In popular media, mermaids are depicted as Barbie-like Disney characters that evoke in us a whimsical imagination of a certain quality of the feminine. I want to tell you today about the Mermaids of Africa – and invite your imagination to go to entirely new places.
Mermaids are well known in African culture – more than known, they are revered, and feared. In Southern Africa, they are called the Mondao. The Mondao is a water spirit in the shape of a snake that lives in water bodies. This shake has tremendous power, and she is said to be in charge of money and abundance. Years ago, I visited rural Zimbabwe where the villagers would not dare take any water from the local river before praying to the water spirit. In the tradition of African Shamanism, the Mondao is one of the non-familiar ancestral spirits that Sangomas (African shamans) may need to learn to work with. I was in a room once with a woman who had the calling to work with the Mondao but hadn’t been initiated into it. When the Mondao came and possessed her, her body was being flung around with a force so intense that it took four of us to hold her down.