Mama-Wata By Grace Nichols (Grades 1-3)

Grace Nichols is a Guyanese-born British poet and novelist whose work explores memory, migration, and Caribbean identity through lyrical language and mythic imagery. Born in Georgetown and later settling in the United Kingdom, she blends Creole rhythms with Standard English to honour oral storytelling traditions. Her celebrated poem Mama-Wata draws on the West African and Caribbean water spirit, presenting the figure as a symbol of femininity, power, and ancestral memory. Through fluid metaphors and sensory detail, Nichols connects the sea to history, displacement, and cultural survival, inviting readers to reclaim heritage and listen to voices carried across generations today worldwide.