Between grazing the stars and following the course of the shining lights, and between bushes deep in the canyons of mountains and medicines, the Dogon nation lived in Mali;
A foot in the ravine of the foothills, and eyes that stare at the stars, and along with it a story of a life steeped in mystery.
In deep privacy, the Dogon chose to live far from people, and far from modernity, but the human hand and the values contrary to the Dogon's beliefs brought them sunbeams to the jungles of forests and caves of medicine.
During many decades, many of the Dogon’s pagan values were burnt, and many of their children wore the robes of Islam after years of wearing the ancient “rags” that are an essential part of the Dogon’s heritage and civilization. Many of them moved from the foothills and caves of the mountains to wider plains and wider valleys;
In search of an easier life, like plain Sino Gondo.
Recent decades have also witnessed many transformations in the environment in which the Dogons live;
The ancient Bedouin life is no longer what it used to be, and the antelope’s flankers and hovering birds are no longer within reach, and hunting is no longer easy as experienced by the ancestors, and because the means of acquiring sustenance are numerous, and the directions and walks in life are numerous.
Many Dogons came out of their caves, and abandoned their villages, which did not accommodate more than 500 people, leaving behind deafening silence and immortal huts bearing witness to their steadfast pagan heritage despite the ordinarys of centuries.
Rock and wall art is part of Dogon culture (Getty Images)
Sons of Sir..from the Dogon?
A great controversy erupts about the origins of the Dogon and their history. The people drowning between the foothills of the mountains and the canyons of valleys did not disclose much of their history and traces. Although the ancient Dogons believed that they were creatures from the space world, they were thrown into an unknown journey with motives to Earth, where they emerged from a deep-bottomed space basket, They moved to the canyons of the Malian mountains, and established there civilization, history, culture and another world of exotic worlds, especially in the "Bandiagara" plateau in the Mopti region (central Mali).
They believe that their ancestors came to Earth in a space “ship” coming from a planet called “Sirius B” known in Arabic as the Yemeni poet, and mentioned in the Holy Qur’an among the gods that the Arabs worshiped in the past “and that he is the Lord of the Star” ( : verse 49).
The Dogons speak a language bearing their name, and it is the collective tongue of this nationalism, whose number reaches up to 300,000 people, according to some statistics, while other sources speak of larger numbers, and within this nationalism there are multiple languages and dialects, spoken by large families within the unified nationalism.
However, the map of racial and ethnic diversity in Mali may impose other constraints;
The Mauritanian sociologist and professor of anthropology at French universities, Abdel-Wadoud Ould Cheikh, points out - in his book "The Tribe and the State in Africa" - that there are villages belonging to the Mali Dogon group, separated by no more than 10 kilometers, and yet they are forced to speak the Fulani language in order to be able to They communicate with each other due to the extreme divergence between the Dogon species.
An exhibition in France about the Dogon sculptures (Reuters)
Superstar knowledge
The Dogon community is especially famous for its accurate knowledge of stars, especially the star "Sirius B", which is widely believed to have been discovered by the Dogon and provided accurate information about it, before research and studies progressed on this planet.
It is not known specifically if the information circulated about the Dogon's knowledge and experience in the stars is completely certain, or if it was exaggerated by Western researchers and scholars who visited the Dogon decades ago, and wrote about their strange culture with the ink of exaggeration and the pen of intimidation.
Among the oldest texts dealing with the "astronomy" of the Dogons and their "leading" experience in the solar system was what was quoted by the American writer Robert Temple in his book "The Mystery of Sirius", quoting French anthropologists Marcel Greol and Jermaine Dieterlon, who claimed that the Dogon traditions provide accurate and extensive information about Sirius B, known as Sirius.
The information attributed to the Dogon caused an uproar in the world, and many talked about the “supernatural” of this people, who are capable of enormous detection capabilities, or unlimited visual vision, or an unfamiliar - and suspicious of many - contact with other extraterrestrial beings, especially since it has been attributed to them that Sirius has a dark companion that completes its cycle every 50 years, but it is not visible.
There are many explanations for this phenomenon, and the scientific conclusion is close to the myth, as Temple and others claim that the Dogons obtained their information from amphibious creatures called "Nomo", and on them the Dogons discipled and took their astronomical knowledge.
However, this explanation and others collapse in front of the results of the journey of the Belgian anthropologist Walter Van Beek, who led a team of anthropologists in 1991 to study the Dogon tribe - according to the Chandra space observatory website - and after much research and investigation, he did not find the prevailing ideas and details provided by the French team that studied The Dogon in the 1930s, at that time, plunged the world into the frenzy of the Dogon's "super astronomical knowledge".
As for the American astronomer and media figure, Carl Sagan, he asserts that the Dogon people cannot acquire this knowledge without contact with a more advanced civilization, and Sagan believes that it is from within the planet and not from outside it.
Sagan does not rule out - according to the same site - that the French team that visited the Dogon in the thirties of the last century was the source of this knowledge. Previous knowledge by virtue of his studies of astronomy.
Dogon homes in central Mali (Getty Images)
Rituals, traditions and heritage on UNESCO lists
Since 1989, the dogon traditions and carvings have become part of the world heritage, with UNESCO inscribing the Bandiagara plateau and its heritage and traditions on the World Heritage List.
UNESCO noted that this site - inhabited by the Dogons - has "amazing social traditions that are still practiced today", as well as "its beautiful landscapes of rocks and sandy plateaus characterized by beautiful architecture (such as houses, granaries, temples and shelters)".
Among the historical rituals and traditions that the Dogon is famous for - and that arouse the interest of researchers and visitors - is the masked dance tradition, which comes to celebrate rain, victory or joy over an event, or brings sadness due to a crisis, defeat, drought, or other things that hurt the inhabitants of the deep rocky cliff.
French and Western museums acquire dozens of pieces, sculptures and ornate dresses that reflect aspects of the culture and life of this people with remarkable and strange traditions.
In addition to dancing, the Dogon is famous for its wood carvings and masks, which have transformed from means of protection and traditions of self-identity into a plastic art that generates abundant money as a result of selling it to tourists, whose numbers have greatly decreased due to the wars and security turmoil that Mali has experienced about a decade ago, as well as the spread of Islam in the ranks of these The pagan nationalism that worshiped a deity called "Lam" led to a change in the identity of the Dogon.
Dogon construction workers paint a building with mud (Getty Images)
The Hogun... monks on the way to extinction
The Dogon society is based on a delicate organization, in which the Hugon holds the rank of saint, monk, or "guardian imam", but it is of special consideration;
No one can touch the Hogun's body, so he must rather live a life of celibacy until the end of his life.
Although the Hogun is primarily a spiritual leader, it fulfills many "functional" roles;
He is in charge of judging and adjudicating disputes, and he is also a fortune teller and a political leader who is wise, reconciled and respected by all. Whoever obtains this title after choosing the village elders must live at a distance from the residents, and he may enjoy important protection and guarding rituals, as well as He retains this position for the rest of his life.
Despite the importance and prestige of the Hogun, their role is declining in the face of the increase in the number of entrants to Islam from this nationality. Indeed, a number of their sons settled in Makkah Al-Mukarramah next to the Haram, according to what was confirmed by multiple sources who spoke about the biography and life of the Dogon community.
In addition to the sufferings of the Dogon heritage from the extinction of their values and the rise in the proportion of Islam and Christianity among their members, they are also facing the fires of security crises in Mali, whether it is related to the raging wars with armed Islamic groups, or through the transnational ethnic conflict in Mali.
A number of opponents of the Malian government accuse the Dogon of engaging in armed organizations, which carried out multiple massacres against the Fulani, after they received qualitative armament from the Malian government, especially the Dan Nan Ambasago organization, whose members claim that it arose in reaction to the attacks on the Dogon, Before he was involved in brutal crimes against the So-and-so ethnic group, which was known to carry the banner of Islam in large parts of the African continent, and formed a spearhead in the face of French colonialism.
The Dan Nan Ambasago militia was formed - according to the French Press Agency - at first as a gathering of villagers who wanted to defend their homes, then it turned into a militia, and was accused of committing crimes against humanity, and although it was officially dissolved, it is still active.
The bloody conflicts and crossfire in the central region of Mali led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands and the killing of hundreds of Fulani and Dogon and of different nationalities coexisting on the banks of blood in Mali.