African Arts Gallery

French African art collection.
Fertility Allegories, also associated with the mythical beings of the dogon cosmogon, these female figures evoke crouching parturientes whose hands meet on either side of their heads. The central element to which they are leaned recalls, in miniature, the pillars of the houses of the ancients, Toguna. These pillars are usually adorned with a dege (protective genius with multiple meanings). Although the Toguna are reserved for men, the poles are decorated with female representations or fertility-related symbols. Sculpted mostly to order by a family and in this case arranged on the family altar Pull Kabou , the Dogon tribal statues can also be the object of worship on the part of the whole community when they commemorate, for example, the foundation of the village. These statues, sometimes embodying the nyama of the deceased, are placed on altars of ancestors and participate in various rituals including those of periods of seeds and harvests. However, their functions remain little known. Parallel to Islam, dogon religious rites are organized around four main cults: the Lebe, relating to fertility, under the spiritual authority of the Hogon, the Wagem, cult of ancestors under the authority of the patriarch, the Binou invoking the world of spirits and led by the priest of Binou, and the society of masks concerning the funeral. (Dogon, H.Blom) Coated with a thick patina locally cracked.