Figure - woman

In the Dogon, as in the whole of Africa, there is a strictly enforced gender division of labour. According to this, the woman's duties include taking care of the family, children and household. Her place of work is mainly the gono yard located inside the homestead and the obolom kitchen. The courtyard is customarily divided into two parts, one of which contains the granaries, while the other, fenced off, is used to keep the livestock, mainly goats and rams. During the dry season, the women work between the granaries, preparing food and looking after the children in the open air. The rest of the household also carry out their duties outside, always on the shady side of the yard. During the dry season, the Dogon even sleeps outside, as it is stuffy and hot inside the buildings, on the ginna terraces, which no animals can climb to rest well. During the rainy season, the women prepare their meals in obolom, i.e. kitchen rooms. In the homesteads located on the Bandiagara Escarpment and in the Youga villages, they are rectangular, while in those on the rocky outcrops at the foot of the Escarpment, they are circular. Inside each obolom, there is a hearth consisting of two stones, as the third support is always one of the walls. There is no chimney in obolom, only a hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out. Therefore, the walls are blackened with soot and the smell of smoke is noticeable inside. In obolom, there are always tepees, stone querns, various earthenware, wooden and calabash dishes, and herbs hung on beams built into the walls. There is also no shortage of plastic and metal containers and vessels available throughout Dogon country.

Ewa Prądzyńska