Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani is a scholar, cultural worker, and practitioner of Hoodoo and African Traditional Religions. A native of New Orleans, she is a distinguished writer and spirit woman. She holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies and uses her academic and spiritual expertise to explore the intersections of ancestry, liberation, and ritual practice. Her work bridges scholarship and spirituality, emphasizing how Hoodoo serves not only as a system of magic and healing but also as a living expression of Black resilience, creativity, and self-determination.

Mawiyah offers grounded, compassionate sessions that invite clients into an active process of healing and transformation. Her work explores ancestral patterns, spiritual blocks, past-life influences, and emotional burdens carried through family or cultural histories. Sessions can include divination, ritual guidance, ancestral altar work, spiritual cleansing practices, prayer, journaling, and practical rituals using herbs and everyday household items. Her work is especially supportive for those seeking ancestral reconnection, emotional healing, protection, creative inspiration, and a deeper relationship with Hoodoo as a path of empowerment, community, and liberation.

She is the author of Conjuring the Calabash: Empowering Women with Hoodoo Spells and Recipes, and Hoodoo Saints: Root Workers and Conjurers in the Spiritual Liberation of Black America. Through her teaching, writing, and storytelling, Mawiyah invites readers and students to reconnect with ancestral wisdom, honor their cultural roots, and reclaim spiritual practices that affirm identity and empowerment.

Her work has been featured in notable publications like The Crab Orchard Review, Dark Eros, Essence Magazine, and Chicken Bones: A Literary Journal. She is the author of several plays, including Crows Feet, Bourbon, and Men of the AmonRa Society, and co-writer/director of Brown Blood Black Womb. She received the Southern Black Theatre Festival’s 2012-2013 Playwright of the Year award for her play, Spring Chickens.

Beyond her writing and work with clients, Mawiyah is a respected educator, an 8th Generation Witch, and a Priestess of OYA in the Yoruba spiritual system, addressed as Iyanifa Faniyi Aboyade Omobola Bomani. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Oya N'Soro, an e-zine dedicated to culture and Afrikan Traditional Spirituality. Mawiyah currently resides in Louisiana, where she conducts Orisa rituals, spiritual consultations, workshops, and divinations.