secret knowledge of the Dogon people in Mali

deep blue sky riders

The Dogon live in the southern part of Mali on the bluffs of a rugged old dry riverbed that once fed water to the Niger, back when the Sahara was green and the oases were home to animals such as hippos and crocodiles. Today the area around Bandiagara is almost dry as a straw. The small rivulet, which carries a little water during the rare rains, allows the cultivation of millet, sorghum and, above all, tasty small onions, with which the Dogon trade a little even in good times. Some of their farmsteads are built right into the rocks, in which one can also discover the burial and dwelling places of a much older culture, the Tellem, which was suppressed and also integrated by the Dogon. The Dogon found this less than idyllic spot while fleeing the Mossi horsemen from Burkina Faso. Their ancestors tried in vain to assert themselves against the overpowering enemy on a few horses. From the north the Islamic Peulh and from the south the Christian colonizers pushed the survivors into this remote valley.
The equestrian figures of the Dogon are interesting, large carved in wood or as small figures that adorn the oath rings with which the Dogon lend weight to their descriptions in court hearings. One hand is raised and points to the stars.
According to Dogon mythology, their knowledge is said to have been passed on to their ancestors by visitors to another star: Sirius, of which they surprisingly also knew that it consists of 3 individual suns, of which our astronomers had no exact knowledge until recently. Strange coincidence!
The life and culture of the Dogon was at the beginning of the last century by the well-known French. Ethnologist Marcel Griaut researched over a longer period of time. Robert Temple and Wolfgang Lauber are also important Dogon experts. The latter writes in an interview with Dieter Kassel in Deutschlandradiokultur on the subject of ethnotourism today and the sale of cultures among the Dogon: http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/dogon-schnitz...A strange quintessence for collectors: everything is affordable in Africa. When a deceased for whom a sculpture was made is gradually forgotten, their likeness also gradually becomes worthless and can be sold. Millet against hunger is more important than the ritual rider manifested on the millet-storage vessel for protection from evil. Sad but realistic.
If our Dogon oath rings with the riders rolling the globe made of lapis lazuli high above the stars in the ring brought in money when sold, then that would be nice. Our museum can offer some of these ring and stone pendants.