Mother of Waters
Yemoja's name contracts the phrase Yeye omo eja, 'mother whose children are as numerous as fish'. In her homeland she is a goddess of fresh water, mistress of the Ogun River that flows past Abeokuta, where the Ibara quarter keeps her principal shrine and holds an annual river festival. Dressed in blue and white, she watches over pregnancy, infants, and fishing, and many genealogies name her the mother of a whole generation of orishas.
Stories of her origins vary by region. In one widely told version she fled a humiliating marriage, and the water jar she carried broke and spread into a great river: the rivers of Yorubaland are at once her body and her road of escape.
The Atlantic slave trade carried her to the Americas, where she grew into a sea goddess: Yemaya in Cuban Santeria, merged with the Virgin of Regla, and Iemanja in Brazil. Every February 2nd the fishermen of Rio Vermelho in Salvador ferry baskets of flowers and gifts out to sea for her, and on New Year's Eve in Rio de Janeiro millions dressed in white cast white flowers into the surf with their wishes.
