The African Dogon Tribe

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Table of Contents

|1 |Introduction |3 |
|2 |Brief History |3 |
|3 |Education |4 |
| | | |
|4 |Religion |4 |
|5 |Art & Social Norms |5 |
|6 |Economy |6 |
|7 |Conclusion |6 |
|8 |References |7 |

Introduction:

In this paper, I will discuss the brief history of the Dogon tribe which is located in the western side of the African continent in the countries Mali and Burkina Faso. The Dogon tribe is considered one of the highly populated tribes with a population of almost 300,000 people (Roy, C.). This tribe is important for those interested in studying religions and cultures of the world since the Dogon ideals are a mixture of human values and divine religions. In this paper, I will give a brief background, then I will discuss their religions, arts & social norms and the way they run their economics. The reason i combined arts and social norms is because most of their social activities or rituals take form utilizing their artistic nature in carving.

Brief History

The Dogon people are known as the cliff dwellers. As they live behind the cliffs of Bandigara in the western region of the country Mali. They have been chased out by predators until they found their safe haven behind those cliffs where they lived in complete isolation from the rest of the world for years, it is believed that they had migrated from the western bank of Niger around 1490 A.D when they were fleeing the Muslims, the French and the Mossi people (Hammer, J.). The Bandigara cliffs extends for 200 kilometers in length and 600 meters in height, which makes it very difficult for anyone to reach them. Their environment is harsh one as they only have access to one main river which is the Yame river. They relied on agriculture for that matter yet still their lives weren’t easy.

There are about 700 Dogon villages with each village inhabited by almost 500 to 1000 people, the Dogons were discovered in the 1930s by an American Missionary [Francis McKenney] and his wife Laura on their horseback ride throughout the African desert, they stayed in that area for 42 years and established churches and schools. (Rainer, C., 2003)

Education

The education of the Dogon tribe came down from the elders of the tribe who passed down to their children the ritualistic acts and knowledge about hunting, growing food, history of their ancestors, knowledge about the stars and the universe and how to raise a family. They seldom wrote their knowledge fearing someone could leak that knowledge outside their society.

Religions

The Dogons relied heavily on their religion in their way of life, and as a consequence their temple elders were regarded as leaders, as teachers, and high respect and loyalty must be given to them.

The Dogons believe that their sacred knowledge dates back to early human eras and is only passed down to “chosen” members of the tribes to continue the course of humanity. Knowledge of the creation, of death and of afterlife. In addition, the Dogons are believed to have astronomical relationships with aliens since the beginning of time, and thus much of the rituals are dedicated to communion with those aliens in order to receive their blessings and their guidance (www.bbc.co.uk, 2004).

Our knowledge of the alien mystery date back to 1931 when two french anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen started a long-term relationship with the Dogon tribe in order to dig deep in their religious beliefs. Griaule and Dieterlen relied on pictures and sign language for communication. Griaule argues in his reports that the Dogons knew about an astronomical fact that was not even discovered by modern science at the time, which is about the existence of a star named Sirius in the south of Orion constellation. Dogons believed that extra-terrestrials they called “Nommos” came and/or coming down from the star Sirius in order to start a civilization on their lands. Due to Griaule’s long-term relationship with them, he actually was convinced of the Dogon’s side of the story. But as the BBC writer found, the local peoples’ knowledge about the start is different than that of the religious leader and different than of each other, in which he concludes it is yet another myth we are not quite definite about its origins. BBC writer quotes “though they do speak about sigu tolo, they disagree completely with each other as to which star is meant; for some it is an invisible star that should rise to announce the sigu [festival], for another it is Venus that, through a different position, appears as sigu tolo. All agree, however, that they learned about the star from Griaule” (www.bbc.co.uk , 2004).

It is unclear to researchers today on which standpoint to take since no easy communication channels have been established with the Dogons. On one hand, the Dogons may be correct to believe that the Nommos from star Siruis will teach them how to build a human civilization, or, as BBC writer implies, Grialue is the “terrestrial” and his people are those who will discover them and teach them human civilization.

Arts & Social Norms

The Dogon tribe places a high value in art and artists. They are known for their carving skills especially for masks and ceramics (Roy, C.) They and pride themselves with their rituals that has carried on for hundreds of years. In those rituals, they wear masks that are called “inima”. Each specific ritual has different types of masks and each person depending on his role in the ritual wears a different type of mask. The masks are believed to contain life force called “nyama”. Their masks are numerous and believed to be over 65 different types (www.africaguide.com).

The major most important mask is the Fulani mask. The Fulanis are the women of another tribe called the Fulanis. The Fulanis chased out the Dogons out of their lands and pushed them behind the cliffs. Therefore the Dogons use the mask as mockery to the Fulani women are known of their beauty and appeal (Finley, C.). In terms of other sides of art, the Dogons were heavy producers of ceramics to make their eating bowls and drinking cups. Almost all household supplies were made from ceramics. The ceramic is known to preserve cold liquids stored inside of it.

In addition, When reading about social activities of an African tribe, one does not simply picture a weekly football game or a festival with dancing and singing celebrities. One has to keep an open mind of a different mind set of humans that may sound like an alien to a 2013 adult mind. Much of their lifespan has been spent in fleeing and surviving, it is only natural that their social nature is aggressive and some may call it deviant from a normal human.

The Dogons are divided into different family groups, each family group varying in its tasks and responsibilities towards the tribe as a whole. Firstly, there is the Awa group, which is the spiritual group responsible for safekeeping of the temple of the divine knowledge. And secondly, the Lebe group is responsible for the agriculture of the land.

It is very common that women are kept in isolation during their menstrual cycles since they were deemed unclean.

Economy

The Dogon society relied on Agriculture of its survival and their main trade was in agriculture harvests. They had specific rites for each season, the most important one being the Bulu rite, which takes place after the first rain in the beginning of the year (Roy, C.). The Dogon’s main carbohydrate staples were beans, fornio and peanuts. For protein, they had Goats, Sheep, Cows and a leaf called baobab. And for weapons, they used bows and arrows made by blacksmiths.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, the Dogons are of a unique style when compared to all the African tribes spread throughout Africa. The first reason is that they were the last ones to be discovered due to their deep isolation in behind the 200 KM Bnadigara Cliffs. And secondly, due to their unique language unspoken by any other humans on earth which makes it hard to communicate and learn their knowledge, secrets and even build a trade partnership with them. Also, they are considered unique because no other known civilization decided to not document any of their knowledge, they primarily relied on elders’ knowledge and being transferred to chosen ones within the tribe through talking only.

The Dogons shared their secrets with french journalists on numerous occasions after interviewing and testing those journalists many times for many years until they became trusted, and those journalists’ point of views may have become biased due to their prolonged partnerships.

It is hard to be concrete about the spiritual knowledge of the Dogons because their history is violent and they are in no mental condition to start thinking logically and observing facts rather than myths.

The Dogon’s path towards civilization relies on their tolerance to outsiders and willingness to share knowledge, think logically, and start building bridges with the surrounding world.

References

African People and Culture. Retrieved from http://www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/dogon.htm

Finley, C. The Art of African Masks : Exploring Cultural Traditions. New York: Lerner Group, 1998. 7-62. Retrieved from http://www.clarku.edu/~jborgatt/smfa/dogon.pdf

Hammer, J. (March 2nd, 2010). Hiking Deep Into Dogon Country in Mali. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/travel/07personal.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Rainer, C. (March 29, 2003) Unique Dogon Culture Survives in West Africa. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0529_030529_dogon.html

Roy, C. , Dogon Tribe of Africa. Retrieved from http://www.gateway-africa.com/tribe/dogon_tribe.html

The Dogon/ Sirius mystery, Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/plain/A2754524

Van Beek, W. , Dogon:Africa’s People of the Cliffs ,L Kahan Gallery Inc/ African Arts 48 East 57 New York city 10022. Retrieved from http://dice.missouri.edu/docs/niger-congo/Dogon.pdf