Props for highwayman's mask (leather shield, dance baton)

The yo dommolo shield and staff are props for the yona mask belonging to Ogotemmele Dolo. The mask imagines a ritual thief, a member of the Yona group with the right to perform thefts under certain circumstances. Their thefts commemorate the deed of the mythical Blacksmith, who obtained solar fire in the same way. The yona mask can have various props. The most common ones are a leather bag, a bunch of keys to the Dogon locks, the yo dommolo staff symbolising a horse and a shield.According to Domon Dolo, the owner of the shield and the thief's staff was his grandfather Ogotemmeli Dolo - one of the most important informants of Marcel Griaule, the French anthropologist who conducted research among the Dogon in the first half of the 20th century. Ogotemmeli was blind, having lost his sight in his youth while hunting porcupines. His own gun accidentally discharged straight into his face. When he met Griaul he was already an old man with a reputation as a great fortune teller. He was one of the initiates, with an in-depth knowledge of Dogon cosmogony and religion. In 1947, he was appointed by a group of Dogon elders, also initiates, to pass on his knowledge to a French anthropologist. During the following 33 days, Ogotemmeli revealed to his interlocutor the Dogon's complex belief system and patiently answered Marcel Griaule's nagging questions. Ogotemmeli outlived his pupil by several years and died in 1962.Conversations with Ogotemmeli resulted in a book entitled Dieu d'Eau. Entretiens avec Ogotemmeli published in 1948. The book was translated into Polish (Bóg wody. Rozmowy z Ogotemmeli [Water God. Conversations with Ogotemmeli]) and published in 2006.

Ewa Prądzyńska