2022 Expedition to Mali

Abstract

The 2022 field season (January 23 – February 23) turned out to be very productive: we managed to clarify the history of Dogon migrations from the Mande Country to the Bandiagara Highlands. We received quite complete information on the prophet Abirɛ, who predicted the return of Dogon to their historical homeland and completely new information about Bozo and Bambara puppets. Finally, we acquired many interesting artifacts for the State Museum of Oriental Arts. Due to the inability to arrive to the Dogon Country, it was decided to focus on the area of the city of Bougouni (Sikasso region) in southern Mali and on the Mande Country (regions of Koulikoro and Kayes, from the city of Kangaba in the west to Bamako in the east). Two magnificent, beautifully attributed works of traditional Bambara art were acquired in Bougouni for the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Arts: “Monkey” (Warabilen) and “Wild buffalo” (Sigi; Sigifin) masks. During the expedition, new and very significant data were obtained on the migrations of the Dogon from the Mande Country to the Bandiagara Highlands. A lot of information has now been accumulated regarding how the Dogon came to their new homeland. They were published, including in Russian. But the Manding oral traditions about the exodus of Dogon are still little known. We have partially succeeded in making up for this shortcoming. Oral historical traditions about the exodus of the Dogon from the Mande Country are changeable, internally contradictory and extremely unstable narratives with confused chronology, filled with omissions and vague allusions. However, some conclusions can still be drawn: there is almost no doubt that the root cause of the Dogon leaving for the lifeless rocks of Bandiagara was some kind of difficult and bloody conflict, accompanied by numerous victims. It is also clear that there were several waves of resettlement, and the last Dogon left for the highlands in the middle of the second half of the 19th century. It was also possible to find out that the Bambara and Bozo puppets are not at all a secularized popular theater. The puppet society is associated with the Koré secret society, and is perhaps one of the most powerful Bambara societies, which in this case refers to three ethnic groups: the Bambara proper, the Bozo (Dogon partners in a marriage-prohibitive joking relations) and the Marka (Soninké). Ceremonies involving puppets are completely sacred (only members of the Society take part in them), semi-sacred (only men take part in them), and, finally, publicly available — everyone, including women and children, takes part in them.