Fetish

The Dogon people live in the south-central Republic of Mali. Their number is currently about 500-600 thousand. They settled in the Bandiagara Escarpment in the 15th century, fleeing the invasion of Islam. The new homeland gave the expected shelter and for a very long time the Dogon remained on the periphery of influence of both the great West African states of the Middle Ages and the modern states. However, they did not live in complete isolation; thanks to Arab chronicles we know of mutual contacts with some of their neighbours. For example, in 1465-1466 and later in 1484 Sonni Ali, the ruler of the Songhai state, fought against the Dogon. His motive was not to enlarge the territory of the huge state for those times. The expeditions he organised were only to get loot and slaves. The Dogon territories for the same reason were invaded several times in 1554-1555, 1563-1564 and in 1579 by Askia Daoud, who ruled the Songhai Empire from 1549-1582. After a long period of peace, the Dogon reappeared in the arena of history due to the wars waged against them around 1780 by Ngolo Diarra, the ruler of the Bamana people. The Dogon were not only exposed to the blows of their neighbours, but they were also able to inflict them themselves, as there are chronicles of the Dogon raids on Masina, the Fula state, in the 19th century. Extremely important in the people’s history were the battles with the Fula allied with the Muslim, so completely alien culturally, Tukulor people. They exercised nominal supremacy over the Bandiagara Escarpment until 1894, when the region was occupied by the French.

Ewa Prądzyńska