Figure - ancestor

The Dogon are primarily farmers. The calendar of the fields and the success of the harvest depend on the timely start of the rainy season (giene) and its abundance. When the dry season (nayban) is prolonged, the people become anxious. The Dogon know and use many ways to bring rain. They believe that the rain is sent from heaven to earth by the creator god Amma, so they make offerings of white chicken or ram on his altars. One of the ways is also to sacrifice on a stick called albarga found in the village of Youga Dogorou. The name of the stick comes from the name of an old Andumbulu (low-growing creatures living in the bush), who in mythical times passed on to the men all the knowledge about masks and the Sigi festival. When a village is hit by a drought, they send their representative to Youga Dogorou with the mission to sacrifice an animal on an albarga stick. The bloody stick is then carried to the village, assisted by a Youga Dogorou resident. On the spot, the stick is struck against the ground several times before being fixed upright and the words of a prayer are uttered, asking Albarga to intercede and Amma to release the rain. The statue represents the figure of the ancestor with his hands raised. The gesture is interpreted as a prayerful effort to unite earth and sky. The sign of this alliance is the rain, so important for farmers. It is believed that originally the Tellem, mysterious people who inhabited the Bandiagara Escarpment before the arrival of the Dogon, carved their ancestors in this way. This motif became part of the Dogon tradition and today the connection with the Tellem is only evidenced by the name tellem, which is used to describe the figures.

Ewa Prądzyńska