Dogon statue of Mali. Old part of over 50 years. Piece on base.

Dogons are a people in Mali, West Africa. Their total population in Mali is estimated at 700,000 people. They occupy the region, named Pays Dogon, which goes from the Bandiagara cliff to the southwest of the Niger loop. Some Dogons are installed in northern Burkina Faso, others settled in Côte d'Ivoire.

Dogons are above all cultivators (mainly millet) and blacksmiths. They are renowned for their cosmogony and their sculptures. The language spoken by the Dogons is the Dogon which brings together several dialects. There is also a secret language, the Sigi SO, a language reserved for masks society. Dogons are linked with the ethnicity of the bozos by joke kinship (called Sinankunya in Mali). Dogons and Bozos make fun of it, but, at the same time, must be mutual assistance.

In Mali, the Dogon are the heirs of an exceptional ethnic tradition: each work of art testifying both to the intimacy of families- the works are not intended to be seen but on the contrary preserved in the darkness of houses, such as in the sanctuary- and of the representation of a single cosmogony which structures daily life such as the rhythm and the rituals of societal or initiation ceremonies.

Cosmogony and social organization

Dogon or Hebbes man literally "pagan"; Or the one who refuses to integrate with Islam.
The Dogon worship the god Amma. Amma according to their cosmogony had the appearance of an egg.
Dogon statuary always presents ovoid heads meaning from this God of Heaven.
Amma is associated with eight ancestors, representing the hierarchy of a company built on a patriarchal model.
These eight ancestors respond to a trade and specific colors:
Blacksmith and potter - Red and blue
Farmer - White and green
Sculptor - Orange
Dancer - White
Merchant - Black
The master of speech/weaving - green.

Dogon masks and statuary

Associated with the cult of ancestors, the Dogon masks made in memory of the deceased - Sirige mask, Kanaga mask, are often accompanied by zoomorphic masks whose function is to protect the living by recovering the vital force of removal beings or animals. Unlike the statues, these masks are sculpted by non -specialists.
The sculpture of the statues belongs to the blacksmith which performs in public works whose quality depends on the richness of the one who plays the order.