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November 29, 2006

Forgive me Dogon - I got you so wrong

Dear Stephen,

Congratulations for your nice and interesting blog Voice in the desert. I reached it par hasard through Technorati. I read your post about Dogon Country. I can agree with your statement that it’s a rather improbable place :) And also a magic one.

But there are some things that I must say are not completely exact in what you say.

First thing: the word 'Dogon' has no plural, something rather surprising for Occidentals. It is 'the Dogon', which refers to individuals as well as to the whole ethnic group.

Concerning masks: the masks you can see in Dogon Country are...Dogon. As you mentioned, Fulani don’t use masks. Maybe the mistake came from the fact that Dogon do wear Fulani hats. Making masks is actually one of the most famous pieces of Dogon art. They are only used for traditional animist feasts, especially the Great Mask, called Kanaga.

Dogon don’t pound onions in order to charge tourists 1000CFA for a picture. This assessment is very simplistic! If you visit a Dogon market, you will notice that onions are under various states (fresh, sun dried, pounded... and even rotten!) When they are pounded, it’s because they are ready to use, like many other spices or leaves (baobab, karite), in order to prepare the traditional sauce. And Dogon did it from long before tourists discovered Dogon Country. Dogon women spend a long time mashing millet and getting water (wells are often far from villages). So, the dealers offer them pounded onions to save time. For example, in order to prepare the da, an incredible mixture of mutton head and tripe with a sauce made with baobab, onion, sorrel and chilli. Not bad but they eat it for breakfast. Tough!

About granaries: all of them are not circular. They are circular when they belong to women, and square when they belong to men.

The Hogon is often the oldest man of the village but not always. He is the spiritual head and considered as the wisest. He has a very tough life once he is appointed Hogon by the oldest men of the village after long talks under the Toguna (Word House). He must live on his own, outside of the village just under the cliff, he must never leave his house and only his wife is allowed to bring him food, he is supposed to have no contact with water (even for drinking: according to the beliefs, he is cleaned and receives water only from the sacred serpent Lébé during the night as you mentioned) and he stays a Hogon till his death.

If you wish to know (a little bit) more about Dogon, have a look at this Dogon page.

Cheers

François http://aceras-photos.over-blog.com/

Posted by sahelsteve at November 29, 2006 07:20 AM