Mask Zauli Mami Wata

Zauli masks are masks with a human face that participate in fun parties. The word Zaulí designates both the mask and the traditional dance of the country. The Zauli mask is also called "Djelalu Zaouli" meaning "Zauli daughter of Djela". Although it has become one of the most important masks, next to the Zamblé, dates only from the middle of the century XX. This mask favors the productivity of the village. This mask is a representation made in honor of Mummy Wata, divinity of the water known in almost all of Black Africa. The face of the mask, yellow, responds to the classic criterion of the Zauli mask. is surrounded by a snake of black and white tones. On the head of the mask figure, erect and threatening, the head of the snake next to a bird of difficult identification. Mommy Wata is a protective deity.

The myth of Mami Wata extends over a wide area of the African continent, especially along the Atlantic side. Of imprecise origin, the character seems to have been influenced by myths by European mermaids with a mixture of ideas taken from Christian and Muslim saints and Hindu and Oriental beliefs. Mami Wata is the "mother of water", a kind of protective goddess, beautiful and seductive at the same time dangerous. In the cults in his honor, practiced since the century XV, acquires many different names, Oxum, Santa Marta la Dominadora, Lasirén, Yemanjá and very different forms according to the regions in addition to the new forms implanted in America since the arrival of the first slaves of the Atlantic Route, but either in the form of mermaid or Hindu deity the company of the snake is always indissociable to him. This divinity of waters is implored to improve health and fortune and arouses an infinite number of feelings of love, fear and devotion. Dispensing material and spiritual goods distributes wealth and heals bodies and spirits, favors loves, fills aspirations and desires and alleviates fears. But it is also capable of provoking the greatest evils and dangers and its destructive power reaches lives and fortunes and material goods. In addition to the religious cults and feelings it arouses in Africa, Mami Wata is closely related to the Voodoo practices of Haiti, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.