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The Dogon religion is the traditional religious or spiritual beliefs of the Dogon people of Mali. Dogons who adhere to the Dogon religion believe in one Supreme Creator called Amma (or Ama). They also believe in ancestral spirits known as the Nommo also referred to as "Water Spirits". Veneration of the dead is an important element in their spiritual belief. They hold ritual mask dances immediately after the death of a person and sometimes long after they have passed on to the next life. Twins, "the need for duality and the doubling of individual lives" (masculine and feminine principles) is a fundamental element in their belief system. Like other traditional African religions, balance, and reverence for nature are also key elements.

The Dogon religion is an ancient religion or spiritual system. Shannon Dorey, the Canadian author and researcher on the Dogon, their religion and symbols—believes that, the Dogon religion "is the oldest known mythology in the world." She went on: "It existed in Africa long before humans migrated to other areas of the world. When humans left Africa for other continents, they took their religion with them. Fragments of the Dogon religion thus existed all over the world making the Dogon religion the "mitochondrial religion" of the world."

The Dogon religion, cosmogony, cosmology and astronomy have been subjects of intense study by ethnologists and anthropologists since the 1930s. One of the first Western writers to document Dogon's religious beliefs was the French ethnologist Marcel Griaule—who interviewed the Dogon high priest and elder Ogotommeli back in the early 1930s. In a thirty-three days interview, Ogotommeli disclosed to Griaule the Dogon's belief system resulting in his famous book Dieu D'eau or Conversations With Ogotemmeli, originally published in 1948 as Dieu D'eau. That book by Griaule has been the go–to reference book for subsequent generations of ethnologists and anthropologists writing about Dogon religion, cosmogony, cosmology, and astronomy.

Dogon cosmology and astronomy are broad and complex. Like some of the other African groups in the Upper Niger, and other parts of the continent, they have a huge repertoire of "system of signs" which are religious in nature. This, according to Griaule and his former student Germaine Dieterlen, includes "their own systems of astronomy and calendrical measurements, methods of calculation and extensive anatomical and physiological knowledge, as well as a systematic pharmacopoeia". For this reason, Dogon cosmology and astronomy are beyond the scope of this article. This article merely gives an overview of Dogon religion and cosmogony.

Beliefs

Divinity

In Dogon religion, there is a belief in a single omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Creator deity called Amma.

The Dogon religion teaches that, it was through Amma's powers which brought forth the creation of the universe, matter, and the biological processes of reproduction. With such a complex belief system, Amma, the Sky God, is the head of the Dogon triumvirate; the others being the Water God – Nommo; and the Earth God – Lewe or Lebe.

Amma is genderless, and maybe regarded as he, she, or it, depending on which aspect of its principles one is trying to appease. The Deity symbolizes both the masculine and feminine principles. As such, it is genderless or being of dual gender, which invokes balance, duality and pairing of opposites. The cosmological concepts of balance, duality and opposites are found in all facets of Dogon spirituality and culture. This is "consistent with the male and female aspects of biological reproduction that Amma symbolizes."

Divinity and humanity

Religous sacrifice and rituals are directed to Amma. Carved figurines which act as "representations of the living" are also produced. These figurines are not a physical representation of the Divine, but merely serve as mediators or interceders between the living world and the Divine.

Death and afterlife

See also: African art § Dogon

In the beginning of human existence, immortality was the norm according to Dogon's spiritual belief and cosmogony. Death was none–existent, and the concept of time was irrelevant. A grasp of Dogon's mask culture and their concept of nyama are important for a greater understanding Dongon's concept of death and the afterlife. King describes nyama in the following terms:

During the 1960s, nommo was defined by black cultural scholars and [African studies|[Africanist]]s as the spiritual-physical energy of "the word" that conjures being through naming. It is the seed of word, water, and life in one that brings to the body its vital human force called the nyama. Nommo controls the nyama by naming and unnaming it—calling it forth. A "body" existence without the liberated life force of the nyama (what I call the "flesh") is worst than dead. It is dehumanized.

The Dogon attributes the origins of masks to beings they refer to as Andoumboulou. The first masks were made of fiber. Although women eventually acquired them, and later men, their function was not apparent to the Dogon until the ancestors started dying. The first ancestor to suffer death did so in the form of a snake. As common in other African belief and cosmogony such as the in Serer myth, a serpent death represents the process of transforming into spirit form. When people realzed the negative effects of the nyama released by death, the ancestors decided to carve a mask so that it serves as a support for the nyama. The mask was carved in the form of a snake symbolizing the dead ancestor. That initial mask, called "imina na" in the Dongon languages ("great mask" or "mother of masks") is the style of mask used in the Sigi ceremony in order to commemorate this mythic event every sixty years.

Although the face of the mask is in snake form, it is never worn. Instead, the Dogon would display in a stationary position or while carrying it. Every sixty years duing the Sigi ceremony, each Dogon village will make a new "great mask". Following the initial death which prompted the production of the "great mask", other deaths followed, and soon after, the Dogon had to seek other measures to deal with the released nyama. Initially, the Dogon erected alters for the ancestors while wood figures served as repository for the spiritual forces. As deaths increased, that became insufficient and masks were then made for dama rituals. The dama is "a ritutual in which the souls of the dead are permanently escorted out of the villange and sent on their way to the afterlife. Rituals surrounding death are important elements of Dogon mask culture."

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"A small group of masks-four fiber bede masks and a carved wood mask called sirige-are donned for dances held two days after burial of men who have participated in a sigi ceremony. This part of the funerary ritual is called baga bundo. The dancers wearing the bede, or female masks, kneel next to the funerary blanket that is displayed in the public square, they pound the earth on either side of it, a gesture that women mourners perfom in other stages of the funeral. The wearer of the sirige mask also performs a similar gesture of mourning and respect, leaning down so that the tip of the mask-often fifteen feet high-will touch the ground. Several years after the actual funeral, the dama rite is performed. A dama requires lengthy and costly preparatins, and one of its functions is to enhance the prestige and reputation of the deceased and of his descendants through these elaborate preparations. The dama ritual itself last six days, during which time the mask society performs in the village plaza, on the terrace of the deceased's house, and in the hogon's sacred fields."

<=> "The soul of the deceased, localized in the handle of his hoe and in a container of millet beer, is removed from the village by throwing these spirit containers into the bush. When performed for women, the dama does not include masked dancing, except in the case of the yasigine, the sole female member of the men's mask society. The variety of Dogon masks in overwhelming. Griaule's informants listed more than seventy-eight different types, representing mammals, reptilvs, birds, humans, objects, and abstract concepts. They are made of both carved wood and knotted fiber. The fiber masks represent primarily human characters, such as Dogon village specialists (hogon, binukedine, blacksmith, leather workers) and their wives, or men and women of other ethnic groups such as Bamana, Fulani and Tuareg. The wooden masks for the most part depicts animals and birds. Together the mask may be seen as a summary of the people, animal, and things that constitute the Dogon world, a visual accounting of the return to order in the universe following the disruption caused by death."

"Dogon sculpture and masks are made by blacksmiths, who also work iron. There are two groups of smiths in the Dogon area, the jemo who live on the plains, and their former slaves, the iru, who live on the plateau and who were taught by the jemo to work iron. As in other West African ethnic groups, the blacksmiths' mastery of earth, air, and fire, and their ability to make the iron tools on which Dogon farmvrs depend, accords them a priviledged place in Dogon society. Both jemo and iru serve as intermediaries and peacemakers, not only between other Dogon, but also between the living and the ancestors and between mankind and Amma, especially in order to bring rain (Paulme, 1940: 182-88; Dieterlen and Ganay, 1942: 6-8; Dieterlen, 1982: 76). The respect granted to blacksmiths is said to derive also from their role in the myth of creation, in which the first blacksmith descended from heaven to bring mankind fire, iron, and seeds for cultivating (Griaule, 1938: 48-51)."

The concept of heaven and hell does not exist in Dogon religion. Ancestor veneration is however an important element.

Ancestral spirits

Main article: Nommo

The Nommo are ancestral spirits (sometimes referred to as deities) worshipped by the Dogon. The word Nommos is derived from the Dogon language meaning "to make one drink." The Nommos are usually described as amphibious, hermaphroditic, fish-like creatures. Folk art depictions of the Nommos show creatures with humanoid upper torsos, legs/feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail. The Nommos are also referred to as “Masters of the Water”, “the Monitors”, and "the Teachers”. In primodial time, the Nommo "could not live entirely on land and on their arrival they made a reservoir of water and dived into it."

Priesthood

Main article: Hogon

The Dogon's spiritual leader is called hogon.

According to Dogon cosmogony, there were four pairs of twins, four females and four males. They were ancestors of humans. Of these, Griaule M. (1970, p. 223) refer to the seventh as "The Master of Speech"—alluding to its "masculine" characteristics. In the Dogon tradition, the seventh ancestor's gift to humankind included weaving, music, dress and language.

Dorey posits that, the pronoun "she" (not "he"), and the "Mistress of Speech", not "the Master of Speech" should have been used by Griaule. She went on to write: "Seventh ancestor and seventh Nummo, born in the second "word" or second experiment". The Mistress of Speech she writes, "was immortal and androgynous, but primarily female, and was seen as the perfect combination of Nommo and human. The DNA of the Mistress of Speech was the hope for the world. The Mistress of Speech was associated with weaving. On the Nommos world, the seventh ancestor could only mate with the second ancestor, who was connected with the evil genetic material and the jackal. The good (seventh ancestor) was combined with the bad (second ancestor) so that the good genetic material would balance out the bad."

"In the Dogon religion, it was the Nommos' DNA, or Word, that was combined with the Earth animals to create humans. Because the Mistress of Speech had the perfect Word or DNA she was the hope for the world and her twenty-two atticulations, which suggest a type of speech, were an important aspect of the Dogon religion. This is because the Mistress of Speech's twenty-two articulations represented twenty-two of her body parts and the evolutionary changes that were to occur in humans as a result of her death and resurrection. Every candidate for Dogon priesthood had to undergo a series of twenty-two trances, or "attacks," called soy "quaking spells," each of which corresponds to a part of the Mistress of Speech's body or to the classification of her "Word" or DNA. Besides meaning "quaking spells" the Dogon word soy also meant seven, reiterating its association with the Mistress of Speech, who was the Seventh Ancestor."

"The Mistress of Speech's twenty articulations were also associated with the twenty-two rays of the sun, connecting them to the genetic makeup of the Nummon, who were symbolized by the sun. The sun was also a symbol of the Nummon spaceship, which is where human creation and regenration occured."

"Ogotommeli, in his narrative of the ancient Dogon religion of Mali, informs us that there were no male priests allowed to service in the ancient religion built around the Supreme Being Amma, who is a woman among the Dogon of West Africa. As women are endowed with the ability of God through their power to give life and giving meaning are not antagonistic in the African world of primal religions. There is no life without meaning and no meaning with life."

Cosmology & cosmogony

"According to Dogon beliefs, Amma, who is a likely Dogon counterpart to the Egyptian god Amen, is made up of four attached clavicles (arcs) that together form an oval called "egg in a ball." This is the same term that is applied to the figure at the center of the nummo fish drawings." (Note: John Anthony West was a proponent of the fringe Sphinx water erosion hypothesis. The creation is more a cosmic egg and chaoes than water).

"The God Amma' was there in the beginning before anything else existed and sat upon nothingness. The only thing that existed was "Amma's egg in a ball," that is, four clavicles joined together in one ball. The four clavicles are also associated with four elements, the four directions and the yu"

"The Dogon belief that man is deeply impregnated by his natural environment gives rise to this "geographic" theory of language. Growing Growing things, particularly those from which man gets his food, are nourished by the "four elements"; millet grows from the earth, is warmed by the sun which ripens it, is fed by the water it drings and the air it breathes like any living being. When he eats millets, man assimilates the four elements and renews those in his own body. Yet these same four elements also form the "body" of his "speech"; when he eats millet, the child receives the components of his speech.

"Dogon mythology was created in an oral culture and its symbolic language is connected through a spherical pattern with no beginning or end. The spherical pattern of the Dogon religion is different from what we are used today, as most written literature is presented in a linear fashion with a beginning and end. By using the globular structure in its creation, the Dogon religion provides us with a metaphor for immortality. The religion focuses on immortality because the key spiritual figures, the Nummo, were immortal. According to the Dogon, when they died and were reborn, the Nummo, were could remember their previous existence."

"Amma : Amma is the supreme creator god of the Dogon religion, whose efforts initiated the formation of the universe, the creation of matter, and the processes of biological reproduction. The notion of a creator god named Amma or Amen is one that is not unique to the Dogon, but can also be found in the religious traditions of other West African and North African groups. It may be reflected in the word Amazigh, a name that is applied collectively to the hunter cultural groups who preceeded the first dynasty in Egypt. Like other important Dogon cosmological keywords, the word Amma carries with it more than one level of meaning in the Dogon language. From one perspective, it can refer to the hidden god of the Dogon, and yet, from another perspective, it can mean "to grasph, to hold firm, or to establish." Among the Dogon, Amma is thought of as the god who holds the world firmly between her or his two hands, and to speak the name Amma is to entreat her or him to continue to honld it. <=> Although commonly referred to as a male, Amma is considered to symbolize both the male and female principles as genderless or as being of dual gender. This dual aspect of Amma's character is consistent with the broader cosmological principles of duality and the pairing of opposites that are expressed symbolically in all facets of Dogon religion and culture. It is also consistent with the male and female aspects of biological reproduction that Amma symbolizes. <=>The Dogon religion is characterized as an esoteric tradition, one that involves both public and private aspects. Although Amma could be said to embody great creative potential, she or he is in fact considered by the knowledgeable Dogon priests to be small–so small as to be effectively hidden from view–although this detail of Amma's character is generally not spoken of in public among the Dogon. This perceived smallness of Amma is consonant with the instrumental role that she or he is said to play in the mythological process of the formation of matter and of biological reproduction. <=> Perhaps the first important creation of the Dogon god Amma was the unformed universe, a body that is said to have held all of the potential seeds or signs of future existence. The Dogon refer to this body as Amma's Egg and characterizes it as a conical, somewhat quadrangular structurewith a rounded point, filled with unrealized potentiality–its corners prefigure the four future cardinal points of the universe to come."

"According to Dogon myth, some undefined impulse caused this egg to open, allowing it to release a whirlwind that sprun silently and scattered in contents in all directions, ultimately forming all of the spiraling galaxies of star and planets. The Dogon compare these bodies to pellets of clay flung out in space. It is by a somewha more complicated process that the sun and the moon were formed, one that the Dogon equate with the art of pottery. Consequently, the Dogon priest compare the sun to a pot of clay that has been raised to a higher heat. <=> Amma is also credited by the Dogon with having created life on Earth. According to the Dogon, myth, there is a principle of twin births in the universe. However, it is said that Amma's first attempt at intercourse with the earth failed, ultimately producing only a single creature–the jackal. This failed is seen by the Dogon as a breach of order in the universe, and therefore the jackal came to be associated with the concept of disorder and the difficulties of Amma. Later, having overcome the difficulty, Amma's divine seed successfully entered and fertilized the womb of the earth and eventually produced the perfect twin pair, the Nummo.'"

"Dogon religion is complex, and is summarised by Van Beck (1988). The head of the Dogon triumvirate is Ama or Amma, the Sky God, the others being Nomo, the Water God, and Lewe or Lebe, the Earth God. Sacrifices and rituals are primarily directed towards Ama, though carved figures are also produced by the Dogo, which are 'representations of the living' (ibid.:60). However, these too served as mediators with Ama–in helping to solve problems for instance. Divination is also a key feature of Dogon religion, as are masked dances. <=> Dogon myth was initially revealed to Marcel Griaule (1965) by a Dogon elder, Ogotemmeli, and subsequently, following Griaule's death, further Dogon myth and knowledge was collected by his colleague Germaine Dieterlen (Griaule and Dieterlen 1965). The essence of these myths is recounted, for example, by De Heusch (1985:156-159) who describes them as dominated by an 'agricultural code', being a 'mythology devised by and for farmers. God created the world in the form of a minute seed animated by vibrations, and the sacrifices of a "water god" proceeded to permit its bursting forth (ibid.:159). The fundamentals of Dogon myth as revealed to Graule and his successors can be seen almost as an interpretative chain running through and underpinning much subsequent scholarship on the Dogon, with myth being seen as the primary structuring agent of Dogon thought, belief, and also, for our purposes, material culture and world–vivw. In fact, to quote Clifford (1983:123), Griaule saw Dogon culture as a 'kind of lived mythology'. <=> Hence the countryside is described as being 'organized as far as possible in accordance with the principle that the world developed in the form of a spiral' (Griaule and Dieterlen 1998: 94), meaning that, theoretically, the central point of development is formed by three ritual fields themselves assigned to the three mythical ancestors. The village is described as laid out either in a square like the first plot of land cultivated by humans, or in an oval with an opening at one end and thus symbolic of the 'world egg broken open by the swelling of the germinating cells' )ibid.: 96). Villages should also be built in pairs, linked in turn with concepts of 'twinness'. Regardless of the oval or square village plan just described, a body analogy also simultaneously underlies the village form for it is also conceived of a person lying north-south, with the smithy the head, shrines the feet, family houses the chest, and menstrual huts the hands. Whilst the house itself represents, 'a man lying on his right hand side and procreating' (ibid.: 97), his penis materially manifest as the entry via a narrow passage leading into the workroom in which the water jars and grinding stones are kept. The agricultural essence of the myth could also be further interpreted here in the metaphorical status of the liquid by-product of corn-crushing being seen as analogous with semen (ibid.)-a liquid whic is in turn poured on the ancestral shrine. In other words, almost the whole package of Dogon material culture conceptualisation has been linked with myth. But the mythic penetration goes further for it is serve, in Griaule's view, according to Van Beck (1991:140), 'as a blueprint for all facets of socienty, from the way to cultivate a field and build a house to weaving, pottery making, drumming, and smithing'."

"Like many ancient religions, the Dogon tradition include both public and private aspects. The details of Dogon cosmology present themselves first through a body of exoteric myths (fireside stories known to most Dogon tribe members) that describe in a general way the efforts of the god Amma to create the sun, the Earth, the moon, and the spiraling galaxies of stars and planets. These story lines run parallel to a more detailed set of esoteric myths (those known primarily to the Dogon priests) that lay out the hierachy of a complex cosmological system in an intricate system of symbols, signs, drawings, and keywords. The innermost details of this system are carefully sheltered from public view and are revealed only to potential initiates of the religion-candidates who have been carefully screened by the Dogon priests. Above all else, the salient quality sought in a potential initiate to the Dogon religion is that he or she demonstrates an abiding curiousity about the religion itself, a quality that is most often expressed by the persistent asking of questions. In truth, the Dogon priests are obliged by tradition to faithfully answer any orderly question posed by an initiate. Over time, this priestly obligation became the cornerstone of an instructional dynamic in which knowledge would be divulged to an initiate only after the candidate asked the appropriate question. In this way, for learning to progress between a student and a priest, it became the implied job of the student to ask the next question."

"According to Dogon beliefs, Amma, who is a likely Dogon counterpart to the Egyptian god Amen, is made up of four attached clavicles (arcs) that together form an oval called "egg in a ball." This is the same term that is applied to the figure at the center of the nummo fish drawings." (Note: John Anthony West was a proponent of the fringe Sphinx water erosion hypothesis. The creation is more a cosmic egg and chaoes than water).

"Creation from Water : The theme of creation from water is one that is central to both Dogon and Egyptian mythology. This aspect of creation is defined in both the egyption hieroglyphic language as Dogon cosmology by the sound "nu." The phonetic valueb "nu" forms the root of the Dogon word nummo, which the Dogon define as the perfect twin pair that emergies at the time of creation; the Dogon priests affirm that the word nummo specifically refers to water (see Conversations with Ogotemmeli). An ideographic reading of the egyptican word nu reflects this same symbolism. Budge defines the word nu as meaning "mass of water that existed in primeval times" and "deified primeval waters whence everything came." In broad terms, we can say that Egyptian hieroglyphic words affirm that the term nu refers to primeval waters of creation and that Dogon cosmology reaffirms that the concept relates to the formation of the universe and of matter." (Note: John Anthony West was a proponent of the fringe Sphinx water erosion hypothesis. The creation is more a cosmic egg and chaoes than water).

"Dogon cosmology, sharing many epistemological elements with their neighbours, the Bamana and Malinke, is based on dualities and twinning and forms the basis for Dogon divination. Here, life begins with the Nommo, the primodial twins.

"One might also consider the relationship of those diviners who use creatures as agents of the oracular messages as having a twin-like relationship with the creatures. For example, there is a mouse divination among the Baule, spider and crab divination in the Cameroons, as well as fox divination among the Dogon."

"The religious beliefs of the Dogon were first documented in studivs conducted during the 1930sm 1940s, and 1950s by French anthropoligists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. These studies resulted in a number of primary works, including a diary of Griaule's religious intructions by a Dogon priest titled Dieu D'eau or Conversations With Ogotemmeli, and a finished anthropological report on the Dogon religion called Le Renard Pale or The Pale Fox. There are no native written texts to use as a reference for the religion because the Dogon rely on oral transmission rather than writing. This entry looks at the religious beliefs and practices of the Dogon primarily through the works of Griaule Dieterlen."

"Organization and Ritual : According to Griaule and Dieterlens, ther are three primary Dogon cults. The first is devoted to a supreme god named Amma, who is deemed to have created the universe. The second is primarily concerned with the first living celestial beings created by Amma, called the Nommo. The third is devoted to the eight Dogon ancestors from whom the members of the four Dogon groups are thought to be descended. Regardless of cult, all Dogon members commonly acknowledge first Amma, then the Nommo, then the revered ancestors. Religious beliefs and practices similar to those of the Dogon are also observed by neighbouring tribes, [...]

"Fire can sustain life as wel as cause much destruction, similar to the Dogon understanding of the oppositional character of the universe: All things in nature are believed to possess a spiritual force that brings either prosperity or hardship."

"According to the Dogon, in the beginning of human existence immortality was the norm and time, as we know it, was irrelevant."

COSMOGONY: "THE BEGINNING OF THINGS" : "That the existence of Amma, the one God, is a "taken-for-granted" first principle and necessary condition for the existence of all other things is clear to us from the manner in which Ogotemmeli begins his discourse. The whole solar system, like the star which constitute it, came into being by the work of the God Amma, who flung out into spacethe pallets of earth from which the stars came. God also created the earth, perhaps only in a rudimentary for, leaving its development to the interaction of the principles mentioned above. The earth was feminine. "Its sexual organ is the anthill and its clitoris a termite hill." Amma, being lonely and desirous of intercourse with the creature, approached the earth and united with it, thus giving occasion to "the first breach of the order of the universe." Disorder now followed disorder. From this union, instead of duality necessary for the development and well-being of things, God, however united with earth for the second time and the birth of twins restored the regular cycle of duality. These twins, called Nommo, developed from water, which was God's sperm that penetrated the earth and impregnated her. The Nommo were half men (top half) and half snakes (bottom half). They were also green, which is the symbol and presage of fertility (germination and vegetation). These spirits, called Nommo, were thus two homogeneous products of God, of divine essence like himself, conceived without outward incident and developed normally in the womb of the earth. Their destiny took them to Heaven where they received instructions from their father. Not that God had to teach them the Word, that essence of all things, as it is of the Word system; the pair were born perfect and complete, so they needed no teaching; they had eight members and their number was eight, which is the symbol of the Word. Their nature was identical with that of the Word just like vapor is identical with breath. They were were also of the essence of God, since they were made of his seed, which is at once the ground, the form, and the substance of the vital force of the world, from which derives the motion and the persistence of created beings. This force is water, and the pair are present in all waters; they are water, the water of the seas, of coasts, of torrents, of storms, and of the spoonful we drink."

Similarities with other African cosmogonies

The Dogon creation myth is somewhat similar to the Serer creation myth in sofar as the dual principles of Amma and Roog (the Serer supreme deity)—with the feminine principle of the Divine taking precedence during the initial creation, but the Divine using its masculine principle to bring order after the creation—thus their creator gods maybe regarded as androgynous gods with both feminine and masculine principles; the importance of balance in their mythology and culture; the prominence of the jackal during creation; a mythical creation based a cosmic egg and the principles of chaos; the failed first creation due to the jackal's desecration of the first placenta, and the animal being considered by both societies as a disordered animal yet respected due to its link with their respective supreme deities; and a wind–like motion or rotational movement of their respective deities around the axis of the world during the creation of celestial objects.

In Serer cosmogony, the jackal is not named despite its desecration of the divine placenta, and the disrespect it has shown to the Divine before it was condemned and banished by the Roog. The Serer only alldude to it by referring to it as "the dog of the forest" (boxo-kob in Serer) but they do not refer to it by its true name. This is, because the Seereer believe that the animal was once closed to the Divine and dvserve to be afforded respect. They also believe that, despite the level of disrespect it had shown to the Divine in primordial time, the Deity still kept it alive, and therefore, the animal deserve respect—but one must be wary of it because it still has the powers and wisdom that the Divine had bestowed upon it. In Dogon cosmogony, the animal it is ambigiously named Ogo-Yurugu (Pale Fox), Yurugu means The Fox.

Like their Serer counterparts, the Dogons have resisted Islamization for 1000 years, and were two of the last African ethnic groups to covert to Islam, due to holding "a strong connection to their ancient religious past"—despite centuries of Dogon and Serer persecutions by other groups. Dogons are now mostly Muslims.

Festivals

The Dogon are known for their masks and dance festivals—which are spiritual in nature although sometimes made for tourists. Their dance and masquerades attracts a large number of tourists to Dogon country. However some Dogons are wary of the over-commercialisation of their spiritual art form. There are many Dogon festivals some of which are listed below:

NOTE: 1 & 2 are non-RS, for info only. Use RS source to verify:

1. Bulo Festival : "Every year between May and June, the people of Dogon country celebrate the animist New Year, or Bulo. The Bulo is an agrarian festival that launches the beginning of the rainy season and millet cultivation. This celebration is characterized by masked dances, traditional ceremonies, and overflowing canaries of millet beer. During the months of February to April there are various funeral ceremonies, or damas, commemorating the ancestors as well as serving as an offering to them. This is represented through extraordinary and elaborate masked dances during the day, while the women’s dances, songs, and rituals performed by night demonstrate the magical powers possessed by some individuals." Dogon Country

2. Sigi Festival : "Another extraordinary event of the Dogon people is the Sigi festival. It is a the most important animist ritual celebrated every sixty years. Given the Dogon’s cosmology, it has been considered to coincide with the apparition of the Sirius B or Dog star. A particularly lucky Dogon person sees two Sigi in his or her lifetime, and hears a third sigi: the first in his/her mother’s womb, the second at middle age and the last in old age. The Sigi dance, called sigi melu, and music, are entrusted to the Initiatic Awa—a group that lifts mourning during central funeral rites. The next Sigi is anticipated in 2027, when the spirit of the Sigi unleashes itself from the village of Youga, the epicenter of the festivities that domino from village to village over the course of weeks." Dogon Country

3. "Bulo : festival signalling the start of the sowing season"

4. "Dama : ceremony to mark the end of bereavement"

5. Sigi : The Sigi festival is perhaps one of the most well known and anticipated Dogon festival. The Sigi occurs once every 60 years. A person may only live to witness one Sigi festival, or two if they are lucky to live long enough. The Sigi is determined based on the Dogon calendar. The 60-year interval is so precise it has baffled some scholars such as anthropologist Jean Rouch. The 60-years interval also corresponds to the life span of the mystic Dogon ancestor. Every five days, the Dogon would tie a knot on a rope. This constitutes the Dogon week. In so doing, they are able to celebrate the Sigi with such precision. The last 4 Sigi celebrations occurred in 1787, 1847, 1907, and 1967. The next one will be in the year 2027 (as of 2020). The Sigi ritual and rituals of its sort which occurs within precise temporal cycles are a way of transmitting knowledge among the Dogon.

"Many Dogon rituals use the image of a humanity in formation in the placenta of the regeneration universe. During the night before the sixtieth anniversary celebration of the Sigui-whose main purpose is to communicate the revelation of speech to men-all the male participants go into bush to an isolation cave, where they abstain from food and drink. For them, this fast has a positive meaning: "Since when does one need to eat and drink when one is in the womb of one's mother?" In the morning when the ceremonies begin, their heads are shaved, an act that assimilates them to newborn children. They they put on the traditional costume of the Sigui and dress to look like fish, a white cap representing the head of a catfish, a pair of wide black pants gathering at the ankles with its tail bifurcated, the black recalling the waters of the womb, on the chest, a kind of crossbelt decorated with cowries that are the fish eggs, etc. They hold in their right hands a crooked staff, the symbol of the sexual organ of Nommo, the mythical begetter of humanity, and a half calabash that will be used to drink the Sigui beer. This receptable is the image of the "womb of Amma" in which the gestation of the universe took place as in a matrix." <=> Present in the rites of procreation during life, the image of humanity taking shape in its placenta is also present in the funeral rites during which the dead proceed to their fate. The death person's mouth is covered with a muzzle that symbolizes the wattles of the fish, his head is covered with a white band that encircles the top of his skull to form the top of the fish's head, etc. All the ritual dances that the women and girls perform during the funeral recals, with very supple movements of their arms and hands, which are held out in front of them, the swimming of fish. The assimilations go on because a dead person who continues to preserve his spirtual elements (that is, his basic elements) until the afterlife is said to be like "a fish of heaven."

6. Bado : The Bado festival which is a festival of the elders, occurs in the spring.

7. Bulu : The Bulu festival which is a festival of sowing takes place during the estival solstice.

8. Bago  : The Bago festival which is a festival of harvest takes place during fall.

9. Gogo : A winter.

All these festivals occurs within precise temporal cycles and are occasions for young Dogon men to complete their initiation rites and receive knowledge from their father, grandfather, or head of family (ginna bana).

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