Mask - Dogon - Mali

The Dogons are a people of Mali, in West Africa. Their total population in Mali is estimated at 700,000 people1. They occupy the region, named the Dogon Country, which runs from the Cliff of Bandiagara to the Niger Bend in the southwest. Some Dogons are settled in northern Burkina Faso; others have settled in Côte d'Ivoire.

The Dogons are above all farmers (primarily millet) and blacksmiths. They are renowned for their cosmogony and their sculptures. The language spoken by the Dogons is the Dogon language, which groups together several dialects. There exists also a secret language, the sigi so, a language reserved for the mask-wearing society. The Dogons are linked with the Bozo ethnicity by a joking kinship (called sinankunya in Mali). Dogons and Bozos mock each other, but, at the same time, owe each other mutual assistance.