Mythology Book

292

were also paired together. This set

off a chain of links, extending

beyond animals to plants to create

a vast network. The Dogon believe

that each individual has a soul

connection to one-eighth of the

living things in the world.

According to some versions of

the myth, the eight ancestors were

created when one of the first two

Nommo rebelled against Amma

and tried to create a separate world

THE DOGON COSMOS

The Nommo are often depicted

with upraised arms, as in this small

sculpture. This is thought to represent

a reaching toward the heavens in

prayer for rain.

of his own. He procreated through

sexual intercourse with the

placenta that held him inside the

womb of his mother, Earth, but the

fruits of this incestuous union were

solitary and impure. Contaminated

by this abominable act, the world

faced the prospect of descending

into a state of utter chaos, but

Amma regained control of the

cosmos by murdering the other

Nommo. He was torn apart, and his

body was scattered across the

earth; the eight Nommo ancestors

were then created from his body

parts. The Dogon later created

ancestral shrines (called binu) at

places where the parts had landed.

Early humans

The eight Nommo procreated and

began to populate the earth. At

this stage, humans were primitive

beings who lived in holes in the

ground like animals and could only

use basic sounds to communicate.

When the Nommo had produced

many children, the eight ascended

to heaven.

However, when the Nommo

realized that the human world was

in chaos, they returned to earth

one by one, in order of age, each

bringing a valuable skill. First the

eldest Nommo, a blacksmith,

introduced humans to fire and

metalworking by stealing a piece of

the sun in the form of a live ember

and a white-hot iron rod. Another

Nommo taught the art of weaving

to mankind, and another the art of

constructing clay granaries. These

were topped with a thatch to

prevent rain washing away the clay,

and were modeled on the anthill

Amma filled with his seed when he

impregnated the earth. Their bases

were square to represent the four

cardinal points—north, south, east,

and west.

Chaos and sacrifice

The eighth Nommo was impatient

and descended to earth before her

sister, the seventh Nommo. This

angered the seventh Nommo so

much that she turned into a giant

serpent, but humans feared the

snake and made weapons to kill

her, using the skills taught by the

first Nommo, the blacksmith.

The death of the seventh

Nommo brought more chaos. The

other ancestors decided that they

must sacrifice Lébé, who was the

first Hogon (spiritual leader of the

community) and the oldest man in

the family of the eighth Nommo.

Lébé was the first human to die,

and thereby brought mortality to

mankind. His body was buried in a

primordial field with the head of the

seventh Nommo, under the anvil of

the blacksmith Nommo. The

blacksmith struck the anvil with

his tools, awakening the spirit of

the seventh ancestor. The serpent

then devoured Lébé—combining

the spirits of the seventh and

eighth Nommo forever. These two

In order to purify the universe

and restore order to it, Amma

sacrificed another Nommo.

Art of the Dogon

Kate Ezra, art historian (1988)

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293

Dogon dancers don masks for dama

funerary rites in Tireli, Mali. These are

enacted to lead spirits of the deceased

out of the village and toward their final

resting place with the ancestors.

Nommo represented language,

which was considered the essence

of all things: the seventh Nommo

was the master of the Word and the

eighth was the Word itself.

Cleansing gifts

When the serpent vomited Lébé’s

remains out in a series of stones,

they made the shape of a body.

First came eight dugé stones,

which are formed when lightning

strikes the ground. These stones

marked the joints at the pelvis,

shoulders, elbows, and knees. Then

came the smaller stones, forming

the long bones, vertebrae, and ribs.

The stones were a gift from the

ANCIENT EGYPT AND AFRICA

Nommo to humanity. They held

Lébé’s life force, and were a

physical manifestation of speech.

The stones also absorbed all that

was good from the ancestors and

cleansed the people of their

impurities with the water that was

the Nommo’s essence and life force.

When Lébé’s remains were being

ejected, torrents of purifying water

also came forth. It brought fertility

to the land and enabled humanity

to plant crops and farm.

The Dogon view Lébé as the

manifestation of the regenerative

forces of nature. To this day, Hogon

wear stones that symbolize Lébé’s

remains and remind them of their

link to their ancestors. Although

Amma is the supreme deity in

Dogon religion, and prayers and

sacrifices are made to him, the

chief focus for most of the Dogon’s

rituals is ancestor worship. ■

Water and the Dogon

Water is crucial in the myths

and lives of the Dogon people.

Mali, the Dogon homeland,

sits on the edge of the Sahara

Desert, where water can be

scarce and the amount of

rainfall dangerously variable.

The water cycle in the area is

variable. Both droughts and

monsoons afflict the region,

and rivers and lakes appear

and disappear again.

Rejecting the pressure to

convert to Islam, the Dogon

first set up their villages at

the base of Mali’s Bandiagara

Escarpment 1,000 years ago,

attracted by its defensibility

and its springs; they later

spread to the nearby plateau,

where they built deep wells.

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