Yemoja: The Yoruba Mother of Waters

Yemoja is the orisha of motherhood and of water. In Yorubaland she is the spirit of the Ogun River in Nigeria; across the Atlantic she became the mother of the ocean itself, Yemayá in Cuba and Iemanjá in Brazil, and one of the most widely honoured of all the orishas.

Mother whose children are fish

Her name is usually explained as a shortened form of a Yoruba phrase meaning "mother whose children are fish", expressing both her abundance and her connection with water. She is a protector of women, children and motherhood.

The ocean mother of the Americas

In the Americas, Yemoja's river became the sea that her devotees had crossed. In Cuban Lucumí she is Yemayá, associated with Our Lady of Regla, the patron of Havana's harbour. In Brazil she is Iemanjá, and her festivals are among the largest religious gatherings in the country: on 2 February, crowds in Salvador, Bahia, carry flowers and gifts to the sea for her, and on New Year's Eve people dressed in white send offerings into the waves on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

A scholarly subject

Yemoja has been the subject of serious scholarship, including the volume Yemoja: Gender, Sexuality, and Creativity in the Latina/o and Afro-Atlantic Diasporas, edited by Solimar Otero and Toyin Falola (2013).

Yemoja in jewellery

A Yemoja design honours the mother of waters and a devotion that spans two continents and an ocean.

See the AURYN design, or read our introduction to the Yoruba orishas.