Queen of the Coast

  • Queen of the Coast
  • Queen of the Sea
  • The Great Goddess of the Sea
  • Holy Queen Sea
  • Mother of Pearls
  • The Great Water
  • Womb of Creation
  • Mother of Secrets
  • The Mother Whose Children are Fish

This deity emerges in its male, female, and androgynous forms primarily in West Africa, but all over the world, wherever migration has taken its worshipers.  To be clear and for this entry, I will refer to this deity in its female and most popular form. Yemaya.

Yemaya, is the female appellation of this West African goddess.  Yemaya literally translates, “fish mother.”  She has migrated to Afro-Caribbean religions, Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti and New Orleans among others.  She is known as Our Lady of Regla, or Star of the Sea among the Catholics. If this is true she is also the Mother Mary venerated in the Catholic Religion. And if this is true, then she is also connected to the Queen of Heaven spoke about in the Holy Bible.

To Yemaya’s worshipers, she is depictyed as an attractive, dark skinned, large-waisted woman rising out of the sea as a beautiful mermaid.  A moon goddess.  She rules over rivers, oceans, lakes, large bodies of water, and sea creatures; she is the sea deity of the marine kingdom in this region of the world and of others to her believers. 

This deity controls the seas, coasts and waters where it is venerated.  The deity demands that all commerce, trade, marriages, tribal decisions, and even babies be dedicated to it.  If one doesn’t come to ask a “blessing” from this deity, it will kill the child.  In the African cultures, a newborn baby will be taken to the waters and submersed in it.  If the baby is eaten, or drowns it is considered a sacrifice to their god.  If the baby survives, the child is considered to be blessed.  This is not primitive.  This ritual happens today on the continent of Africa and other places in the world where this deity is worshipped.   

The attributes of The Queen of the Coast resemble that of the ocean to her followers: profound, beautiful, filled with treasure and generosity; however, she is potentially tempestuous, seen as the source of tidal waves and rip currents. 

AKA’s and Intercultural Connections:

  • Olokun in Nigeria (Male)
  • Yemaya in Nigeria (Female)
  • Neptune to the Romans
  • Poseidon to the Greeks
  • The Black Madonna to Catholics