiped in Brazil, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and the United States. I found that to be very impressive, but also shocking due to the fact that she is very well known across many lands, even my own, yet this is the first time I am hearing her story; yet I’ve heard of the little mermaid a myriad of times. It simply goes to show the selectiveness in which stories are told and which are not. It’s important to represent every culture in the media so the rich history they bring with them are not forgotten.
On another note, I wanted to speak on the unsettling subjects within her story; maybe this is why Disney did not pick up this myth? In Yemaja’s story it is said that she marries her other brother, Aganju, and bores a child, Orungan. If the incest wasn’t unsettling enough, her son ends up having a lustful crush after her, and when her husband leaves, he takes advantage of her by force. She then runs away and he pursues after her, convincing her that he should be her husband sort of like the modern day side piece. Then basically with so much fear turns into an entire body of water which saves her from the current situation that she was in. I feel like as bizarre that it kind of does the same thing as when the women were thrown into the water were also saved by the water spirit. Although, Yemaja is the water spirit in this case, I can see how the water is a cleansing and safe environment through these lenses.
Hi Carina,
I enjoyed your critique of this myth. I did want to point out, as was discussed in class, many of the myths that we are well versed in like those of the greeks and the Judeo-Christian myths often have the presence of taboos just as much as the myths we studied this week. Yet they are still venerated by so much of the world, company’s like Disney have had no issue exploiting and “cleansing” these stories to fit their desired audiences. Why then do we pay more attention to the violence of these African myths and at the same time sanitize the violence present in the myths that we grew up with? I believe we lose a lot of perspective when we ascribe our western views of morality onto stories without evaluating them at face value. I enjoyed that we touched on this subject within the classroom and I would really enjoy discussing that further and to hear people’s thoughts on this.