Love Letters to Poetry | “The Little Mermaid”

In my middle grade novel A Comb of Wishes (Quill Tree Books, 2022), 12-year-old Kela meets a mermaid named Ophidia who offers her a wish in exchange for returning her lost comb. Kela makes an impossible wish, one that will make her grieving heart whole.

Mermaids exist in cultures all around the world, particularly within the Black diaspora. The inspiration for my mermaid Ophidia is the water deity Mami Wata, who is venerated in areas of West, Central, and Southern Africa. She is often depicted carrying a snake around her shoulders and has the power to bless her followers or exact misfortune.

Mami Wata. Image Source

In May 2023, Disney will release the live-action version of its 1989 animated movie, The Little Mermaid. When the decision was announced four years ago that Black actress and singer Halle Bailey would play the iconic role of Ariel, many on social media erupted in celebration but others spewed racist comments and claimed “mermaids can’t be Black.”

Not only is this a ridiculous assertion about a mythological being, it is an example of what children's literature scholar Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas calls “an imagination gap.” In her award-winning book The Dark Fantastic, Dr. Thomas writes , “When youth grow up without seeing diverse images in the mirrors, windows, and doors of children’s and young adult literature, they are confined to single stories about the world around them and, ultimately, the development of their imaginations is affected.” This lack of imagination applies not only to books, but the mass media children and teens consume.

In response to the furor about the casting of The Little Mermaid, spoken word poet Jasmine Mans penned her poem “The Little Mermaid.” It is published in her collection Black Girl, Call Home (Berkley, 2021).

It eloquently and painfully challenges the idea that Black mermaids can’t exist or speak the language of the sea.