The Dogon are an ethnic group from the central highland area of Mali, in West Africa, located south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso. Their population ranges from 400,000 to 800,000. They speak the Dogon languages, which form a separate group within the Niger–Congo language family, meaning these languages are not closely connected to any other languages.

The Dogon are well known for their religious traditions, mask dances, wooden carvings, and unique buildings. In the twentieth century, changes occurred in their social structure, daily customs, and beliefs, partly because the Dogon region is a major tourist destination in Mali.

Geography and history

The main area of the Dogon people is divided by the Bandiagara Escarpment, a sandstone cliff that can be as high as 500 meters (1,600 feet) and stretches about 150 kilometers (90 miles). To the southeast of the cliff lies the sandy Séno-Gondo Plains, and to the northwest are the Bandiagara Highlands. Historically, Dogon villages were built in the Bandiagara area about 1,000 years ago because the people refused to convert to Islam and moved away from areas controlled by Muslims.

Because of past dangers from being targeted for their beliefs, the Dogon chose to live in places that were easier to defend along the escarpment’s walls. Another reason for their settlement locations was access to water. The nearby Niger River and a small stream that flows at the base of the cliff during the rainy season provided water for the villages.

The Dogon people have shared many oral traditions about their origins. One story says they came from Mande, a region southwest of the Bandiagara Escarpment near Bamako. According to this tradition, the first Dogon settlement was built in the far southwest of the escarpment at Kani-Na. Studies of the Dogon area have revealed much about the region’s history, including how people lived, their social practices, and the tools they used over thousands of years.

Over time, the Dogon moved north along the escarpment, reaching the Sanga region in the 15th century. Other traditions say the Dogon originated west of the Niger River or from the east. It is likely that the modern Dogon people are descendants of several groups from different places who moved to avoid being forced to adopt Islam.

It is often hard to tell which practices existed before Islam and which came later. However, Islamic law considered the Dogon and other groups in the region (such as the Mossi, Gurma, Bobo, Busa, and Yoruba) to be in non-canon areas called dar al-harb, making them targets for slave raids by merchants. As cities grew, the demand for slaves in West Africa increased. This led to the killing of Indigenous men and the enslavement of women and children.

For nearly 1,000 years, the Dogon people, an ancient group in Mali, faced religious and ethnic persecution from Muslim communities. These Muslim-led military campaigns aimed to force the Dogon to abandon their traditional beliefs and convert to Islam. These attacks caused the Dogon to leave their original villages and move to the Bandiagara cliffs for safety and protection. They built their homes in small, hidden places along the cliffs to avoid being attacked.

Art

Dogon art is mainly made up of sculptures. This art form is based on religious beliefs, values, and traditions. Dogon sculptures are usually kept hidden from the public and are found inside homes, religious places, or with the Hogon. The need for secrecy comes from the important meanings of the sculptures and the special way they are created.

Common themes in Dogon sculptures include figures with raised arms, bearded figures stacked on top of each other, horsemen, stools with figures shaped like people, women holding children, figures covering their faces, women grinding pearl millet, women carrying vessels on their heads, donkeys holding cups, musicians, dogs, troughs or benches shaped like four-legged animals, figures bending at the waist, mirror-like images, figures wearing aprons, and standing figures.

Evidence of other cultural influences can be seen in Dogon art. The Dogon people were not the first to live in the cliffs of Bandiagara. The influence of Tellem art is visible in Dogon art through its use of straight-line designs.

• Kanaga mask (three pieces), 20th century, 108 x 59.1 x 22.9 cm; Brooklyn Museum (New York City)
• Person wearing a Satimbe mask
• Person wearing a Walu mask, based on an antelope
• Door of the hogon box of Sangha village
• Figure of a seated musician (koro player), late 18th century, 55.8 x 17.7 x 10.8 cm; Brooklyn Museum (New York City)
• Female or male figure, probably early 17th century, 40.0 x 7.3 x 7.8 cm; Brooklyn Museum
• Sculpture, likely an ancestor figure, 17th–18th century, wood, height: 59 cm; from Mali
• Figure of a kneeling woman, c. 1500, wood, height: 35.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Culture and religion

The Dogon religion is the traditional spiritual beliefs of the Dogon people. Those who follow this religion believe in one Supreme Creator called Amma (or Ama). They also believe in ancestral spirits known as the Nommo, or "Water Spirits," in their language.

Professors Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr. note that most Dogon people still practice their traditional religion, which includes complex stories and beliefs. Some Dogon people also follow Islam or Christianity.

Dogon society is organized through a family system that traces ancestry through fathers. Each Dogon village, or large family group, is led by a male elder who is the oldest living son of the ancestor of that family branch.

In October 1946, a blind Dogon elder named Ogotemmeli shared the main symbols of the Dogon religion with French anthropologist Marcel Griaule. Griaule had lived with the Dogon people for fifteen years before meeting Ogotemmeli. Ogotemmeli taught Griaule the religious stories in the same way he had learned them from his father and grandfather—through spoken lessons over twenty years. This record is important because the Dogon people were still using oral traditions when their religion was recorded. They were among the last groups in West Africa to lose their independence and come under French control.

During the 1930s and 1940s, French anthropologists Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen worked with the Dogon people, who had a system of thousands of signs, including their own knowledge of astronomy, calendars, math, anatomy, and medicine. Their religion included beliefs about nature that are also found in other African traditions.

The most important spiritual figures in the Dogon religion were the Nummo/Nommo twins. According to Ogotemmeli, the Nummo, also called "Water," had green skin and green hair. They looked like humans from the waist up but had snake-like bodies below. Their eyes were red, their tongues were forked, and their arms were flexible and not jointed.

Ogotemmeli described the Nummo as having both male and female traits. Their images were placed on the female side of the Dogon sanctuary. They were symbolized by the Sun, which was a female symbol in the religion. In the Dogon language, the word for "Sun" (nay) is related to the words for "mother" (na) and "cow" (nā). They were also represented by the color red, which was a female symbol.

A key theme in the Dogon religion was the idea of "twin births" versus "single births," or beings with both male and female traits versus those with only one sex. This theme was central to their beliefs. Ogotemmeli said, "The jackal was born alone, and because of this, he did many things." Dogon men were linked to the single-sexed Jackal and the Sigui festival, which was held once every sixty years and connected to the star Sirius B. The color white was a symbol of men. The ritual language "Sigi so," used during the Sigui festival, had only about a quarter of the words in the Dogon language. It was used to tell stories about the creation of the universe, human life, and death.

Because the Jackal was born without a soul, all humans were eventually changed into single-sexed beings to prevent another being like the Jackal from being born. This change was represented by the ritual of circumcision in the Dogon religion. Circumcision and excision were seen as ways to remove the "dual soul" and ensure that men are male and women are female.

The Dogon religion focused on the loss of twinness or androgyny. Griaule wrote that the birth of human twins was celebrated in Dogon culture because it reminded people of a time when all beings were created in pairs, symbolizing balance between humans and the divine. This tradition was common across Africa. Today, many Dogon people practice Islam or Christianity, while others continue to follow their traditional beliefs.

Most Dogon marriages are monogamous, but some men may have two wives. In polygynous marriages, wives live in separate houses within the husband's compound. The first wife, called "ya biru," has a higher status than later wives. Wives join their husband's household only after having their first child. The selection of a wife is done by the man's parents. Marriages are limited to people within the same clan and caste.

Women may leave their husbands early in their marriage, before having children. Divorce is rare and requires the involvement of the whole village. If a divorce happens, the woman takes only the youngest child with her, and the rest stay with the husband. A large family group, called "guinna," can include up to 100 people.

The Dogon people value harmony, which is shown in their rituals. For example, during important ceremonies, women praise men, men thank women, young people honor the elderly, and the elderly recognize the contributions of the young. Another example is their custom of exchanging elaborate greetings when meeting others. This custom is repeated throughout the village all day.

During a greeting ritual, the person entering a home answers questions about their family. The answer is "sewa," meaning "everything is fine." Then, the visitor repeats the ritual by asking the resident about their family. Because "sewa" is often heard in Dogon villages, neighboring groups have called the Dogon the "sewa people."

The Hogon is the spiritual and political leader of the village. He is chosen from the oldest men of the village's main family line. After being elected, he undergoes a six-month training period during which he cannot shave, wash, or be touched. A virgin who has not yet had her period cares for him, cleans his home, and prepares his meals. She returns home at night.

After completing his training, the Hogon wears a red fez and an armband with a sacred pearl that represents his role. The virgin is replaced by one of his wives, who also returns to her home at night.

Dogon villages

Dogon villages are built along steep slopes and near water sources. On average, a village has about 44 homes arranged around the "ginna," which is the house of the head man. Each village is made up of one main family group (sometimes more than one group lives in a single village), and this group is passed down through the male line. Homes are built very close together, often sharing walls and floors.

Dogon villages have several types of buildings:

• Male granary: A place to store grain, such as pearl millet. This building has a pointed roof and is protected from mice. The number of filled male granaries shows how large or wealthy a guinna is.
• Female granary: A place where women keep their personal items, such as clothes, jewelry, money, and some food. Their husbands cannot access this storage. This building also has a pointed roof but is less protected from mice. Women can earn money by making items like cotton or pottery, and these earnings are stored here. The number of female granaries indicates how many women live in a guinna.
• Tógu nà (a building for discussion): A place only for men. During the hot dry season, men rest here much of the day, talk about important matters, and make decisions. The roof is made of eight layers of millet stalks. The building is short, so people cannot stand upright inside. This design helps prevent fights during heated discussions.
• Punulu (a house for women during menstruation): This building is located outside the village and is built by women. It is simpler and less sturdy than other village structures. Women who are menstruating are considered unclean and must leave their homes to stay here for five days. They bring their youngest children with them and use only tools meant for this house. This place is also where women gather in the evening. The hut is believed to have a connection to reproduction because men working in the fields can see it and know that only women who are not pregnant are inside.

Languages

The Dogon language is often described as one language, but it actually includes at least five groups of dialects. The oldest dialects are dyamsay and tombo, with dyamsay being commonly used in traditional prayers and ritual songs. The Dogon dialects are very different from each other, and many cannot be understood by speakers of other dialects. In total, there are about 12 dialects and 50 sub-dialects. There is also a secret language called sigi sǫ, used only by leaders of the Society of the Masks. These leaders, called olubarū, must be men who have been circumcised, and they learn the language during a special ceremony called Sigui.

Most experts believe the Dogon language is part of the Niger–Congo language family, but the evidence is not strong. Some researchers connect it to the Mande and Gur groups within Niger–Congo, but recent studies treat it as a separate branch. The Dogon languages have few examples of a noun class system, such as a special ending for plural human nouns. This suggests the Dogon language may have separated from Niger–Congo very early. Another clue is the subject–object–verb word order, which Dogon shares with older branches like Ijoid and Mande.

Approximately 1,500 Dogon people in seven villages in southern Mali speak Bangime, a language that is not related to other Dogon languages. Linguists believe Bangime is an ancient, isolated language. However, some experts, including Roger Blench, suggest it might be connected to Proto-Nilo-Saharan.

Astronomical beliefs

Starting with French anthropologist Marcel Griaule, some authors have said that the Dogon people’s traditional beliefs include information about stars and other space objects that are far away and cannot be seen with the naked eye. This idea has appeared in New Age and ancient astronaut books as proof that aliens visited Mali long ago. Other writers argue that European visitors in the 20th century are a more likely source of this knowledge and question whether Griaule accurately described Dogon myths.

From 1931 to 1956, Griaule studied the Dogon in several field missions that lasted from a few days to two months in 1931, 1935, 1937, and 1938. He then conducted annual studies from 1946 to 1956. In late 1946, Griaule spent 33 days in conversations with a Dogon leader named Ogotemmeli, who provided much of the information used in later books by Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. They reported that the Dogon believe the brightest star in the sky, Sirius (called Sigi Tolo or "star of the Sigui"), has two smaller stars that orbit it: Pō Tolo (Digitaria star) and ęmmę ya tolo (female Sorghum star). These stars are the first and second companions of Sirius A. The Dogon also said that Sirius is one of the points around which a tiny star, the Digitaria star, orbits. When this star is closest to Sirius, it becomes brighter. When it is farthest away, it appears to flicker, making it look like multiple stars. The orbit takes 50 years. The Dogon also claimed to know about Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons.

Griaule and Dieterlen were unsure how the Dogon could have learned about these distant stars without tools. They wrote, "We do not know how people without instruments could learn about the movements and traits of stars that are nearly invisible."

More recently, doubts have been raised about the accuracy of Griaule and Dieterlen’s work. In a 1991 article, anthropologist Wouter van Beek found that the Dogon people did not agree on which star Griaule described as Sigi Tolo. Some thought it was an invisible star that appears before a festival, while others believed it was Venus. All agreed, however, that they learned about the star from Griaule.

Griaule’s daughter, Geneviève Calame-Griaule, later argued that van Beek did not follow proper methods to learn about Dogon beliefs and suggested that van Beek’s informants might have thought he was testing their religious beliefs. An independent assessment was provided by Andrew Apter of the University of California.

In 1978, skeptic Ian Ridpath wrote that the Dogon could have learned about Western astronomy before Griaule and Dieterlen visited. In his book Sirius Matters, Noah Brosch suggested the Dogon may have met astronomers during a 1893 expedition led by Henri-Alexandre Deslandres to study a solar eclipse.

Robert Todd Carroll said that modern people who shared knowledge with the Dogon are a more likely source of their astronomical information. James Oberg noted that these ideas are speculative and wrote, "The Dogon’s advanced knowledge must have come from somewhere, but is it from ancient times or modern influences? Evidence for recent learning is not certain." James Clifford added that Griaule chose informants who knew traditional stories and avoided people who had converted to Christianity, Islam, or had close contact with Europeans.

Oberg pointed out errors in the Dogon’s beliefs, such as the number of moons Jupiter has and the claim that Saturn is the farthest planet from the sun and the only one with rings. He also mentioned that the Dogon spoke of a red dwarf star orbiting Sirius, which was not discovered until the 1950s. This led him to consider a claim by Temple that "if a Sirius-C star is found to be a red dwarf, the Dogon’s knowledge would be proven correct."

Reports say the Dogon believed in another star in the Sirius system, Ęmmę Ya, which they described as "larger than Sirius B but lighter and dimmer." In 1995, studies suggested a brown dwarf star, Sirius-C, might orbit Sirius with a six-year cycle. A more recent study using infrared imaging found it unlikely that Sirius has a triple star system, but the possibility could not be ruled out because some areas near Sirius A were not fully studied.