African Arts Gallery

Dogon Sculpture (N° 24226)

This sculpture of African tribal art Dogon consists of five caryatid figures leaning against the central foot. A circular tablet forms the top, the feet of the sculpted subjects disappear into the also circular base. Diamond friezes adorn the contours. Gray beige grainy patina. Desication cracks, chips.

These statues, sometimes embodying the nyama of the deceased, are placed on ancestor altars and take part in various rituals, including those during sowing and harvesting periods. Parallel to Islam, the Dogon religious rites are organized around four main cults: the Lébé, relating to fertility, under the spiritual authority of the Hogon, the Wagem, cult of the ancestors under the authority of the patriarch, the Binou invoking the spirit world and led by the priest of the Binou, and the society of masks concerning the funeral.
According to the Dogon cosmogony, the first primordial ancestors of Dogon , called Nommo, were the bisexual water gods. They were created in heaven by the creator god Amma and descended from heaven to earth in an ark.
The Nommo founded the eight lineages of Dogon and instilled weaving, the art of blacksmithing, and agriculture to their human descendants.
Ref. : "Dogon" H. Leloup, ed. Quai Branly Museum.