It also exist among the Akan as the God Nyame (Nzambi in Kikongo and ciLuba). Here is the symbol of (Gye) Nyame (< mAa.t). Notice a pattern here? I should note that Amma, Nyame, Maat, Nzambi, etc., all derive from a word meaning "hand." The image below is also an abstract closed hand. In Egyptian we have jmm "grip, grasp" (Vygus); Am "to seize, to grip" (Budge 6a). Remember in Egyptian that /jmn.t/ or /wnmj/ means "right hand" and is used to mean "The West." The hand is used to "build, create, arrange, put in order, regulate, turn, spin, coil, fold, stack, etc." In N-E, the "foot, leg" and "arm, hand" have the same etymology
I'm feeling generous. To show you guys what I mean when I argue that the spiral/coil/spin in African tradition means "order, stability" (<mAa.t) here is an example of what I mean using the snake as a symbol of that ordering process.
Chukwunyere Kamalu—Person, Divinity, & Nature: A Modern View of the Person & the Cosmos in African Thought (1998)—on the Fon (Benin, W.Africa)
In the beginning was Nana Buluku (an androgynous being) out of whom came the female-male pair, Mawu-Lisa. The union of these twins is the basis of the organization of the universe. The creator or demiurge, Mawu-Lisa, two beings in one, is assisted by a semi-personal power named Da, who acts “at once as instrument and conscious assistant in the work of ordering the world. Da, like Maw-Lisa contains both male and female principles. This organizing power, this force of life and motion, is sometimes described as the first created being . . .” Da has many incarnations, one of which is the serpent, Da Ayido Hwedo who, whilst submerged in the ocean of primeval waters, coiled around the unformed earth to hold it together. The vastness of this ocean signified Da’s greatness. Da is thus the continued sustainer of the order and stability of the universe. Whilst coiled around the earth, Da is not still but continually moving in a spiral motion. This motion was also identified with water, which is part of Da’s essential being and caused the cosmos to be set into rotation. Da was believed to have set up four iron pillars to support the sky at the four ends of the earth: hence keeping the sky and the waters below separated. These pillars coincide with the four cardinal points, north, east, south, and west. This is succeeded by the springing forth from Da, of the gods (vodu), who represent the different forces that act upon human beings. (Kamalu, 1998: 126-127)