Mammy Watern.

1961 M. Grene tr. J. Jahn Muntu: Outl. Neo-Afr. Culture ii. 30 The earliest indication of the survival of African Cults in Haiti we owe to an anonymous French report, which says: ‘The slaves are strickly forbidden to practise the dance which in Surinan is called “Water-Mama” and in our colonies “Mae d'Agua” (Water mother)’.]

1966 C. Achebe in Black Orpheus Mar. 47 The same night that I drove Mami Wota out she went to..a white merchant and became his lover.

1968 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 125 90/1 Basic to the belief system of most Liberian tribes is the conviction that magical intervention is directly responsible for success or failure, health or illness... Thought disorder is usually expressed in terms of persecution by: 1) ‘country devils’ resembling figures of secret society rituals; 2) spirits, such as ‘genii’ or ‘mammy water’; and 3) agents of witchcraft such as snakes.

1979 F. Nwapa (title) Mammywater.

1991 Amer. Anthropologist 93 254/1 Mammy Water (also ‘Mamy Wata’) is a form of religious group found widely in coastal West Africa... Characteristically, Mammy Water is conceived of a light-skinned, long-haired, female spirit.

1997 Encycl. Brit. Online (Version 99.1) at Congo River The manatee..appears to have given rise to some curious legends on the lower Congo, including its association with a creature called Mami Wata (a kind of siren).