ETYMOLOGY OF THE DOGON
THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION
by
Onyeji Nnaji
Considering the nations in Africa with
ancient history and tradition, the Dogon cannot be ignored. It was from the
cosmology of the Dogon that it was heard for the first time that humanity has
eight ancestors. Ignoring the Dogon is simply ignoring Mali in the face of
history. The role of the Dogon in the formation of Mali society is like the
role of the Sam in the history of South Africa, the role of Napta Player in the
history of Egypt or the role of the Kambata to the development of Ethiopian
population. Just like the Shona in Zimbabwe, the history of Mali cannot be
traced without a foremost understanding of the contribution of the Dogon in the
formation of the Malian society.
Dogon are the ethnic group occupying the central
plateau region of Mali. They dominate the southern part of the Niger bend, closer to the city of Bandiagara;
towards the boundary with Burkina Faso. The population numbers between 400,000 and
800,000. They speak the Dogon languages believed to constitute an independent branch of the Niger–Congo
language family. The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions,
their mask dances, wooden sculpture and their architecture. The past century
has seen significant changes in the social rganization, material culture and
beliefs of the Dogon, partly because Dogon country is one of Mali’s major
tourist attractions.
The principal Dogon area is bisected by the Bandiagara Escarpment, a sandstone cliff of
up to 500 m (1,640.42 ft) high, stretching about 150 km (90 miles).
To the southeast of the cliff, the sandy Séno-Gondo Plains are found, and
northwest of the cliff are the Bandiagara Highlands. Historically, Dogon
villages were established in the Bandiagara area in consequence of the Dogon
people's collective refusal to convert to Islam a thousand years ago.
One staring aspect of the Dogon culture is
their astronomical science, especially their knowledge of the invincible stars
before it appears in scientific wall. The surprise experienced on the
countenance of Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen, during their 1930’s
interview on a Dogon priest is a clear indication that the Dogon technology is
of ancient. Their surprises could be liken to that found on Mac Gregory when he
found that, as earlier than 19th century, a formal system of writing had been
developed in Igbo land.
The Dogon stories were of this same sort.
According to their oral traditions, a race people from the Sirius system called
the Nommos visited Earth thousands of years ago. The Nommos were ugly,
amphibious beings that resembled mermen and mermaids. They also appear in
Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian myths. The Egyptian Goddess Isis, who is
sometimes depicted as a mermaid, is also linked with the star Sirius. According
to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star which is invisible to
the human eye. This companion star has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the
visible Sirius and is extremely heavy. It also rotates on its axis.
From the account of Ian Ridpath in the book, The Sirius Mystery Science, published in 1977, it was clearly
revealed that modern science came to know better about the mystery science of
the Dogon. Later on, with the activities and remarks made by the astronomer, Carl Sagan, replying to the K.G. Robert Temple's
Book, it was clearly related that the modern knowledge about Sirius must have
come from Westerners who discussed astronomy with the Dogon priests.
According to the Dogon traditions, the star, Sirius,
has a companion star which is invisible to the human eye. This companion star
has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the visible Sirius and is extremely
heavy. It also rotates on its axis. Dogon artifact apparently depicts the
Sirius configuration. Also depicting this pact is the ceremonies held by the
Dogon since the 13th century to celebrate the cycle of Sirius A and B.
There is however no information bothering on how the Dogon came about the
super-density of Sirius B. Issues
connected to Sirius B was just discovered
a few times before the anthropological record the Dogon stories.
Dogon legend also spoke of the possibility of
a third star: Sirius C. It is believed that the home planet of the Nommos
orbits is around Sirius C. The inclusion of Sirius C was done in 1995 two
French researchers, Daniel Benest and J.L. Duvent, in the article published
in the prestigious journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, on the
title, Is
Sirius a Triple Star? From their suggestions, there is actually a
small third star there. They thought the star was probably of a type known as a
"red dwarf" and only had about .05 the mass of Sirius B.
This legend might be of little interest to
anybody but the two French anthropologists mentioned above, who recorded it
from four Dogon priests in the 1930’s saw it a worthwhile activity. Thinking of
how a people who lacked any kind of astronomical devices know so much about an
invisible star is a clear indication that astronomers unknown to the global
record lived among the Dogon and had rganizat this technological observances
among them. The star, which scientists call Sirius B, wasn’t even photographed
until it was done by a large telescope in 1970 to prove what the Dogon special
science had for ancient spoken about.
Origin of
the Dogon
The Dogon, as a people of a little ancient
time with certain influence exercised via their cosmological science, has
attracted the attention of many researchers. Each researcher wants to tell the
story the Dogon in his own way. People think that the Dogon has jaundice
information about their original source. As a result they had chosen to design
for them an origin they think is suiting for them. Above all that was suggested
for the original home of the Dogon, the Dogon oral tradition remains an
indestructible emblem with a continuous preparation to inform those who would
call to it for explanations.
In 1998, for instance, Lee Krystek carried
out an overwhelming research on the Dogon traditional science which proves its
peculiarity in the stratification of Sirius. He created the reconciling point
that clearly earmarked the district positions and roles of Sirius A, B and C,
as they were held in the Dogon traditional science. Unfortunately, this
time-involving research that gave clarifications to the multifaceted study of
the metaphysical concept about the stratification of Sirius ended up in
suggesting for the Dogon a supposed place of origin. For their vast knowledge
of Sirius at the time when the global science had not caught the glimpse of Sirius
studies, Lee Krystek suggested that the Dogon must have migrated from Egypt. In
his exact words, “The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their
astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC”.
This is not true. Apart from the Dogon oral
tradition, an Egyptian historian, Diop Anta also disprove of this idea.
No matter where we collect legend on
the genesis of the Black African people, those who still remember their origins
say they came from the east and their forbearers found pygmies in the country.
Dogon and the Yoruba legends report that they came from the east (Civilization, 179).
It
should be clear now that the Dogon did not have any historical relationship
between the Dogon and the Egypt. What was experienced about their advancement
in the study of Sirius was rather commitment and dogged efforts that paid them
off. The Dogon’s history of origin is very clear as a people who had migrated
from the east. That is what their oral tradition says. What the Dogon as well
as other people’s oral tradition does not cover accurately is the issue of
timing.
According to the Dogon oral tradition, the
Dogon originated from the west bank of the Niger River. They migrated west and
settled at the northern part of Burkina Faso, where local histories describe
them as kibsi people. Later on, they fled a region now known as the
northern Mossi kingdom of Yatenga when it was invaded by Mossi Calvary and ended
up in the Bandiagara cliffs region where they felt safer from the approaching
horsemen. We may estimate the period of the Dogon migration to be around 10th
century because the Carbon-14 dating techniques used on excavated remains in
the cliffs suggested so. It gave proof of people inhabiting the area about that
time.
Many people suggested that the observation of
the carbon-14 dating was an indication of another people having inhabited the
area before the Dogon arrival. But this is not true; no history anywhere shows
a particular people with historical pointer towards the area neither is their
information of possible ethnic cleansing in the area. It is necessary to note
that the Mossi Calvary did not expunge the entire population of the inhabitants
in the region. There was a population of people who survived the attack. Those Dogon who did not flee were incorporated
into Mossi society and were known as the Nyonyose, or descendants
of the first inhabitants.
In the much later days, the Dogon experienced
the heavy incursion of the Mande population. The Mande are a population of
people who had migrated from the region of the ancient Nubia. They are the
composite of the Red Noba who had flooded into the Western part of Africa in
large population. The Mande occupy such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote
d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Nigeria. One characteristic of
the Mande in all their settlement is linguistic domination. We find this
largely in the northern part of Nigeria where the language of the original
inhabitants is presently replaced by that of the dominant population. For this
reason, many researchers had argued that the Dogon speak a language that is not
completely marked as the Niger-Congo language.
Now, turning to the most thing researchers
have not given heed to finding among the Dogon; the base point from where the
Dogon ancestors had travelled. Diop Anta had said this in his opulent exactness
about the original home of every ancient African settlement. In his exact word,
“those who still remember their origins say they came from the east”. And to be
précised, “Dogon and the Yoruba legends report that they came from the east”.
If the Dogon should originate from the same place as the Yoruba, the East, then
it is apparent that the Dogon had migrated from the eastern part of Nigeria for
thus is the home of the Yoruba father. The name of the resistant Dogon who
refused to leave their settlement because of the Mossi Calvary is another
proof. They were called Nyonyose.
The morpheme, “Nyo” is generally Igbo, and
all the nations of Africa that have this morpheme prominent in their language
(occupying the morphological precedence of words as initial morpheme such as
“nye”, “nyo”, “nyi”, “nya”) must have directly or closely migrated from the
east. The Wikipedia Encyclopedia even remarked that the “oral histories” of
others in the Dogon neighbourhood “place the origin of the Dogon to the west;
beyond the River Niger, or tell of the Dogon coming from the east”. East is
beyond river Niger; Niger rather traces the part that leads to the place of the
rising sun (the east). Read the account of Mungo Park’s expedition of the Niger
River and get more of this.
The Dogon
Civilization
Social stratification among the Dogon involves a
complex ordering of individuals based on their position within various social
groups defined either by descent or locality. Groupings include clan, village,
patrilineage, and, for men, an age-set or -grade. Each of these groups is
hierarchically ordered based on age and the rules of descent, and all of the
group levels interact with one another, so that one who is generally well
respected within the family will most likely hold an important position within
society.
The Dogon are strongly oriented toward
harmony, which is reflected in many of their rituals. For instance, in one of
their most important rituals, the women praise the men, the men thank the
women, the young express appreciation for the old, and the old recognize the
contributions of the young. Another example is the custom of elaborate
greetings whenever one Dogon meets another. This custom is repeated over and
over, throughout a Dogon village, all day.
During a greeting ritual, the person who has
entered the contact answers a series of questions about his or her whole
family, from the person who was already there. The answer is sewa, which
means that everything is fine. Then the Dogon who has entered the contact
repeats the ritual, asking the resident how his or her whole family is. Because
the word sewa is so commonly repeated throughout a Dogon village,
neighboring peoples have dubbed the Dogon the sewa people.
The Dogon has a separated building
particularly designed for men. Such exceptional building for the male is called
Tógu nà. Dogon men rest there much of the day throughout the heat of the dry
season. Issues of relevance to the survival and matters of importance are discussed
in tógu nà. It is in this house that affairs are concluded and important
decisions taken.
Toguna is designed to contain the images that assign meaning
to what the Dogon stood for. Their totemic tool symbolized with crocodile is
one prominent image on the walls of every Dogon toguna. The roof of a toguna is
made by 8 layers of millet stalks. It is a low building inside which nobody
could stand upright. This helps in avoiding violence when discussions get
heated.
Broader understanding of totem and totemic
instincts among the Dogon is gained via the Binou sect and their
uses of totems; both
common ones for the entire village and individual ones for totem priests. A
totem animal is worshiped on a Binou altar. Totems are, for example, the buffalo for
Ogol-du-Haut and the panther for
Ogol-du-Bas. Normally, no one is harmed by their totem animal, even if this is
a crocodile, as it is
for the village of Amani (where there is a large pool of crocodiles that do not harm
villagers). However, a totem animal might exceptionally harm if one has done
something wrong.
A worshiper is not allowed to eat his totem. For example, an
individual with a buffalo as totem is not allowed to eat buffalo meat, allowed
to use leather from its skin, nor even to see a buffalo die. If this happens by
accident, he has to organise a purification sacrifice at the
Binou altar. Boiled millet is offered, and goats and chickens are sacrificed on
a Binou altar. This colours the altar white and red. Binou altars look like
little houses with a door. They are bigger when the altar is for an entire
village. A village altar has also the 'cloud hook', that will catch clouds and
make it rain.
RELIGION
Dogon religion is defined primarily through
the worshiping of the ancestors and the spirits whom they encountered as they
moved across the Western Sudan. The Awa society is responsible for carrying out
the rituals, which allow the deceased to leave the world of the living and
enter the world of the dead. Public rites include bago
bundo (funerary rites) and the dama ceremony, which marks the
end of the mourning period. Awa society members are also responsible for
planning the sigui ceremonies, which commence every sixty years to
hand on the function of the dead initiates to the new recruits. All of these
rites involve masking traditions and are carried out only by initiated males
who have learned the techniques needed to impersonate the supernaturals.
As shown plainly in the introduction, the
Dogon had a system of signs which ran into the thousands, including “their own
systems of astronomy and calendrical measurements, methods of calculation and
extensive anatomical and physiological knowledge, as well as a systematic pharmacopoeia”. The
religion embraced many aspects of nature, which some researchers associate with a traditional African religion.
The principal spiritual figures in the
religion were the Nummo/Nommo twins. According to
Ogotemmêli's description of them, the Nummo, whom he also referred to as the
Serpent, were amphibians that were often compared to serpents, lizards,
chameleons, and occasionally even sloths (because of their being slow moving
and having a shapeless neck). They were also described as fish capable of
walking on land; while they were on land, the Nummo stood upright on their
tails. The Nummos' skin was primarily green, but, like the chameleon, it
sometimes changed colours. It was said to at times have all the colours of the
rainbow.
In other instances, the Nummo were referred
to as "Water Spirits". Although
the Nummo were identified as being "Dieu d'eau" (gods of water) by
Marcel Griaule, Ogotemmêli identified the Nummo as hermaphrodites and they
appeared on the female side of the Dogon sanctuary. They
were primarily symbolized by the sun, which was a female symbol in the
religion. In the pedagogical sphere of ancient Dogon, red is the symbol for the
female folk. The same is imprinted in their language. For instance, the sun's
name (nay) had the same root as "mother" (na) and "cow"
(nā). They were
symbolized by the colour red, a female symbol.
The problem of "twin births" versus
"single births", or androgyny versus single-sexed beings, contributed
to a disorder at the beginning of time, as observed through the study of the
French anthropologists,
Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. This theme became a significant basis of the
Dogon religion. “The jackal was alone from birth," said Ogotemmêli,
"and because of this he did more things than can be told.” Dogon males were primarily
associated with the single-sexed male Jackal and the Sigui festival, which was
associated with death on the Earth. It was held once every sixty years and
allegedly celebrated the white dwarf star, Sirius B, provoking
numerous speculations about the
origin of such knowledge. The colour white was a symbol of males. The ritual
language, "Sigi so" or "language of the Sigui", which was
taught to male dignitaries of the Society of the Masks “awa”, was considered a
poor language, and only contained about a quarter of the vocabulary of “Dogo so”,
the Dogon word language. The "Sigi so" was used to tell the story of
creation of the universe, of human life, and the advent of death on the Earth,
during funeral ceremonies and the rites of the end of mourning "dama".
In Dogon thought, males and females are born
with both sexual components. The clitoris is
considered male, while the foreskin is
considered female. (Originally, for the Dogon, man was endowed with a dual
soul, and circumcision eliminates the superfluous one. Rites of circumcision
thus allow each sex to assume its proper physical identity.
Boys are circumcised in age
groups of three years, counting for example all boys between 9 and 12 years
old. This marks the end of their youth, and they are now initiated. The blacksmith performs
the circumcision. Afterwards, they stay for a few days in a hut separated from
the rest of the village people, until the wound has healed. The circumcision is
a reason for celebration and the initiated boys go around and receive presents.
They make music on a special instrument that is made of a rod of wood and calabashes that
makes the sound of a rattle.
Marriage
The Dogon society thinks differently from the
rest of the communities of ancient reckoning in Africa on matters connected to
twins. While other anfrican societies see twins as omen for something evil, the
Dogon society welcomes it as a blessing. The birth of twins is a sign of good luck. The enlarged
Dogon families have common rituals, during which they evoke all their ancestors back
to their origin the ancient
pair of twins from the creation of the world.
The vast majority of marriages are
monogamous, but nonsororal polygynous marriages are allowed in the Dogon culture.
However, even in polygynous marriages, it is rare for a man to have more than
two wives. In a polygynous marriage, the wives reside in separate houses within
the husband's compound. The first wife, or ya biru, holds a higher position in
the family relative to any wives from later marriages. Formally, wives join
their husband's household only after the birth of their first child. The
selection of a wife is carried out by the man's parents. Marriages are
endogamous in that the people are limited to marry only those within their
clan. It is also forbidden to marry outside of one's caste
Women may leave their husbands early in their
marriage, before the birth of their first child. After having children, divorce
is a rare and serious matter, and it requires the participation of the whole
village. Divorce is more common in polygynous marriages than monogamous
marriages. In the event of a divorce, the woman takes only the youngest child
with her, and the rest remain a part of the husband's household. An enlarged
family can count up to a hundred persons and is called guinna.
A Hogon.
In the Dogon society, the house where
menstruating women stay is referred to as Punulu. The house is usually
constructed outside of the village. The Dogon tradition permits that it should
be constructed by women and is of lower quality than the other village
buildings. Women having their period are considered to be unclean and have to
leave their family house to live during five days in this house. They use
kitchen equipment only to be used here. They bring with them their youngest
children. This house is a gathering place for women during the evening. This
hut is also thought to have some sort of reproductive symbolism due to the fact
that the hut can be easily seen by the men who are working the fields who know
that only women who are on their period, and thus not pregnant, can be there.
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