africa art

Pullo (Fulani) man

However, there is historical significance to the Dogon including the Fulani as characters in their

masquerade. Pullo (or Peul or Fulani) refers to an ethnic group that is found throughout Mali and in fact across much of the Sahel/Savannah region of West Africa. In the past they were herders who moved with their cattle seasonally in search of pastures for grazing. There is often a symbiotic

relationship between the Fulani and different farming groups, they need each other, but there is also

tension when times are hard. The current political crisis in Mali has inflamed tensions between the

Dogon and their Fulani neighbors.

Dieterlen identifies the “real name” of the masquerade character known as Pullo as dyobi, or as the runner. She says it represents the rebellious

Ogo before his transformation into the fox.

According to Dieterlen (seen here on the right), Ogo lost the ability to speak when he was transformed into

a fox, but he is able to communicate through sand divination. The diviner clears an area, creates a grid in the sand, and marks it with sticks and pebbles. And he leave a bit of bait to attract the fox (a descendant of Ogo) who comes at night and disturbs the pattern in

ways that can be read by the diviner the next morning.

Sand divination (foot prints of the fox/Ogo)

Pullo (Fulani) women

Fulani women are known for their elaborate hairstyles and their beauty, so it is not a surprise that the Dogon would incorporate them into their masquerade tradition. They are part of the Dogon world, selling milk from their cattle in local markets. Male Dogon

dancers wear bead, fiber, and cowrie shell headdresses that emulate the traditional crested hairstyle, and they wear pointy fake breasts, and they dance on stilts.

This is a page from Griaule’s first book that presents his documentation of the walu mask: its name in the Dogon language, a description of what it looks

like, the fact that he holds a stick that he paws the ground with plant grain. He is afraid of children who provoke him. Griaule provides the song that is sung, and the origin myth: about an antelope that killed some of the sheep and goats belonging to the villagers, and so they dug a hole and trapped it.

Walu antelope mask

Walu antelope mask: Dieterlen tells us that the walu antelope is a

character from the time of Amma’s creation of the Earth, but Griaule’s documentation there is also an origin story about a hunter who killed

the antelope and created the mask to honor the spirit of the antelope. The question is, was the

character introduced to the masquerade because of what happened to the hunter and then identified with the Amma creation myth?

A walu antelope and rabbit masquerade he photographed by Paul Lane performing

during a dama funeral performance.

Satimbe/Yasigi (mask with a female character on top) said to represent the first woman who

tried on the red fibers before the young Dogon men took them

from her. She became the “sister” of the masquerade, who honors the women who provide

millet beer during a funeral. Dieterlen says she represents the

female twin of Ogo known as Yasigi, who was just as much or a

trouble maker as Ogo/Fox.

Rabbit (Hare)

Griaule documented some 65 different types of mask characters including various animals, birds, and both Dogon and non-Dogon characters or personages

Monkey

Paul Lane is an archaeologist who went to Dogon country to do ethnographic research on the household goods and other kinds of material culture. Below on

the left are ground floor plans of specific houses Lane chose to document because they help archaeologists understand what they find when the excavate.

On the right is a page from Griaule’s first book when he was documenting traditional Dogon culture, before

he became “obsessed” with cosmology.

Photo taken by Griaule in the 1930s. He says that women rush to leave the open

plaza because the masqueraders are about to arrive. While the women may

avoid direct contact with the masquerade, they often watch from their rooftops and are certainly aware of what is going on.

Photo taken by LIFE photographer Eliot Elisofon in 1959 of a funeral ceremony.

The women stand back as men honor the deceased by firing their guns. The

ceremony is to guide the soul of the deceased to the afterlife.

The photograph (on the left) depicts men firing blank charges during mock battles intended to guide the spirit of the deceased onto the path to the afterlife. "The Dogon believe that after death, the spirit of the deceased is not immediately transformed into an ancestor. It is when in this state that a person's spirit can be most malevolent and dangerous. Funerals, bago bundo, which are held several weeks, and sometimes months, after burial, are public rites at which agnatic and affinal kin venerate the life and

actions of the deceased." [Lane P., 1988: Settlement as History: A Study of Space and Time among the Dogon of Mali. University of Cambridge.]. During his trip to Mali, Elisofon visited the Dogon people in Sanga (Sangha), a group of thirteen villages lying east of Bandiagara at the top of an escarpment. The photograph depicts men firing blank charges during mock battles intended to guide the spirit of the

deceased onto the path to the afterlife. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.

Lane recorded this ceremony with firing of guns at a funeral in 1983.

While in Dogon country, Lane witnessed both ritual damas and masked performances done for tourists. Although other scholars have assumed that tourism is harmful to traditional culture, Lane suggests that the Dogon people understand the difference between an elaborate ritual

ceremony (the dama) performed for a deceased elder and short performances of the masks that are done for tourists. He suggests that the two can and do co-exist.

Dutch anthropologist

Walter van Beek who was

memorialized in a new mask type representing the

white anthropologist

In the film (African Art video below) the narrator talks to Samuel Sidibe who says that tourism has affected the kinds of masks that perform even in ritual contexts — cultural selection by tourism — because tourists want to see the “traditional” like the kanaga. But she also mentions that

the Dogon have incorporated new types into their repertoire, including “the white anthropologist.”

Dogon dancers posing for a group photo for tourists, and tourists posing with masked dancers.

A sampling of Dogon masquerade dancers. Dieterlen says that the only mask types that matter are the ones that can be identified with Dogon cosmology (the myths of origin described by Ogotemmeli). She says the “new” types are temporary (and thus not significant). But others would argue that Dogon mask characters emerge out of historical events and situations (like

white anthropologists coming to study them), and that as part of the living culture of the Dogon, it is inevitable that the characters will change and that ritual beliefs with change.

In 2003 Mali was represented at the Smithsonian Institutions’ Folklife Festival

that usually happens every summer on the Mall in DC. There were artists, musicians, and dance performances, including this Dogon dancer, here casually strolling

among the tourists. They even brought masons from Jenne to built a gateway in

traditional style in the middle of the Mall.

https://festival.si.edu/past-program/2003/mali-from- timbuktu-to-washington