Watra mama and Barinya

Who are the watra mama?

In Winti water is inhabited. Rivers, creeks and sea belong to the water pantheon under Tata Bosoe, and the watra mama live there too: mermaids who appear in many Surinamese stories. Practitioners mention names such as Mariana and Emelina.

A distinction is made. The lighter-skinned watra mama are seen as water ingi, friendly and connected with the Indigenous spirits. Barinya, dark-skinned, counts as a rare water kromanti. She is compared with Mami Wata, the water spirit known across much of West and Central Africa.

Watra mama in dreams

A golden comb is the best-known sign. Someone who sees a comb in or by the water in a dream, or a woman combing her hair by the river, often reads that within the tradition as a watra mama. White cloths with golden or silver stars are also mentioned.

Bathing happily in big rivers is read by practitioners as watra wenu, a water spirit making itself known. The thought is that life will go the way the dream felt, and it is sometimes advised to bathe in real life the way you did in the dream.

What a watra mama asks

With water spirits, practitioners mention champagne, perfume and a comb as part of a pai, an offering. White with silver or gold are their colours. Dreamkin describes this as part of the tradition; what you do belongs with someone who has knowledge.

Water dreams weigh more heavily in Winti than dreams in a house or on the street, because water stands so close to the ancestors and the winti. A dream in which a water spirit calls you or takes you along is therefore, within the tradition, a reason to consider a luku.

How this winti can show itself in dreams