Old DOGON Granary Door Nommo Ancestor Figures - AFRICA

ETHNOGRAPHIC CONTEXT

The Dogon inhabit the Bandiagara cliffs, an extremely imposing setting in a very bare and austere environment. They are one of the very few existing ethnic groups to have remained the closest to their ancestral traditions both in artistic expression as well as in ceremonial practice.
The Dogon, as numerous other African ethnic groups are aware that the protection that a heavily bolted door gives is only relative. Pride is taken in displaying personal possessions; as a result, the door is an aesthetic expression and possesses symbolic functions. Since the doors are opened from the inside to the outside, only the exterior is decorated, and as a result presents itself almost as an “offering” to all passers by.

A finely executed old Dogon granary door panel fragment adorned with male and female raised arms figures and represent the ancestral Nommo.

There we probably originally five figures in total, one male figure appears to be missing, complementing and balancing the female figure at the other end.

All figures have been represented with arms upraised, a symbolic gesture amongst the Dogon to invoke rain for the crops.

The Nommo are the first primordial ancestors of the Dogon, they were both male and female and were created in heaven by the creator Amma, later they descended to earth traveling in an ark.

It is said that the Nommo who founded the eight Dogon lineages and introduced weaving, metal-smithing, and agriculture to their human descendants, the Dogon.

Rich and weathered patina, collected in Mali.

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