African Arts Gallery

Baraldi African Art Collection
A personal object intended to preserve the elaborate headdress, usually the crest, the role of the headrest was not only utilitarian. The head of the Dogon's spiritual leader, the Hogon, was never to touch the ground, otherwise there would be disastrous consequences.
The middle part of this beautiful object with its pure lines features a bird's beak, a volatile bird frequently represented on Dogon African artworks: while it is true that hens and guinea fowls make up the Dogon farmyard, Dogon mythology holds the duck for a member of the Hogon family. Two small triangles carved in the shape of a beak also decorate each end of the flat of the seat. The whole presents ornamental motifs such as parallel, crossed lines and triangular champlevé notches.
Rough and dry wood, crusting patina with kaolin residues. The Dogon are a people renowned for their cosmogony, their esotericism, their myths and legends. Their population is estimated at about 300,000 souls living southwest of the Niger loop in the Mopti region of Mali (Bandiagara, Koro, Banka), near Douentza and part of northern Burkina (northwest of Ouahigouya). The villages are often perched on top of scree slopes on the hillsides, with unique architecture. The history of the migrations and settlements of the Dogon (about ten main groups, about fifteen different languages) is based on several hypotheses. For some historians, the Dogon fled from an area west of their current location following an attack.