Granary door

The Dogon granaries (guyon, singular: guyo) are located inside the homesteads, the centre of family life. Apart from them, there are residential houses, religious buildings, gate rooms (dolu) directly adjacent to the front door, chicken coops, sheds, small cowsheds and courtyards. The whole area is surrounded by a reasonably high wall which guarantees privacy. In the villages situated at the foot of the Bandiagara Escarpment and on the Plateau, the homesteads are small and compact, and the streets between them are narrow and winding. The situation is entirely different in the Gondo and Seno Plains, where the relief provides more space and freedom, favouring more expansive, more spacious homesteads. The most common homestead type is the ginu sala (simple house), inhabited by monogamous and polygynous couples. The entrance leads to the gate room dolu, where many chairs and planks are often set up for sitting or relaxing in a semi-reclining position. The older inhabitants of the homestead often relax there, watching the traffic from behind the open door. Visitors are also received here, thus protecting the privacy and intimacy of family members spending time on various activities deep inside the homestead. From dolu, one walks into the courtyard. If more wives are living on the farm, there can also be several separate courtyard areas. The door to the granary is made of two boards connected with iron clamps and equipped with a hinge system called a pole with two pivots: upper and lower. They are decorated with images of ancestors.

Ewa Prądzyńska