by Coppelia H-B
Originally published in Currents June/July 2004

The Magical World of the Dogon lured me to attend the opening night of this exhibit at the Museum für Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology) on March 20, even though I was still in the throes of bronchitis. The invitation had mentioned a ceremony that would be performed by a hogon priest, coming directly from Mali specifically for this occasion, and I did not intend to miss out on this opportunity. In the recesses of my memory, I was aware of the architecture of the Dogon and knew that they came from a very ancient culture whose origins were lost in the mists of time. As I did a bit of research, I was further astonished by the extraordinary astronomical knowledge of these people. Dogon priests had told French anthropologists in the mid 1900’s of Dogon myths, thousands of years old, that mentioned a companion star to Sirius that was invisible to the human eye. It was not until 1970 that this star was first photographed in the west! Their knowledge of the skies also included information on the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the fact that the planets revolve around the sun. One particular 400-year-old artifact describes the star system. The Dogons believe that they descend from beings that came from the star system of Sirius. I was left pondering where this knowledge originated from so long ago.

The Dogons do not have a written, but an oral tradition, through which history is passed along. Their complex religious belief system consists of three cults: Awa, Lebe and Binu. The Awa is the cult of the dead. Ritualistic dances are performed during funeral and death anniversary ceremonies where members dance with ornately carved and painted masks. Lebe is the Earth god and is concerned primarily with agricultural practices and fertility rites. The chief priest is called a hogon. Every Dogon village has a Lebe shrine whose altar has earth incorporated into it to encourage the fertility of the land. The Binu cult is a totemic practice that includes the sacred places used for ancestor worship, spirit communication and agricultural sacrifices involving sacrifices of blood and millet porridge, millet being the Dogons’ primary crop.

As the foyer of the Völkerkunde Museum filled up with an expectant crowd, a group of Germans came out and started drumming. Amongst them was one apparent African. Although it was not what I had expected, they were not bad with regard to their sense of rhythm. After the performance, we proceeded en masse to the auditorium. I kept wondering how a ceremonial ritual by an African priest was going to be achieved in the main auditorium. Then, to my chagrin, we were informed that Ogokongo, the priest who was the special guest and written up as the vital element of the exhibit, was not going to be able to attend tonight. He had made it all the way from Tiegou, his village in Mali, to the airport in Paris, only to be sent back because all he had was his passport and an invitation from the Völkerkunde Museum to come to Germany, not the required cash in his pockets. Thus, the authorities sent him back to Mali! So much for the ceremonial opening ritual.

We proceeded to hear the speeches given by the director of the museum, Prof. Dr. Wulf Köpke, and others; but, indeed, the most colorful was the person responsible for putting together the exhibit, Ilsemargret Luttmann. She was truly the most exotic part of the exhibit and even made a comment about her debility for the exotic to the effect that the crowd burst out in laughter. Nancy T, our member artist, has graciously provided a rendition of Ms. Luttmann’s outfit for the evening. After the speeches, we were treated to a five minute silent documentary film. It depicted a sacrificial ceremony where a chicken’s throat was cut and the blood was poured over an altar. Afterwards, the chicken was plucked (at which point my husband started to chuckle and leaned over to say, “Thank God I can just go to the supermarket to buy a chicken!”), boiled and cooked with millet and then shared with the surrounding group of people which consisted of men and children. As we left the auditorium to proceed to the exhibit, we met Nancy who was very hungry at the time. In the foyer they were offering chicken and rice African style, but upon sight of the chicken and the immediate recollection of the documentary, she suddenly lost her appetite. As for myself, I thought next time I will have to try cooking chicken with millet and see how it tastes. Being born and raised in Liberia, I grew up seeing the chickens being killed in my back yard and then appearing on the dinner table.

Peering through the exhibit, I was amazed to see how much interest there was in Hamburg for the Dogon culture. Or had people come for the ritual ceremony out of a sense of curiosity and the link to the ancestry that is ingrained in our genetic make-up, no matter how long we have survived in the city? The exhibit consisted of a series of photographs along the wall and actual market artifacts on the ground. There were a few older carved wooden figures but most of the wares were new. Then there was a collection of modern day paintings by a local artist, 37-year-old Alaye Antemelou Kene. Like so many other men in his village, he was a farmer and a hunter until he lost his left hand in an accident. However, in the culture of the Dogon, there are no coincidences. This accident had its reason in the world of the spirits and demons. After this experience, Alaye, who had never had any schooling, began to work through his pain by painting. In his colorful paintings are depicted dragons, spirits, demons and wild animals as well as people typically dressed in Dogon tradition. He is well known as an artist now and has even had exhibits in France. Agriculturally, 2002 was a very bad year in Mali, and Alaye knows that as a farmer he could not have fed his wife and four children. Thus, he does not see it as luck that he lost his hand, rather that he became an artist.

A week later, I returned to the museum to meet Ogokongo, who had finally safely arrived in Hamburg. He was a small man with very intense eyes dressed in an indigo blue flowing robe and pants. A sheep horn hanging around his neck, filled with tobacco snuff, was his only ornament along with a well-worn walking stick he carried next to his leather skin satchel bag decorated with cowrie shells. He had weathered hands and an open grin and was very happy to talk to me in his pidgin English. We sat next to a painted wall that was the exact replica of the facade of his temple in Tiegou. On one side were geometrical designs in the symbolic colors of white, red and black, while on the other side were several mystic symbols, amongst them a snake which represents the god Lebe and fertility. The sun and moon were also depicted, representing the rhythms of the day and work. I asked him how he became a priest, and he told me of his physical and psychic crisis where he became blind overnight while working in Senegal. In his blindness, he saw seven spirits from the dead who asked him to give them something to drink. After 23 days without food, he returned to Mali where he was recognized as the priest whose power had not been manifested in the last 25 years. Ritual objects were then given to him. He had before been a Muslim and his name was Souleymane Sangara. Now, he had become Ogokongo, hogon priest of Arou. Before leaving, I asked him about his impressions of Hamburg, and he responded: “The town is good. Many, many people.” As I departed, I made sure not to try to shake hands with him but instead, took off my solitary silver snake earring and gave it to Ogokongo as an offering of friendship in spirit. Maybe one day our paths will cross again …