BrandStorytelling Theater Discussions: Luck is Alive | Mami Wata

Jordan P. Kelley, Content Director, Brand Storytelling

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Mami Wata as a brand has always promoted the power of African Surf and a recognition of the difference between African and Western Surfing. Western surf carries all the tropes of beach, fun and lifestyle. While African surf is a more emotional and spiritual connection to the ocean. In Senegal the practices and belief of animism is prevalent and is based on the idea that everything is sentient: that inanimate objects, plants, animals or even entities such as the ocean have a spirit or a soul, often in the sense of having ‘personhood’.

Luck is Alive demonstrates an animistic sensibility through the concept of luck. It encapsulates this way of relating to the world: a sense of the aliveness of chance, and by believing in luck and that luck is alive. It is through his belief in luck that our protagonists is led to the water, and where he finds ultimate freedom. The film features Damme Samb (21) a surfer from Dakar, Senegal a predominantly muslim country on the west coast of Africa. Damme is also a believer in Animism.

In this conversation, moderator Jon-Thomas Royston talks with filmmakers Paul Ward and Jo Barber as well as Mami Wata CEO Nick Dutton about the impetus behind the creation of Luck is Alive and the values Mami Wata works to uphold in their products, art, and culture.