Representation is important not just for Black people — but for everyone, says author Natasha Bowen. “I think speaking from Black mermaids, we need to see ourselves in positions as magical creatures.”
" and “Soul of the Deep,” a young adult fantasy series about Black mermaids. Instead of building a story on the typical Western mythology around mermaids, Bowen chose to draw from West Africa.“Whenever I write, I always include characters that look like me and my family, my friends,” Bowen says. “My father is from Nigeria, and so looking more into the origins and the goddesses and the beliefs behind them led me to the story.
“The Mami Wata that most of the people that I knew grew up with … was used as a deterrent,” Bowen says. “So like lots of fairy tales, they were told to scare children and make them beware of any dangers. Mami Wata was kind of a scary figure to make sure you don't drown or you don't venture too much into deep water.”“I wanted to make her into a better version, so not a … typical kind of siren and vicious-like mermaid,” she says.
“[Yemoja] was a goddess of river in the streams. And the stories go, depending on who’s telling them, is that she left those rivers and streams to follow the first enslaved people,” Bowen says. “Some people believe that she wrecked the slave ship. Some believe that she offered the enslaved comfort, and others believe that she returned their soul home if they died in the sea.”
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