Dogon Masks

While many of the Dogon dances are spectacles of entertainment, encouraged by tourism, the Dama is still a highly religious ceremony ending a period of mourning. The masks used by the Dogon for their religious rituals are only known to the Dogon. Their meanings are secret and are only worn by members of the Awa, a secret masking association. The function of the Awa masquerades is to lead the souls of the deceased to their final resting place. The death anniversary ceremonies, the Dama, take place every few years to honor male and female elders who have died since the last Dama (Sieber & Walker 1987, p.134). Marcel Griaule has done much research on the funerary practices of the Dogon and has been considered an authority by many writers (Wassing, Huet, Sieber & Walker, Willett).

The period between the death of a man and the end of the mourning ceremonies, which close the cycle, is a long one. After the "first funeral" the family will accumulate goods that can be exchanged to enable them to organize a dance. Numerous taboos are enforced while the soul of the deceased roams the village, haunting the places he once frequented (Paudrat in Huet 1979, p101). The Dama raises the taboos and masters the secret force that emanates from the deceased directing the soul through the masks to the sacred places where it will be fixed. At the end of the Dama, the deceased will belong to the ranks of the ancestors. It is through them that the word of Ama (or Amma), the Creator, will be transmitted again to mankind, fertilizing the fields and fecund the women and cattle (ibid..). In order to achieve this goal, there are a wide display of symbolic practices involving masks, songs, music, feasting and drinking of millet beer (However as noted in Martin & O'Meara, the beer has been replaced with imported alcohol in many instances). The Dama may last as long as long as six days (Paudrat in Huet p.101).

The beginning of the Dama preparations is announced by the sound of the rhombe, a wooden or metal saw edged plate, that is whirled round the end of a rope by one of the Awa initiates. This humming sound is the voice of the first ancestor. From that moment on, the circumcised member of the Awa repaint and carve the masks they will wear--away from the village in secret. The hoods and short skirts for the costumes are made from the bark of the pollo tree while the long skirts are made from sanseviera fibers. These are plaited (braided and woven) and dyed black, red or yellow. Cowrie shells are added for ornamentation. When the masks emerge from their secret places, their arrival is announced; the women and children take shelter in their huts. A group of musicians are nearby playing two bui-na drums and iron castanets. This is not a gay masquerade, but actors in a cosmic theater, aiming to recreate the creation of the world-- men, plants, and animals. The period of disorder caused by the death is now brought to an end. The audience watches with great attention the different stages of the ritual. The place where the sacred dances are held is invaded by more than eighty different types of masks. Of these, the most numerous are the kanaga and most symbolic, the sirige masks (Paudrat in Huet p. 101).

The kanaga has become an emblem of the Dogon. It is so well know that is often used as an emblem of the Mali Republic. To the uninitiated, it appears to be a bird of prey with outspread wings. However, any attempts by art historians to put meanings to these famous masks are just guesses (Wassing 1968, p.102). The kanaga is topped with a short pole intersected by two parallel blades. At the ends of the blades are boards, which point upwards on the top blades and downwards on the bottom blade. The face in encircled by dyed fibers. For those who have attained knowledge through initiation, it symbolizes man, axis of the world, pointing to both earth and sky. Another interpretation links kanaga to the water insect that implanted in the soil the first seed from which all other seed sprung. The flat, crushed shape of the pole evokes the fall of the first troublemaker, Ogo, the fox. What ever the meaning is today, may not have been the meaning of the first kanaga masks. No one can say what they originally meant, not even the Dogon. All of these interpretations are included in the dance of the Dama. A dancer with rapid movement of the upper body sweeps the mask close to the ground, evoking the creation by Amma (Paudrat p. 101).

The sirige mask with rectangular face--somewhat architectural in appearance with two vertical hollowed spaces--is topped with a long blade nearly fifteen feet in length. The pierced and painted blade of geometric triangles is said to represent the different stages of creation as sirige means, "storied houses"; the face represents the family house. The sirige mask dances. After a rapid change in drum rhythm, he kneels to the east, moving his body backwards and forward, forcing the blade to touch the ground marking the limits of the horizon. As he rises, he creates whirling horizontal motions with the mask suggesting the evolution of the sun around the earth--the universe being created by the rotation of the divine axis (Paudrat p. 101).

Following the kanaga and the sirige are more familiar faces to the uninitiated since they are less abstract. These represent the behavior of some of the animals that haunt the region. They include antelopes, hares, lions, hyenas, cows, birds and monkeys (ibid. p. 101). The myths of all may not be known, but it has been written in some of Griaule's accounts that the black monkeys, Dege, are the "male villains of the bush." The black monkeys stand for wickedness, gluttony and must not be emulated because it is the antithesis of the Dogon order (Sieber & Walker 1987, p. 134). Other masks mime Dogon social characters: the "old man", the "young girl" with cowrie shell face covering and baobob fruit breasts, the "ritual thief" (this may be the missionary), masks of castes (blacksmith, shoemaker, farmer and so on), the white "Missus," the ethnographer "Dokotor." There are also masks of the "Bamana woman" and always several of the "Peul (or Fulani) woman" for the Peul are the ones who forced the Dogon from their original land and have been their enemies for centuries (Wassing 1968, p103). The masks of the Peul women are made of fibers mocking the hairstyle of the women--tall comb and numerous plaits decked out with cowrie shells. The brassiere adds realism. Occasionally the yashigine appears as the legendary woman who stole the secrets of the masks from the men, and therefore had to be initiated into the secret mask society (ibid. p. 104). All of the available masks are never used at one Dama for each requires its own type of mask. Each village has mask types that are unknown elsewhere. Every group of masks demonstrates its own style of dance; every dancer in red and black fibrous costume with red fiber bracelets and anklets. Even the back of the head is covered, for no one shall know his true identity (ibid. p. 106).

Wassing (1968) has given a colorful account of the Dama festivities from beginning to end. As each group comes forward, the rhythms change; dances go on late into the afternoon, with new dancers replacing those who drop out from exhaustion. Gradually the dancers leave and the crowd diminishes. As the last of the musician go, the dancing place is quiet and abandoned. The Dama has ended; the nyama of the dead man has made its journey to the beyond. There is nothing more to fear. The masks and the dancing have fulfilled their responsibilities and may be returned to the cave where they are kept--safe until the next Dama (pp. 99-106).

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AFRICAN ART LESSON: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Artists of Africa	African Art Images	Reasons for Art
Art of Mali	People of Mali	Masks of the Bwa
Where is Mali	The Bamana	Chiwara Headdress
History of Mali	Carvers of Mali	Kurumba Headdress
Sundiata-Lion King	Weaving	Masking Societies
Songhai Empire	Earth Dyed Cloth	Masquerades Today
Maternal Figures	Art Preservation	Dogon Dama
Senufo Masks	Ancestral Figures	Dogon Equestrian
People of Africa	History of Africa	Misconceptions
Regions of Africa	What is Art?	Test Your Knowledge

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