Do you know the story of the black mermaids?

If there are mythological creatures that have always fascinated us because of their folklore, their mystery and their iconography, they are mermaids. Disney knows this well and if in 1990 they gave us the animated film, in a few months we will discover a beautiful little mermaid made of flesh and blood starring Halle Bailey, a black actress. Now, it should be noted that, when the trailer for this production was published, it received millions of “I don’t like it.”

As if this were not enough, a campaign was started on different social networks with hashtags as #NotMyMermaid and #MakeMermaidsWhiteAgain. The criticism and attacks are justified by the idea that the original little mermaid has red hair and white skin. The chosen protagonist is seen as a real offense, an attack on fairy tales.

Not everyone knows that the original story that Hans Christian Andersen published in 1837 is not very similar to that animated film that many mistakenly use as canon. Its ending, for example, is an epitome of tragedy and broken hearts. In addition, Within the mythology of mermaids, those with dark skin have been a constant throughout our history.

Far from seeing this film as another example of forced inclusion, it can be a small tribute to a cultural reality that is as veiled as it is interesting.

“A Race with Mermaids and Tritons”, by Collier Twentyman, is another example of those works that reinforced a very specific ethnic ideology about mermaids.

Black mermaids, a reality in folklore around the world

Our collective ideology almost automatically visualizes mermaids with porcelain skin and fiery red hair. The fact that this is the case does not come exclusively from the classic Disney film. Art, since the 19th century, has had a special predilection for the mythology of mermaids.

In the Victorian era, artists such as Herbert James or Lord Frederic Leighton gave us splendid works on this theme. In those canvases these figures represented a subtle and perfect combination between femininity, the mythological and the threatening.

Let us not forget that their songs were intended to lead sailors to death. Now, it was the Pre-Raphaelites, like John William Waterhouse, who left the imprint of those snowy red-haired sirens on our unconscious.

The art world was not interested in diving into the folklore of the people to give visibility to the black mermaids. Even though they were there, beating in the culture and history of entire continents. After all, every place where water exists will give shape to the myth of a beautiful woman with a fish tail. Her race will be as diverse as the peoples of our diverse world.

African mermaids, spirits of the water

A few months ago, and as a result of the controversy that arose with the new Disney film and the choice of its protagonist, opinion articles have not stopped appearing. However, Among all that morass of criticism and lamentations, the voice of those who provide interesting information on the subject stands out. Also about the need to give visibility to the black sirens.

Literary and sociocultural education scholars, such as Dr. Desiree Cueto and Dr. Dorea Kleker from the University of Arizona, contributed their voices to the space Worlds of Words. Here they not only provided us with an extensive bibliography on these mythological figures. They also brought out of those opaque spaces of oblivion a cultural reality full of power and interesting stories.

Let’s meet African mermaids first.

Yemoja is an aquatic spirit of the people of Nigeria and is depicted as a life-giving mermaid.. It lives in the Ogun Odò river and is worshiped in streams, wells and springs.Mami Wata is a deity whose mythology has its origins in West Africa. They are both feminine and masculine water spirits, capable of bringing fortune and also calamity. Often what they do is capture the people they desire and take them into the depths of their kingdoms. They later return them to the outside world, and when they do, their lives will be marked by happiness and wealth. In other cases, fatality will accompany them.

The Caribbean mermaids, a traumatic past

The dramatic transatlantic journey that so many people experienced when they were taken from the African continent to America also leaves its mythological vestige in the figure of the black mermaids. A book that is most illustrative and exciting on this topic is undoubtedly The Deep by Rivers Solomon (2019).

This novel brings us the story/myth of how many pregnant African women jumped (or were thrown) from those slave ships into the sea. The children went from their mother’s amniotic fluid to the world of the ocean to transform into mermaids and mermen. A new aquatic society with a traumatic past. The image could not be more symbolic.

On the other hand, In Haiti it is very common to talk about a very peculiar lady: the Sirene. It is the spirit of the sea, an entity as admired as it is feared. It is said that on full moon nights she takes children who swim to the depths and keeps them with her.

It is also said that she makes her own music, that she is a beautiful mulatto with green eyes and that, when she wishes, she can walk through our world with her two legs, abandoning her fish tail.

The premiere of Disney’s next film adaptation is accompanied by numerous criticisms for the choice of its actress.

Beyond fairy tales…

If there is one thing we know about fairy tales, it is that they have changed over the centuries. Hardly anything remains of the moralizing messages that Charles Perrault or Hans Christian Andersen left us in their children’s stories. Later, With the arrival of Disney, the original stories were smeared with infinite layers of idealism and romanticism.

If we could disinfect current children’s stories, we would discover authentic life lessons. Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is a metaphor for female sacrifice and suffering. The young sea creature twice loves and saves a prince who does not love her and who often treats her like a simple animal. The sea witch cuts off his tongue and in exchange offers him two legs, but walking with those limbs is incredibly painful.

If we delve deeper into the tradition of the black mermaids, we also dive into territories not suitable for the child’s mind.. Slavery, subjugation and the figure of women who sometimes use their sexuality to punish outline realities that, so far, cinema has not brought to the big screen. Doing so, perhaps, would upset too much those who are still committed to innocuous stories of Pre-Raphaelite mermaids.

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