Mindiss

Mindiss (also Mindis or Mendiss) is one of the most prominent individually named pangool of the Serer people. A female tutelary spirit with goddess-like attributes, she protects the Fatick region of Senegal and the arm of the sea on the Sine River that carries her name. Offerings and libations are made to her at the riverside sanctuary of Mbind Ngo Mindiss, a site recognised among Senegal's historic monuments, and tradition holds that she shows herself to humans in the form of a manatee. Like all pangool she is an intermediary between the Serer faithful and the supreme being Roog.

Domains

• sea and rivers
• protection

Powers

• to appear to humans in the form of a manatee
• to protect the Fatick region and those who make offerings in her waters

Relations

• subordinate to: RoogAs a fangool, Mindiss serves as an intermediary between the living and the supreme creator Roog, to whom worship is ultimately directed.Thiaw, Issa Laye, 'La religiosité des Seereer, avant et pendant leur islamisation', Éthiopiques, no. 54, 1991. (secondary)

Sources

• Mindiss is a female fangool, protector of the Fatick region and of the arm of the sea on the Sine that bears her name, to whom offerings are made and who appears in the form of a manatee.: Gravrand, Henry, La civilisation sereer, vol. 2: Pangool, Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénégal, 1990. (secondary); Kalis, Simone, Médecine traditionnelle, religion et divination chez les Seereer Siin du Sénégal, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1997. (secondary)