DONGON PEOPLE RETURN by Cesaire Clarence by Marie-Alphonse Liwata

CESAIRE Clarence Student number: 230261 TUT (Tampere University of Technology)

Warning: The way I chose to build the essay is about dealing with some specific aspects told in the book. I first looked for information on the web, then reading ”Dieu d’eau”, i could get much more the meaning of the things I’d learnt from the internet.

Contents: -In General– ”Ogol people”, p.15 • Kinship: • Marriage: • Socialization:

1- Dogons People art Masks:  The masks society :  Funerals rites :  The masks : – Satimbé mask : – The great mask : – Masque Sirige – Masque Kanaga – Divers masques 2

– Le sanctuaire et les peintures de facade, I, p, 116 – Le sanctuaire et les peintures de facade, II, p, 121 -The great family house p, 100 – Houses • Community life: – Architecture et religion traditionnelle – Le Ginna (associé au culte du Wagem) – La maison du Hogon (associée au culte du Lébé) – La forge – Sanctuaire de Binou – La mosquée

2-Dogons astronomy-

3-Dogons religion-19th day : Lebe’s cult p,127 -18th day : Binou’s cult p,134 -20th day : The insiminating word p,149 -24th day : The double soul and circumcision p,165 -27th day : Dead people’s cult, fermented drinks p,191 • Religious Beliefs: 3

3-The major ceremony: Sigi ceremony – Religious Practitioners: • Ceremonies: 1-The great annual Feast of Sowing.

2-The funerary ceremonies of the Dogon :

4-Dogons thought– 3rd word and pure earth loft, p,37 – 3rd word and things order p,42 – 3rd word, down the pure earth loft and death p,48 – 3rd word and vomiting works p,55 – 3rd word and redemption works p,64 – Death and Afterlife.

-Bibliography -Links -Pictures

• In General: •

ETHNONYMS: Dogom, Dogono, Habbe, Hambbe, Makbe, Tombo, Tommo, Toro

The 1st inhabitants of the cliffs were the Tellems, usually told « red people », cavemen similar to the Pygmies regarding to their little size and costums. They were surviving thanks to fishing, hunting and picking. The Ogol region cliffs is about a nation of grain farmers spread all over about 700 villages over 15 000 square miles. Bandiagara region, north of Mali.

 ”Ogol people”, p.15 Considering the opening of the book, we might assert that Griaule first achieves to put the setting on in few words. Thus the scene takes place in the cliffs of a part of Sudan, South Ogol. The narrative process Griaule chooses seems to be a kind of zooming on : from we know this is about how an african tribe (1) of Sudan (2), South Ogol (3) lives , he focuses on the place he will be used to be told stories and legends of them: the courtyard (4). The most important elements of the Dogon’s people life and belief apears as three natural pilars: the wind, the water, the earth. 5

The seeting is on also about the protagonists of the dialogue ruling the whole book: the opposition between two worlds, between two believes of two different cultures: the christian one and islamist on one hand; the occidental and african states of mind, in the other hand. Going further, we could even consider that the dialogue is about an opposition, a didactic way of explanation two people are facing each other in: White people, colonizer ancestors, in front of native people, Black people, in other words should we say Europe facing Africa. The introduction announces the whole book statement : two worlds being heading for each others via the meeting of the white searcher and the Dogon Prier veteran, Ogotemmêli. Besides, Griaule recounts in his very first chapter one of the main sides of the people he is studying: their belief in symbolism, that means, in several forms such as amulets or charms.

Looking for some additional general information about the Dogons people, I thought about focusing next on the way they consider their family life and build out one social life inside a village.

• Kinship: Kin Groups and Descent. The fundamental unit of Dogon social organization is similar to the patriarchy system and they call it ginna. This is ruled on the top by a male head, originally called ginna bana: he is the oldest male member of his generation. He owns several important rights and powers amoung them: – The right of giving the name to the lineage, inherits the compound, has control over a certain amount of land, and cares for the lineage altar. – The power of the priest (hogon), who exercises ceremonial functions on behalf of the lineage, and, in conjunction with a council of elders, judicial functions as well.

NB: The largest ginnas are subdivided into several families, or tire togo (sing.). Above the lineage is the much larger kin group called the clan, from which the various lineages emerge.

• Marriage: The major form of marriage has remained the monogamous alliance. Nevertheless some polygamous are as well allowed with the limit of two wives for each man. The wedding is usually arranged then planned by the parents of both of the to-be married people. Moreover marriages remain proscribed between members of the same clan or with first or second cousins of different clans. Marriage between occupational castes members—such as that of blacksmiths—is strongly prohibited too. But within the castes, marriage regulations are more permissive: even first-cousin marriages are permitted. Then divorces are also as well allowed if needed.

• Socialization: During the nursing period, the biological mother of the child remains the main caretaker of him/her. Then the more the child keep growing up, the others family members get each of them their own importance in the child’s life: the 2nd wife, who obviously is ot his/her mother is allowed to take care of him/her as well as the other women belonging to his/her father’s side: the father’s mother and sisters. At last get involved the child’s older sister(s) and the friend of the 1st and 2nd wives.

Then going further trough Dogon’s people way of living, I chose to focus on the art they are able to produce, both trying to talk about their artistic and architectural skills and conception tools and know-how.

 Dogon’s art Dogon’s primitive art of sculpture and hand-made objects has influenced art in Europe, and is nowadays well-know for their colourful masks and symbolic wooden statues. Their skills they are famous for also include industrial arts, that means, craft skills: pottery and baskets, weaving, wood carving, and leather- and ironworking. Pottery and spinning has always been reserved to women whereas basketry and weaving are remains as men’s jobs. 7

Two of the most specialized crafts are leather and ironworking and they are restricted exclusively to members of a craft caste. NB: The blacksmith, similar to a kind of shaman or witch doctor has no right in the village and lives entirely on the proceeds of the sale of his goods to other villagers.

 Masks: The masks society : The masked dances occure in funerals ceremonies and especially even more for the Dama event. They are ruled by what the Dogon people are used to call : the Masks society. This is actually about the circumcised young and older men. The authority is of course gained according to the age they are and the members create their own mask themselves. Due to the belief of theirs that in the past, death did not exist, men were used to metamorphose themselves into snake. However since they’ve been sinning once, it occurred that death appeared among them. That is the reason why the Masks Society celebrates the first man changed into a snake, that is to say, the first dead man, and that celebration is names Dama. From that time, the death has been transmitted from generation to generation, from one to another by the contagion process, just like a kind of disease.

 Funeral rites : The funeral rituals are developed into three steps : first the burial, then the funerals and finally the Dama ceremony. The burial is quite fast following straight the death. Once washed and wrapped the dead body is brought to the cliff. There are some caves among which the Dogons People has been used to convert into graveyard. Then they take back the blanket which is going to be the focus point during the Baga Bundo ritual which occures above the villages zone, up the cliffs. The funerals set on during few days or several months once the death body has been brought to the graveyeard. The ceremony is supposed to be the way to make the balance back between the living and dead people. Of course the death soul ends up going to the hereafter. The Dama ceremony signs the end of the bereavement and the finally successful transfer from the living to death people country of the death soul. It uses to be set on the months of may/june. Dogons people usually make a difference between what they’re used to name “the great Dama” and the small on. The latest is actually about celebrating the death of only one person instead of the Great Dama sets on for celebrating several death bodies. The Dama, whatever it is, sets only every 10 to 12 years: in the previous times, the trive was used to do human sacrifices but the habit has been given up until nowadays. 8

It might have been interesting to focus on the settlement of the funerals phase so that I try to summarize here next: Most of the funerals set on between december and february period. The harvests have been done and the sowing is beginning in some months. The fields labour is over and people use to take part in other activities. The funerals time lasts about two or three days when people come to visit the family of the deceased. Dances and faked fights set on during nights and days. That’s all about a partying time for the whole village which celebrates the death. The highlights of the cermony happen above the roof-terrace of the deceased’s house. The objects he used to own are set down there whereas the oldest men of the village get up there to sacrifice a billy goat. Later come the masks to dance above the roof so the deceased soul get prepared to reach the hereafter. The moment when the dancers get down the roof still remains the most important : one of them, stayed abode the roof throw some dust away his head. He is actually looking for the kine, that is to say a part of the deceased soul which is to be back as a nani, a newborn baby soul. The deceased gives a part of himself to his descendant: that could remind one of a reincarnation process.

 The masks : Dogons people believe that they are safe inside their village instead of the jungle and the oudoors of their house sis full of dangers since this represents according to their thought, a kind of invisible world. This world is one of spirits and animal double each Dogon use to own attached to his soul (Ba- Binu). From that point, they’ve been creating masks mostly to celebrate the Dama ceremony; the masks are carved in the village and the vegetable fibres dedicated to weave skirts for the costums are collected in the brush country. To gain a certain power, they submit the masks to several rituals such as sacrifices on the masks altar named Wala. However nowadays some Dogons tribe go on carving masks without searching for any protection or primitive meaning they were used to give to them. The difference is still made between an active mask and another you can sell to tourists for instance, the active one has got a power, it cannot be owned by any people: only the one he has been made for is allowed to use it. Then Dogons people go on carving desecrated masks they are able to sell to promote their culture and make profit of it.

Satimbé mask :

This mask is dedicated to the woman who has catched the old Albarga and stolen the Andoumboulou surnatural people when they were dancing in the bush country. When they fleed away they left at the same time their clothes and divine masks so she took them on her own. Those are typically red colours. Men of the village learnt she owned so many of them, 9

they took it off from her and hide them in a sacral cave where nowadays still Dogons people use to believe they are from : the Albarga sacral cave in Yougo Dogorou.

The great mask :

This mask belongs to Yayeme, woman from the Yendouma village. She is also named Ya Sigine ( = sister of the mask) : she is from so far till nowadays the only woman who is allozed to take part in the masks cermonies. Whereas usually women are out of any masks event, she has event the right to take benefit of great funerals and dances.

They carve the mask especially for the Sigui ceremony which sets every 60 years and the ritual lasts 7 years each time. It starts in Yougo Dogorou and go on along the cliff toward the south-west region. The great mask is carved in a bark so it is several meters long looking like a kind of mere plank with a mask carved in its bottom. Reminding of the fact that in the very first time, the death did not exist for Dogons people and only occured once the 1st man died and turned into a snake, this mask actually represente this first deceased : it is supposed to countain the deceased soul of the first snake ancestor. Le Grand Masque sort de sa grotte que lors des funérailles d'un dignitaire de masques (p.ex. Olubaru). On fait un trou dans le toit en terrasse de sa maison et on y place le masque. En vue de sa taille, la partie du haut dépasse le toit et est visible à distance. Le masque ainsi exposé est celui qui a été taillé en la présence du défunt quand celui-ci était un futur initié Olubaru au dernier Sigui. Sangha

La littérature ethnographique se réfère au masque Imina-Na. Hors Imina-Na est la voix du Grand Masque. Il s'agit de la rhombe qui accompagne le "Grand Masque". La rhombe est une corde dont une extrémité est pourvue de deux planches en bois ou pièces en métal. En faisant tournoyer la corde, on obtient un son qui représente la voix du Grand

Masque. DĂŠpendant de la rĂŠgion, le nom exact est Wara ou Dannu. A l'origine le Dannu et le Buguduru forment le support contre lequel le Wara s'appuie. Avec le temps un certain nombre de villages ont abandonnĂŠ la taille du Wara. C'est alors le Dannu qui le remplace.

Masque Sirige

This mask is several meters high and is the Ginna is to say, the home of the "big family",the seat of the patrilineal lineage. Only very strong young adults are able to handle this type of mask. They jump and make rotations with the head from front to back and from left toright. These movements require extraordinary physical strength. One of the dancers wear a suit in dark fiber. The man whose wife is pregnant does not suit whose fibers are dyed red. It is the color of menstrual blood. Wearing such a costume would not allow his wife to bring his child to term. Sometimes a mask breaks in the dancing. Dancers and dignitaries of the "Society of the Masks" then try to hide the repair of the mask in the public eye. The masks are much morethan simple wooden objects. These are magic items. Any intervention must be done out of sight.

Masque Kanaga

The significance of the mask remains obscure. There are a multitude of interpretations. He has been compared, among other things, a bird and a female spirit. Kanaga dance is very spectacular. The masks are dancing in groups. They make a circular motion and graze the ground end of the mask. Would be a mistake to strike. It is not uncommon a mask breaks in the heat of the moment. The photo below shows a dancer took the fact. -

Divers masques

The masks represent the bush and its mysteries. At the funeral they come out of the bushand invest the village. They attract the deceased out of his home and at night they returnfollow-up of his soul. The masks are not all equal. Some are more important than others.Kanaga masks, Satimbé Sirige and are surrounded by an aura of mystery. Their danceshave a wild appearance. They do not speak but emit cries. The olubaru talk to them aloud Sigi So (the secret language of Sigui). By cons, other types of masks interact with the audience and dance can even entertain. The following pages show some types of figurativemasks.

– Le sanctuaire et les peintures de facade, I, p, 116

« The Nazarene » how is call Griaule himself in his book, refers actually to some biblic episod we find both in the Christian and Jewish religions as well. It means that this word here underlines the gap between the two cultures talking to each other in this dialogue via the two main characters of it : Ogotemmêli and Griaule. Thus looking for the real meaning and then the reason why Griaule chose to names himself like that, I learnt that “Nazarene” is the way Jewish people used to name Jesus and his believers to deny the fact that he might be the Messiah.

The only single object which leads Griaule to take this topic into account in a chapter on his own is called “crochet à nuages” by Ogotemmêli: that is actually a sort of an iron Christ in the bottom of the anvil of a spear. Let’s then focus on the meaning of this strange Christ which gets such an importance in the old Dogon that Griaule feels concerned to ask explainations about it. And actually, Ogotemmêli explains to him that this all about a brush system: the two buckles might symbolize two arms, means, the two arms of the Christ, as powerful as they are able 12

to surviving resources: water and seeds, that means meal, in other words: the abundance. The scattering of objects incises a cave  symbolic Morover the chapter goes on dealing with the way Dogons people use to paint their façades and the specific ornamentation they do use for the new sowing season. Thus the colours they are used to paint are most of all the white, red and black figures. The materials those colours are from remains natural ones such as ochre, coal and mush millet. Ogotemmêli explains in addition that one could observe those paintings in various ways but the meaning to take out of them still remains more or less the same. From the full-face, the composition is divided into three parts:

1.The right side : is dedicated to women histories, habits relating and living as well as accessories they do use.

2.The left side : is dedicated to men activities and drawing representations. We have to add the important statement that in Dogons representations, the ram still remains the men representant instead of female characters are in a calabash. That is why on the full front, they often paint a ram in the left side pissing towards the right side of the painting; furthermore in a calabash: this is the way they do express the basic relationship between men and women: the ram pissing in a calabash is a metaphor of first Nommo couple. In their mythology, the ram often do wears the calabash as a hat: that is the metaphor of the union of both male and female.

3.The upper-door: Griaule keeps on reporting Ogotemmêli explanations about the ram’s anatomy. Since he represents the man in Dogons belief, one can say it is somehow the center of the whole system and its developing. Then he asserts that its fleece represents water and plants; its horns, testicles; thus the female’s boobs are its throat outgrowth. Going further, the ram has got a specific cosmologic symbolism on its own: its nose and mouth use to represent indeed the being’s breath. The whole body is the planet earth instead of the calabash is the sun; and the ram’s forehead the moon. At last are its eyes: they do represent the stars of our solar system. Last but not least I have to reminds of the fact that according to the Dogon’s belief, the gold is not a precious metal but a kind of copper expired. The copper itself is the expression on earth of the sun beams.

– Le sanctuaire et les peintures de facade, II, p, 121 – Houses 13

• Community life: The village remains still nowadays the unit of the social life in Dogons culture and sglobal social organization. Indeed each village uses to live on their own so each of them own their social, individual and political entity. Moreover, since the whole organisation and family hierarchy is based on men’s power, the whole society remains patriarcal. Then the male line always prevails over the mother’s bonds so men are still leading most of the activities and social works inside the village. The next important point about Dogon’s people social organization is the principle of the twinship, which actually is quite simple to understand. In few words, this is about double. Each Dogon person is not one but two: he’s got his own soul, human body, and attached to it is the animal soul. This is both the main basement of Dogons people thought and pillar of their whole conception of life and cosmology and part of their mythology is built on that certainty.

Looking more closely to the housing morphology, the main feature of their vernacular architecture is that they conceive architecture like a human body so the architecture of the houses reminds one staring at it of a human anatomy with the basics such as the head, the body, the basement… In general the most used shapes are conical or rounded so their appearance are similar to anthills. The village settlement is about some few and simple basic elements which are common to every villages. -An open space in the middle of the village where rises the big house of the patriarch of EACH EXTENDED FAMILY: here is the ginna. -The mosque, built on the same type and architecture as the ginna. -A huge common meeting place they do call the togu na. -Some other common places but smaller and dedicated to each extended family: the togu.

NB : The smaller houses and mud granaries are all the same built according to the similar anthill model: this remains the basis and the major symbol for the communal order in Dogon story of creation.

-The great family house p, 100

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Settlements

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compact, walled villages built up the sides of the escarpment.

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Village population size: from 27 to 476 inhabitants (an average of 160);

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villagers are housed in 7 to 135 buildings (an average of 44).

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grouped around the "great house" (ginna ) of the head.

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Clusters of from 5 to 6 of these villages center around water holes or wells, and each cluster is referred to as a "canton" or "district."

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Within the village, individual houses are set around a rocky, irregularly shaped open space

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separated from neighboring houses by stone walls.

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Buildings are so close to one another that the floors of some houses begin where the roofs of adjacent ones end.

- Architecture et religion traditionnelle – Le Ginna (associé au culte du Wagem) This is the house of the father of the village who is named the Ginna Banga. A great village is made of several districts and each one of them has his Ginna. This is a building of 2 floors: the Ginna banga uses to live in the first floor whereas the 2nd is dedicated to the stock of millet belonging to the family. On the terrace is the ancestors altar: the Wagram. This altar is made of several potteries which use to represent each one an ancestor. The Wagram cult allows people to keep in touch with their ancestors.

– La maison du Hogon (associée au culte du Lébé) Cf. Lébé’s cult chapter by Griaule.

– Sanctuaire de Binou Cf. Binou’s cult chapter by Griaule.

– La forge The forge is a sober shelter made a thatched roof and beams based on a dry stone wall. Tradespeople are endogamous caste and live on the margins of society Dogon. This is the 15

case of blacksmiths. They do not marry with someone outside their community. They fall into two distinct castes: The jth-na rooted in the distant past. They occupy mainly the plain of the Seno-Gondo. They mastered the art of mining and iron. This industry has gone to 30/40 years of the last century. The colonial period facilitated access to other sources of supply. Today the remains of former furnaces in the ground are still visible on the plain and the plateau. But who are these blacksmiths and what are their origins? Difficult to answer but the fact remains that Dogon blacksmiths of the plain were known for their high technology for a very time. Yatenga the early second millennium already attests activity attributed to metal KIBS / Dogon. Time Songhay and Mossi conquests, a common practice to collect blacksmiths in their home villages for relocate in the conquered territory. Their expertise in weapons and agricultural tools was vital to conquering all worthy of the name. It logically the Dogon plateau, in need of blacksmiths, turned to them for learn the trade. Irine The Dogon are former farmers who have learned the art of the forge with the jth-na. They make agricultural tools. In the recent past, they worked on they bought pig iron from the jth-na. They also work the wood. It is among them to look for the great sculptors Dogon. They are given powers healers. They also work as mediators to resolve disputes between villagers, a responsibility they share with the Hogon. Their village of origin is not where they live. They settled place where a blacksmith becomes available. The Irine often bear the family name of their village adobtion. We say that a blacksmith jth-na, if desired, may take place at any blacksmith Irine, a decision to which it must submit. To the mobility of blacksmiths clans through time and space, it is reasonable to ask what is the real impact they had on the evolution of material culture known as "Dogon". The forges are beautiful not to be adorned with signs of worship, artistic creations that have come from one of the most vibrant Dogon worship of the universe.

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The mosquee : Nowadays the strength of traditional architecture in Dogon country is manifested, among other things, the construction of mosques in widely varying styles. Some stylistic features of local origin are easily recognizable, for example, facades decorated with niches or triangular grid pattern. 16

The mosque of Kani Kombole is one example. It lies at the foot of the cliff. The place does not fail and the buildings can be wide. Several rows of colonnades areniches around the mosque. The similarities with the Ginna (home of the extended family)are obvious.

• 2-Dogon’s astronomy The starting point of the Dogon’s people astronomy is the star Sirius which, according to their belief, is supposed to be the origin of the whole universe. From that star, the most shining one, is another one, smaller, named Sirius B, in orbit around the Sirius star. Dogon’s people asserted from the very beginning, even before occidental searchers discovered that astronomic fact laely in the 60’s, that this star, Sirius B was rounding about 50 years. Thus every 50 years, they have been used to celebrate the event by a ceremony of theirs. Then searching for the real nature of this star, I found out it was actually about a white dwarf which might become a black hole; very heavy mass ( more or less 90 % of the sun mass) and half bigger than the earth planet.

The polemic appeared from Griaule’s summury of that knowledge when it was abvious for the scientific world searchers that such a discovery is impossible unaided eye. Furthermore, he also revealed Dogon people knew about much more: they already knew Jupiter 4 satellites and Saturn’s rings. The fact that the moon was impossible to be lived on was also theirs and the very first statement, the earth rounding about the sun as well.

NB: Dogon people owns some knowledge about the planets similar to Mayas and Incas tribes from south america : they know about Venus phases. In Dogon astronomy, although they obviously don’t use the same scientific terminology, they do express their knowledge by some phrases and images of their own. Thus they talk about the planets as the « star’s children » and draw the galaxies as concentric spirals knowing they are actually moving ones from each other in a rotating movement similar to the atomic ones. Last but not least, Griaule’s found out from his conversations with Ogotemmêli that Dogons’ people do believe as well that there is another much smaller 3rd star rotating in thirty two years around Sirius.

Reading through the book as well as searching for information Dogon’s people astronomy, it appears to me that focusing about their astrology could bring more specific details about their cosmology.

• 3-Dogon’s religion: The Dogon origins and basic myths get some great resemblances with Egyptian myth basements. The recurrent themes of their own myths remain the 8 first ancestors and the first deceased, the man-snake. This last point by itself is enough to remind of the Egyptian belief about life reincarnation and gods half human half crocodile or eagle. At least, searchers find this possibility plausible.

-19th day : Lebe’s cult p,127 The first thing which has to be said is that each region gets his own Lébé who uses to inhabit the Hogon house. But what’s a Lébé ? Let’s say it is actually the first ancestor as well as the first deceased. He is usually called the 7th Nommo but he remains still taken together with the 8th Nommo. That is why nowadays, the Lébé is symbolized by the oldest man of the village and only he can enter the Hogon house: people are forbidden for this is profane to dishonor this special and sacral place. The image of the Lébé is consequently a snake wearing an ear on the top of its forehead. Ogotemmêli then proceed on explaining how came out the myth of the first Lébé. The 7 Nommo dying, he was buried in a field. Times later, the Dyon (called this way th

because he had been digging a hole to find out what had become the deceased), discovered a snake under the earth and then people deduced the Lébé had been revived. Then Griaule deals with the expansion of the Dogon’s people country; this has been possible for the digger has been putting some good ferment in the earth were going from fields to fields to germinate them. So that could be told a kind of chain process. What remains important in that metaphor of expansion is the geographic arboreal network development. Then focusing on the activity of the Lébé inside the Hogon, Griaule, from Ogotemmêli’s speech explains how the Lébé, the previous and very first one uses to visit the Prier of the village each night to give him the vital force mandatory for the day following. Thus when he comes, the Lébé licks the old man, giving to him this way the power he needs to live each day. One quotation seems to be the main key of this system of believes : “Dans la salive du Lébé reside la force de l’humidité, la buée sonore que toute bouche expectore.” Cf. p.130 To summarize : 1 day = 1 lick session = 1 day of word for the Hogon. That leads us to the meaning of the natural elements in Dogon’s people system of thought: the copper is the sun beams on earth. But it also symbolize as a paradox the water. The Hogon owns copper flip flops; if gets close to the water, he’s going to loose them for they will turn into water as well and disappear. Liquids and steels have got the same origin in Dogon mythology.

-18th day : Binou’s cult p,134 The Binou’s cult is about honoring the 8 ancestors and the most famous descendants of them so living people can get some luck and happiness for they would be auspicious to them. The Binou is the contrary of the Nommo who is a revival of God belonging to the higher system out of the earth. He is a coming back ghost has well but the difference with the Nommo is that the Binou has not dead; he is just a ghost coming back as an animal or another human soul.

-20th day : The insiminating word p,149 The voice, according to the Dogon believe and thought are, as a quotation, “ the continuation of the divine act power.” The whole world has indeed come out from Gods and a word. When both Nommo speak to each other, this is the metaphor of a impregnation. Then that is why they believe that the word is dedicated to some openings: both of them, 19

the ears AND the female sex. The word comes from the deepest part of the one who speaks: in Dogons philosophy, this is the liver. Last but not least, one has to bear in mind that the diurnal word is positive instead of the night one remains highly negative.

-24th day : The double soul and circumcision p,165 At the very beginning of the life, the human has got two souls or let’s say better, his soul owns itself two different sides: one male, on female. That’s the point for every newborn. It has to be double, one has to be two because in their thought, loneliness is chaos and death. That’s an important point of theirs. Thus every childbirth is the one of two soulds in one: “Nommo demande à Dieu une double naissance”, cf. p. 144. A baby is a kinndou-kinndou, in other words, « soul-soul » and stays this way as soon as he gets an adult, that means, to the point he gets circumcised. The fact remains quite simple to get: a boy is part a girl because of his foreskin. On the contrary, a girl remains part a boy if she doesn’t loose her clitoris. The blood is the debt of the child to the earth. On the other hand, the chapter deals about the whole unit system of the universe. 123-

Old man status and place: the Lébé’s grave. First man : knead in the mud The Lébé made revival

That could also be said this way: 123-

Revival grave Man Revived man

NB: That is named the symbolic sistrum, which is another similarity with the Egyptian mythology which used to talk about the great importance of the sistrum.

-27th day : Dead people’s cult, fermented drinks p,191 The important thing is just about how impure are the deceased for they are furthermore dying of thirst. “Les morts eux, meurent de soif ». The deceased are already impure because they are dead people. 20

• Religious Beliefs: In that part, I tried to figure out how the Dogon people do organize their hierarchy of gods and sacral creatures. Therefore, it came out that the highest in the order of supernatural beings is Amma, the supreme creator god. He is both: -the master of life and death, -responsible for the creation of three other subordinate beings: A bit lower in the scale is the Nommo, the son of Amma, generally considered a water spirit; Then the Lébé, the incarnation of the earth and its fertilizing properties; Yurugu, the mythical representative of fallen man.

NB: The Dogon also believe in various malevolent and benevolent spirits who populate the bush, trees, and uninhabited places. Although the Dogons people recognize the creator god Amma as the Supreme Being and address prayers and sacrifices to him •

BUT mainly about core set of beliefs and practices focuses on ancestor worship.

NB: The spread of Islam throughout Africa has brought about some degree of change in the basic religious orientation of the Dogon. Some tenets of Islam have been accepted, others rejected.

NB: Only 10 percent of the Dogon are considered christians.

– Religious Practitioners: -Priests and religious functionaries of the various cults, -Kumogu: seers or visionaries and diviners. -Dyodyonune: Other specialists are the healers or herbalists , who treat the sick, -Dyonune: cast spells.

• Ceremonies: -The principal ceremonies are about celebrating agriculture and death. 21

-In addition are some several annual feasts such as the one of the Bulu.

1-The great annual Feast of Sowing. -Begins in April or May, prior to the beginning of the rainy season, in all the villages of the region. -The ceremony consist in: - offerings of millet from the Hogon's fields, in conjunction with sacrifices by the Binu priest (binukedine ) on the Lebe altar of the ancestors, impart to the seed the Nyama (=the spiritual essence) that will contribute toward the community's assurance of an abundant harvest.

2-The funerary ceremonies of the Dogon : -consist of two parts: - the initial rites: take place immediately following death and continue for about a week; -Dama rites: terminate the mourning period after an indeterminate period of time. -All the rites and ceremonies involve somehow more or less: -offerings and sacrifices, mock battles, and the prominent display of the carved masks (generally through their use in the elaborate dances of the masked society).

NB: The degree of complexity of the ceremonies depends upon the age and status of the deceased male. Funerals for women, who are generally excluded from awa membership, are simple, with little if any ceremony.

3-The major ceremony: Sigi ceremony -Once in every sixty yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;roughly within a Dogon's life. -Originally honored the dead ancestors but NOW is for the living. -To halt the gradual cultural decline in Dogon society and to cleanse the community of its sins and bad feelings. -Series of dances, which constitute a good part of the Sigi, last for seven years.

-One village after another takes its turn to entertain its neighbors with feasting, drinking, and displays of wealth. At this time, new masks are carved and dedicated to the ancestors.

4-Dogon’s thought: – 3rd word and pure earth loft, p,37 How surprising is the fact that Dogons people’s cosmology has got some similarities to our occidental mythology. Indeed the basics seem quite the same as the ones of antic greek and roman mythology which are the basement of the northern culture. About the origin of the word, they base its construction upon 8 gods they call “Nommo” who remind us of the greek 4 titans. Thus those 8 Nommo used to live together in 4 couples from the very beginning; nevertheless one of them broke the perfectness of their divine world committing a sin: no couple was allowed to break up: one did and furthermore, ate the last seed forbidden to eat. That was the beginning of the end: the first fault who leads to the human world. This is another similarity with the European traditional thought: Adam and Eve’s sin, eating the apple and out of the paradise. -Le grenier = 1st nest of the world.

Then another similarity is about the fact they do have as well a main creator from who everything has been out from the very beginning of the birth of the earth. This is a kind of genious who reminds us of our Jesus or God; moreover they believe all of this has come out of a hand, which is stunning by the fact such a culture, as far as possible from ours, has got however the same representation of the divine power. 23

Last but not least, the granary remains the very first nest of their divine world. It is about a hierarchy who organizes the whole structure of their conception of the divine system. It used to be a kind of upper world where lived the gods or Nommo we could assimilate to the antic Olympus or the Christian paradise.

– 3rd word and things order p,42 We learn in this chapter that this mythology uses to classify the living according to several symbols. Then they have built out of the myth various rules to explain how humans being are still nowadays. They are all inside the same sacral granary; but more or less high within its hierarchy: this reminds us of the arch of Noé directly out of the bible as well Adam and Eve primitive sin. In addition to that, they do believe in the natural elements power: thus the water is the basement of everything: it has created human morphology and the very first men were named “Bozo” for they were actually mid-human mi-fish. The sun symbolizes an energy which feed people. It is something positive in Dogons people’s thought whereas the night is a sun reject, that is to say excrements. The rain uses to be the blood and the clouds, “breath of life”.

– 3rd word, down the pure earth loft and death p,48

In hat chapter, Griaule relates from Ogotemmêli’s speech how Dogons people got their skills from the Gods. The 8 first Nommo were actually not only Gods but as well workers, building out what were about to be our world. They are the ones who gave humans being their primitive and necessary abilities such as the word, the forge… Let’s focus first on the way the first human got the shape we all have now. In the previous time, he used to be unarticulated, with all his members completely straight thus no 24

possibility to do anything, no way to work nor create nor produce. No articulation, almost no power. Then came the first blacksmith: he threw his arch away ; it hurt the rainbow so that caused a big shock which gave the first man his articulations in the arms and legs. Then he was able to any work and began the forge of the world as well the forge work itself was born.

– 3rd word and vomiting works p,55 Then Ogotemmêli explains how come out the first humans being after this first articulater worker : they are abviously desendants of the 8 first Nommo and they are the

originns of the first great est families living on the very new earth. The logical system is so that the oldest family is the 8th family and that the oldest man is actually the first descendant of the 7th Nommo, the oldest man, the Lébé. 25

Men need the Lévé to die to gain the word. The 7th Nommo represents the word, and the 8th one is the word itself. This is a part complex, and I have to say that while saying it, I might not have gotten that meaning properly.

– 3rd word and redemption works p,64

The 7th Nommo has been sacrificed, he’s got the same value as our Messiah from who everything of our occidental and Christan word has been possible. About himself, he said via Ogotemmêli : « My head has fallen down to save them”Ma tête est tombée à cause des hommes pr les sauver”. (cf. p.67) The next pillar worth enough to be mentioned twice is the principal of the double soul.

NB : Dogons people use to represent the world system by a mere pottery poterie made of 8 pieces which are each one one of the 8 genious or Nommo.

– Death and Afterlife. The main thing we have to keep on mind is that each character always has got two sides: it is divided in two parts of one body: each human being owns a human soul, and an animal double as well. They use to name those two parts of themselves like : 1- the nyama = vital life force 2- the kikinu say = soul Thus the death is consequently the separation from the body of those both parts. We nderstand then that the moment when they have to get separated from each other keep on being one of the most important event in a Dogon’s life. That is why this fact is the base itself of the main ceremony post mortem called dama. This is the final lifting of mourning ritual consisting in the deceased wanders in the southern outskirt of the village or the bush around the dead’s former dwelling.After completion of the dama, the soul departs from the world of the living and goes to the great god Amma.

Once the dama has been completed, if this soul is the one of a “good” person, that’s to say the soul of a just person, it reaches the paradise, Ardyenne (= the house of God, Amma ginu), where they live an existence analogous to that which they lived on earth. Then we can read through that another similarities with the Christian belief: the Ardyenne is another paradise of them.

Bibliography: •

http://books.google.com/books?id=CKLjRtqMR0IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dogon&hl=en& ei=8reaTtrxHomJ4gSA78GxBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AE wAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

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http://books.google.com/books?id=_TDMjFuk76EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dogon&hl=en &ei=6rmaTqyqKIKB4gTDvvmJBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFEQ6A EwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false

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http://books.google.com/books?id=swONjKmoHJYC&pg=PA150&dq=dogon+astronomy&hl= en&ei=ocGaTrTeE-qJ4gTzlmFBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=dog on%20astronomy&f=false

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http://books.google.com/books?id=nZDCGaSYcVYC&pg=PA162&dq=dogon+astronomy&hl=e n&ei=ocGaTrTeE-qJ4gTzlmFBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=do gon%20astronomy&f=false

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http://books.google.com/books?id=ricStR4SEUC&pg=PA65&dq=dogon+astronomical+knowledge&hl=en&ei=0sWaTo7qEu6Q4gTiosCzBA& sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=dogon%20 astronomical%20knowledge&f=false

Links: •

http://www.halexandria.org/dward109.htm

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http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/966.php

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people

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http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/dogons-astronomie.htm

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http://www.lepaysdogon.com/

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http://www.qyam.free.fr/Afrique/Dogon.htm

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http://www.musee-manega.bf/fr/dogon/dogon.htm

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http://www.dinosoria.com/dogons.htm

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http://whc.unesco.org/fr/list/516

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http://www.linternaute.com/science/histoires-de-science/astro-dogon/astro-dogon.shtml

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http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/mysterieuse-astronomie-des-dogons-79421

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http://www.forum-ovni-ufologie.com/t8570-les-connaissances-astronomiques-des-dogons

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http://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=fr&langpair=en|fr&u=http://www.unmuseum.org/siri usb.htm

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http://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=fr&langpair=en|fr&u=http://www.debunker.com/tex ts/dogon.html

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http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Dogon.aspx

Pictures:  www.dogon-lobi.ch photos & texte : Huib Blom esquisses : Arian & Anneke Blom 

Marcel Griaule, Dieu d’eau, Le livre de poche, biblio essais