Fetish

According to oral tradition the Dogon were not the first inhabitants of the Bandiagara Escarpment. Settling there around the 15th century they found people they called the Tellems (the name tellem in the Dogo-so language means those who have gone before us), who built hundreds of clay granaries in the caves of the massif and left numerous burial sites. The Dogon now consider the Tellems to be their teachers, masters and ascribe to them supernatural qualities, such as the ability to fly. After a temporary coexistence with the Tellems (it is calculated that this period lasted 300-400 years), they displaced them to the south-east to the region of today's Burkina Faso, where they are commonly identified with the Kurumbas people, which has never been scientifically confirmed. The Dogon tell us that the Tellem people, who were mainly hunters, although archaeological findings contradict this information, left the Massif themselves after the Dogon farmers cut down most of the surrounding trees for their crops. Besides, as the Dogon explain, they also replaced other inhabitants in the Bandiagara Escarpment who were Andumbulu - creatures playing a very important role in the Dogon mythology. The lowly Andumbulu gave way to the Tellems and moved into the bush. It is interesting to note that archaeological investigations carried out in the area have confirmed a three-tiered settlement pattern (Toloy, Tellem and Dogon cultures). The research was conducted in the 1960s by archaeologists from the Instituut voor Antropobiologie van de Rijksuniversiteit in Utrecht. Participants included J. Huizinga (head), R.M.A, Bedaux, H. Haan, J.D. van der Waals. During the five research seasons, the scientists penetrated 29 caves in the Sangha area and five caves in the north-eastern region, near Nokara and Hombori.

Ewa Prądzyńska