Something splashes in the corner of your vision. You catch a glimpse of a fin before it submerges into the waves. Was it a dolphin? A shark? Nessie?!
Water women, half-fish beings, and a myriad of other sentient water creatures have enchanted cultures around the world for centuries. However, when it comes to representations in U.S. popular culture and folklore, one group has often been conspicuously absent: melanated mermaids. While long ignored in mainstream Western media, Black mermaids are emerging in the 2020s as symbols of beauty, strength, and cultural pride.
Mermaid Folklore Across Cultures
Mermaid folklore is a global phenomenon, with stories of aquatic beings dating back thousands of years. From ancient Greece's naiad and the West African mami wata entities to the Japanese ningyo and the Malay duyung, water people with fish-like features have appeared across pretty much every human culture that touches water.
These tales usually depict mermaids as mythical beings, rarely associated with any specific racial or ethnic group. With the creation of the concept of "race" as well as colonization however, the concept of '"mermaid" in English came to be associated with white skin and long flowing hair. Industrialization and the spread of U.S.-centric pop culture after World War II and the creation of the Internet have reinforced this rigid image. This bias has contributed to the erasure of black narratives and voices from what could be a rich tapestry of mer-folk lore.
A Paradigm Shift
Recently, there has been a growing movement to challenge the existence of racial stereotypes in mermaid mythology and expand the representation of mermaids in literature, art, and media. Artists of color such as authors, actors, musicians, and social media influencers have been at the forefront of this change, breathing life into black mermaid characters who celebrate diverse beauty and identity.
I met Dr. Jalondra Davis at the Afro Mermaid Summit in 2023 - she specializes in black mermaid culture, history, and literature. She's been observing, writing on, and teaching about the "black mermaid movement for years! And she's a beautiful mermaid herself! A University of California- Riverside article quotes her:
"Fantasy does not exclusively belong to the imaginations of white European writers and creators"
Blackness and Water
In African and Afro-American folklores, there are water-centered energies like Yemaya and Mami Wata. They are often associated with the sea as well as rivers and lakes and are depicted as regal, powerful, and enchanting. While not always traditionally portrayed as half human/half fish with long flowing hair in Africa, their connection to water and their captivating personas have influenced contemporary depictions of black mermaids. An interesting development coming out of religious and cultural syncretism shows us that on this side of the Atlantic (especially in Brazil) you can find Yemaya represented with a fish tail!
"The Deep", Drexciya, and Beyond
Novellas like "The Deep" introduce merfolk descended from Africans. James Stinson and Gerald Donald created "Drexciya," which is an Afro-Futurist musical project/story centered around an underwater civilization inhabited by the descendants of pregnant African woman who were pushed off of slave ships during the Middle Passage.
The narrative was later adapted into a graphic novel by Abdul Qadim Haqq (hit me up if you live in St Louis and want to borrow it :D ). In Natasha Bowen's novel "Skin of the Sea," the mermaid Simi's adventure addressed themes of her identity, self-discovery, and the connections she finds between different worlds. "A Song Below Water" by Bethany C. Morrow also addresses issues of race, identity, and discrimination through the eyes of supernatural Black teens Effie and Tavia, but in a contemporary urban fantasy setting. These works offer fun and fresh reading experience, especially for Black readers who have only seen mermaids with long flowing hair and pale skin.
Natural Hair and Healing Colorism
Contemporary depictions of black mermaids (especially in the online mermaiding community) often celebrate kinky, braided, and loc-ed hair as well as a fuller range of skin tones, challenging conventional standards of beauty. These representations send powerful messages of self-acceptance and diversity. I mentioned meeting Dr. Davis at the Afro Mermaid Summit a couple paragraphs ago - the Summit is a beautiful safe space for blackness and watery goodness, their logo even features the silhouette of a mermaid with natural kinky hair!
Exploring mermaid folklore through this lens invites us to celebrate the richness of shared human experiences while honoring the beauty of what makes us different. Black mermaids aren’t just mythical beings—they reflect how our ideas about beauty, identity, and storytelling continue to evolve. With shifting tides in representation, their presence feels like a reclamation of space, a way to anchor cultural heritage in both myth and reality.
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Mermaid Charis