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Dogon People
Intro Both desert and grazing land, the Sahel has attracted a population as varied as its environment. Some are semi-nomadic cattle herders, moving with the seasonal flooding of the Niger. Others are farmers, eking out a living from millet and sorghum. The border with the Sahara is fluid and many of the people found in one region - the Tuareg and Hausa -- can be found in the other. But many groups owe their culture strictly to the Sahel. The Fulani, the word's largest group of nomadic herders, have long played an influential role in the region not only for their cattle, but for their advocacy of Islam. Their neighbors, the Dogon, practice a set of traditional beliefs that illustrate the power of the relationship between Africans and their environment. History Dogon legend claims that the Dogon are descended from four brothers who traveled to northern Burkina Faso from the west bank of the Niger River sometime between the 10th and 13th centuries. These early Dogon may have been descendants of migrants from the Nile River Valley. When Fulani-driven Muslim jihads rocked the Sahel in the 15th century, the Dogon moved from Burkina Faso, this time settling in modern-day Mali's Bandiagara plateau. In the plateau's sandstone cliffs they built villages designed to withstand attack. Until the French laid claim to the region in 1920, they were largely successful. With the writings of French anthropologist Marcel Griaule in the 1930s, the Dogons' unusual and intricate cultural and religious beliefs attracted worldwide attention. Griaule's writings sparked not only a tourism boom in Dogon country, but a following of UFO devotees intrigued by the Dogons' belief that their ancestors were visited by alien creatures from the star Sirius. Today, the Dogon are mostly agricultural workers - onions are their main export -- particularly well-known for their carved masks and figurative art. Language Scholars have long wrangled over how to classify the Dogon language, agreeing only on the complexity of its structure and vocabulary. There are roughly 15 distinct dialects. Inhabitants of one Dogon village may not be able to understand the conversation of neighboring Dogon. Dogon has been placed in the Niger-Congo family of languages, which houses most African languages, including Swahili. Despite the hordes of European tourists who descend each year on the Dogons' cliffside villages, knowledge of French -- a leftover from the colonial era that serves as the Sahel's second language -- is sparse. Religion Most Dogon practice a traditional religion based around worship of the god, Amma, and the Dogon ancestors. Dogon rituals are usually centered around the passage of the dead into a spirit world. All involve masks and are open only to male initiates who can assume the personality of Dogon spirits. The dama, the best known and most public of the Dogon rituals, marks the end of a mourning period for the dead. Every 60 years, a secretive ceremony called the sigui is also held to mark the appearance of a star, Sirius, from which amphibious creatures reportedly traveled 3,000 years ago to visit the Dogon . The sigui is also used to mark a hand-over of responsibilities from dead members of the secret society Awa to the living. This all-male group is the central repository for knowledge of Dogon masks, spirits and traditions. Customs Male secret societies are at the center of Dogon culture. At the age of 12, male Dogons are circumcised and become eligible to dance in religious rituals like the dama. Genealogists, musicians, poets, iron workers and wood artisans may not wear ritual masks and live apart in special sections of a village. Dogon villages are laid out according to a plan that represents the human body. The hogon, the village's supreme spiritual leader and chief administrator, lives in the chest area. Village elders meet in a building at the village's head. Sacrificial altars are located at the feet. |
