University of Massachusetts Boston

From the SelectedWorks of Chukwuma Azuonye

1999

The Dogon Creation StoryChukwuma Azuonye, University of Massachusetts Boston

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/chukwuma_azuonye/74/

The Doqon Creation StoryChukwumu Azuonye

Here, Chukwumu Azuonye outlines and analyzesthe creation story of the Dogon people andexplains its relationship to the star Sirius.

The Seed of the WorldThe creation story of the Dogon people of theBandiagara cliffs in southern Mali and the plainsof northern Burkina Faso in the area of the Nigerbend in West Africa is one of the most elaborateand fascinating traditional explanations of theorigins of the world and of human culture.Unlike biblical and similar stories of creation inother African oral traditions, in the Dogon cre-ation story the idea of an all-powerful and all-knowing divine creator is subordinated to anevolutionary process in which God (Amma)emerges as a supernatural but imperfect progen-itor. In place of the traditional idea of creationout of nothing, the Dogon creation story offersthrough the magic of the divine logos a more sci-entific explanation that anticipates the modernbig bang theory. In the Dogon creation story, wecan see a projection into the cosmos of ideas thatessentially belong to reproductive biology.Underlying these ideas is what appears to besome knowledge of the role of chromosomes andof DNA in the formation of every new life, as for-mulated in modern genetics.

The story begins with the idea of the seed ofthe world. Described by the Dogon as kize uze(the smallest of things), this tiny seed floated qui-etly through the dark emptiness of space beforethe birth of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Althoughit is as small as the smallest cultivated seed inDogon culture, namely fonio or digiteria exelis, it

contains the potential for the existence of all real-ity. In the course of its flotation, it suddenly be-gins to expand under the pressure of internalvibrations. This happens at the point in spacewhere the Dogstar, Sirius A (Digiteria) and itsdwarf companion, Sirius B, are now located. To-day, these twin stars occupy an important placeon the Dogon ritual calendar. The all-importantDogon ritual of renewal, Sigui, which takes placeevery 60 years, follows the time it takes Sirius Bto complete one orbit around Sirius A, a factwhich has since been confirmed, with only a fewminor differences, by modern science.

With the intensification of the internal vibra-tions within it, the seed of the world expands andexpands until it reaches the utmost limits of theuniverse, forming an oval mass that the Dogondescribe as the egg of the world (aduno tal) or thewomb of the world, using the term me (which canbe glossed as placenta or amnion) to describe itscontents. The transformation of the seed of theworld into the egg or womb of the world takesplace in seven stages. Unwinding like a spiralfrom its point of origin, each of the seven stagesof its expansion is longer than the preceding one.In Dogon iconography, this unwinding process isrepresented by a zigzag line called ozu tonolo.Other ritual drawings depict the seven-stage un-winding process as culminating in the prefigura-tion of the human shape. We can see from thesedrawings (Fig. 1) that the first and sixth vibra-tions represent the human legs, the second and thefifth the hands, the third and the fourth the head,while the seventh represents the genitals (the malepenis or the female clitoris):

48

The Dogan Creation Story 49

At the seventh vibration, the envelopingsheath breaks releasing all creation into space,just as young lives are released into the worldfrom an egg.

An interesting and significant aspect (from theperspective of modern science) of the Dogon viewof the processes within the egg of the world beforecreation is the notion that the egg of the worldcontained a master plan for creation. This masterplan is composed of images or signs called yaJa.

Each yaJa contains a model or code of all the in-structions needed for the creation of each and ev-ery thing now known to exist in the universe, andall these, according to the Dogon, are groupedinto 22 basic categories.

Amma, the supreme being, is among the firstof the 22 categories of beings (deities) whoemerged to become fully differentiated self-conscious beings. As god of creation, he set out tocomplete the work of creation. But he does so, notas an omniscient and all-powerful God, but,through procreation, as a great father figure withall the imperfections of humankind.

Lacking foreknowledge of things, he must alsoproceed by trial and error. His first task was to pro-create a divine model for humankind, Nommo.Nommo would be a pair of androgynous twins.Each pair would comprise two persons, one basi-cally female but with balancing male attributes, theother basically male but with balancing female at-tributes. Through further procreation between thetwin Nommo, the ancestors of humankind wouldcome into being. Their offspring, like themselves,would preferably come as twins or as individualmale and female beings with complementary fe-male and male attributes like themselves. But, un-fortunately, Amma's first attempt at procreatingthe Nommo proved to be a failure.

At first Amma was thwarted by the aggressivemasculinity of the model earth (then still sus-pended in the heavens). As he approached the pri-mordial female Earth in sexual foreplay, a termitehill, Earth's clitoris, rose aggressively like a gigan-tic penis. Amma was forced into a struggle to sub-due this aggressiveness. In cutting down the earth'sclitoris, he set down the rule that subsequent gen-erations have followed through clitoridectomy (fe-male circumcision) to subdue the potential of thefemale clitoris to compete with the male penis. Af-ter this, Amma succeeded in copulating with theearth; but unfortunately, the struggle with theearth's maleness had already marred this first sex-ual union. The offspring was the jackal, Dyougou

-.Figure 1: First Seven Vibrations of the Egg of the World(after Griaule and Dieterlen, 1954)

Serou, rather than the perfect model of creation,the twin Nommo, that was intended.

Dyougou Serou was a male being without anycomplementary female elements. In time, this all-male being raped his own mother, Earth. The re-sult was a breed of incomplete beings that havesurvived in the universal order as evil beings ofvarious kinds. Seized with shame over his mis-deeds, Dyougou Serou spent the rest of his life inrestless disgrace. Dogon sculpture represents himin several cringing poses with his hands coveringhis face (Laude, 1973; Imperato, 1978; Goldwa-ter, 1959; and Ezra, Art of the Dogan, 1988). Intime he suffered an anti birth by dissolving backinto his mother, the earth's, vagina. But his eviloffspring have survived to trouble the world.

The Dyougou Serou episode is only one of sev-eral versions of the explanation of the origins ofevil in the Dogon creation story. In other versions,the origin of evil is attributed to a being known asOgo, who, paradoxically, is an offspring of one ofthe pair of perfect Nommo born of Amma's sec-ond mating with the now circumcised earth.While still in the womb, the male person (Ogo) inone of the androgynous pair of twin Nommo torehis way out into space before the appointed timeof his birth, leaving his female counterpart be-hind. He emerged carrying with him a piece of hisown placenta. Outside the world-womb, thispiece of placenta became his own earth. In addi-tion to stealing a piece of his own placenta, healso stole some of the fonio, which Amma had in-tended to give to perfect humanity to plant fortheir sustenance on the pure earth. Ogo is thusalso known in Dogon mythology as Yo Ogo (thethief Ogo) or Yurugu.

But Ogo's rebellion was in vain. The earth hecreated in such haste before his birth at full term

50 Sub-Saharan Africa

was an impure earth in which nothing good orcomplete could thrive because of its denial of thefemale essence. In frustration, Ogo returned toheaven to search for his soul sister but discoveredthat Amma had retrieved her and placed her inthe world-womb under the charge of the remain-ing twin Nommo. Ogo then returned to the darkand desolate world he had created with such reck-less haste. There, Amma turned him into the palefox as a punishment for his misdeeds. The single,all-male incomplete beings born of his incest withhis mother's placenta who now peopled the earthhave survived as the breed of evil beings that stilltrouble humankind. At this point the DyougouSerou and the Yurugu versions of the Dogon cre-ation story can be seen to merge.

Now, the impure earth of Yurugu or DyougouSerou must be cleansed or created anew. To dothis, Amma sacrificed the complete twin (maleand female) Nommo of the other half of the pla-centa. These heavenly Nommo had been born atfull term. Their bodies and blood were scatteredover the cardinal points of the earth. Then thepieces were gathered together, resurrected inheaven, and sent back to the earth to remove allimpurities. Earlier, Amma had created the sky andthe stars to perfection through these sacrificedand resurrected perfect twin Nommos. Theywould now create a new earth, a world which,like the sky and the stars, would be perfect. Theycame down from the sky in a gigantic boat or arkwhich the Dogon describe as the "Boat of theWorld," or "the Ark of the World."

The "Boat of the World" is also described bythe Dogon as the "Granary of the Master of PureEarth." It contained everything needed to createda gana duge (a world in harmony). Piloted by thetwo heavenly Nommos, who now took the guiseof blacksmiths, the Boat of the World finally cameto rest in the present location of the earth, whereit instantly became a new earth. This new earthwas complete, formed according to Amma's or-der. Up until then the universe was in total dark-ness. Now light appeared for the first time. Wateralso appeared in the form of rain to clean and pu-rify the earth, making it ready for the first ances-tors of human beings.

With the descent of the boat of the heavenlyNommo came not only the separation of earthfrom other worlds, but also the separation ofnight from day and the appearance of the cycle ofthe moon (months), seasons, years, and genera-tions. Social life was organized and the artistic

and technological foundations of civilizationwere laid by the Nommo turned blacksmiths.

Though he was an evil being, one of Ogo's ac-tions for which he is still remembered in Dogonrituals today was the theft of a piece of the sun.Through this act, he brought fire to the world.With fire already present on earth, the MasterBlacksmith introduced the major forms of art andtechnology for which the Dogon have beenknown for centuries. First, he taught humans howto weave. Then he instructed them in music andthe making of the harp-lute and other musical in-struments. After that, he taught them how tomake various agricultural and household imple-ments. The first ancestors of human beings ap-peared soon after the descent of the Boat of theWorld and its transformation into pure earth. TheDogon creation story says that there were fourmale ancestors: Amma Seru, Lebe Seru, BinuSeru, and Dyougou Serou (each with a femalecompanion, his sister and wife). These four twinswere born of four other pairs of Nommo whichcame from the four cardinal points-east, west,north and south-at the time of the descent of theBoat of the World. As they came from the fourends of the world, the four pairs or eight ances-tors brought with them eight seeds. These seedswere sown in the new, pure, and fertilized earth.Out of each seed, a new seed grew.

The arrival of the eight ancestors signalled theblossoming of civilization on the new earth. Thiswas not a civilization in which human life wouldbe measured in terms of material success or theerection of tall architectural buildings and ma-chines of destruction. It was rather a civilizationgoverned by ideas about the completeness andmeaningfulness of human life that run through-out the Dogon creation story.

The Dogon creation story as recounted aboveis only one of several versions of the myth foundin Dogon culture. There are a wide variety ofother versions, some far more evolutionary thanthe foregoing. Others are more creationist andrepresent Amma creating through the divinelogos. Some of these versions may have been in-fluenced by creation myths from other cultures.Nor are myths of this kind peculiar to Dogon cul-ture. Similar myths seem to be widespread amongthe 44 or so ethnic groups that make up theMande cluster in the area of West Africa thatstretches from the Fouta Djallon to the NigerBend and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Sahel.Possible links with ancient Egyptian 'mythology

The Doqon Creation Story 51

have been explored (Temple, 1976). But, in theend, the Dogon creation story is best understoodas a reflection of the advanced scientific knowl-edge of the people and as the fundamental basis oftheir philosophy, worldview, and religion.

On the advances in scientific knowledge of theDogon in their creation story, Marcel Griaule andGermaine Dieterlen (1954), two pioneering stu-dents of Dogon thought and religion, have writ-ten as follows: "All these images seem to relate toan effort of discovery, an attempt to apprehendthe infinitely small at its point of departure to-wards the immeasurably vast. In fact, the order ofthe heavens, as it is observed and understood bythe Dogon, is no more than a projection, infinitelyexpanded, of events and phenomena which occurin the infinitely small."

We shall see that the Dogon creation story ex-plains the creation of the universe in the light oftheir knowledge of how life is procreated, that is,the reproduction of life in the womb. Thus wehave images of the egg of the world, the womb ofthe world, the placenta, the amnion, the sperm,etc. If this is so, then the 22 basic categories cannotbe understood outside the biology of human re-production. The yaJa may refer to a supergeneticcode, and the 22 yaJa signs may refer to 22 of the23 pairs of chromosomes that carry the genes ofthe codes of life. Indeed, the Dogon speak of 22pairs of basic categories, each comprising a maleand a female. Twenty-two of the 23 chromosomesin the human body comprise male and female ele-ments. It is also known that the 22 are groupedinto four sections. The DNA is controlled by fourbases: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine.These correspondences are far too close to be ig-nored. Myth is not all fantasy; it is also a symbolicexpression of the facts of life. This reality is clearlyembedded in the Dogon creation story.

As both the reflection of and main pillar ofDogon philosophy and religion, the full meaningof the Dogon creation story can only be acquiredby initiated elders as part of what the Dogon re-gard as so dayi (clear speech, or advanced knowl-edge of world order arrived at through progressivelifelong revelation and initiation). This initiationbegins with gid so (front speech, or elementaryknowledge) and proceeds like formal schoolingthrough the intermediate stages of benne so (sidespeech) and boJo so (back speech) to so dayi.

An example of so dayi in print is Marcel Gri-aule's book, Conversations with Ogotemmeli(1965), in which the blind hunter and sage,

Ogoternmeli, reveals the framework of the Dogansystem of thought and religion in a series of re-corded interviews. Similar revelations have comefrom other sages, among them Tierno Bokar (Baand Cardaire, 1957) and Yebene Dolo (Ezra,1988b). From these and from more recentsources, we now know that the secret knowledgethat constitutes Dogon philosophy is based onsolid scientific knowledge of the universe and thatit is founded on four major pillars. Stated briefly,these are: first, the idea that the universe is a sys-tem of forces (dynamism); second, the idea thateverything in the existence comes in pairs or twins(dualism); third, the idea that human beings arethe centerpiece of all creation and hence that ev-erything in the universe exists in human interest(anthropocentricism); and, finally, the idea thateverything in the universe is a miniature of thewhole (microcosmicism).

For the Dogon, the vital force, nyama, whichthey see as pervading the universe, became person-ified in Amma, the creator. From Amma, this forcehas been transmitted to all beings. Humans re-ceived it through the Nommo and through the firsthuman ancestors begotten by the Nommo. Atdeath, nyama is let loose and must be contained insome way or it may cause harm. The Dogon dothis by making dege (images) into which the nyamaof the dead must be channeled. The main rituals ofthe Dogon are thus concerned with maintainingthe continuity of nyama in its positive forms andwith controlling all its negative manifestations.

Dogon religion reflects the four pillars of thepeople's philosophy. It seeks to control the flow ofthe life force, nyama, in the interest of humankindas the center of all creation. In the visible aspectsof Dogon religion-in its rituals, altars, and ma-jor icons, such as carved images of gods and otherpowers (dege), care is taken to represent the prin-ciple of twinness associated with cosmic har-mony, and one is at every stage reminded of thefact that in the smallest of things will be found theimage of the universe, which in turn reflects theform and functioning of the human body.

Two main aspects of this religion stand outclearly. One is the directness of the relationshipbetween every Dogon person and the creator,Amma. The second is the existence of a similar di-rect relationship between individuals and thecommunity with other major bearers of nyama,through four fundamental cults: the totemic cult(Binu), the cult of the earth deity (Lebe), the cultof ancestors, and the cult of masks (imina).

52 Sub-Saharan Africa

Rites and other practices associated with allthese aspects of Dogon religion involve first, theuse of statues (dege) that represent the object ofworship; second, the chanting of invocations orhymns (toro) that praise and petition the objectsof worship in order of seniority (beginning withAmma) and that place them in the story of cre-ation and of the maintenance of world order;third, the sacrifice of an animal or the making ofan offering, usually on an altar (called ama afterthe creator, or amana). The altar usually com-prises or includes a statue that shows the suppli-cant in one pose or another statue that indicatesthe need for which the sacrifice or offering is be-ing made. The use of altars of this kind in Dogonreligion is of special interest since they separatethe Dogon and other Mande religious practicesfrom what finds elsewhere in Africa.

The supreme god of Dogon religion, AmmaTongo, the creator, is not the withdrawn high godof the kind found in the religions and myths ofmany other African cultures. Amma, the source oflife and rain, is ever present. The source of allnyama, he must be called upon directly over allkey problems of life. Since all sacrifices ultimatelygo to him, altars are generally called ama afterhim. In all rituals, including those addressed toother powers, the taro (hymn or invocation to thedivinities) that is chanted must begin by invokingthe power and seniority of Amma and move fromthere down to the least important powers, namelyhuman ancestors.

Although Amma is seen as the source of allnyama, he is by no means all-knowing, all-seeing,or all-good. It must be recalled that Arnma him-self is said in the Dogon creation story to havemade some serious mistakes in the creation of theworld. Amma is thus a supreme god who like hu-man beings is subject to forgetfulness, mischief,and other caprices. Because of this belief in thefallibility of the supreme god, the Dogon feel theneed to keep their petitions constantly in his view.This is where the statues that represent the peti-tioner in a pose that represents his or her needscome in. As a Dogon proverb tells us, "One can-not always pray and kneel at the altar, but thestatue can." The dege statues thus help to keeppetitions constantly in the view of the imperfectgod. In prayers or sacrificial offerings of blood ormillet, the petitioner would take off his or herclothes and take the pose of the statue. This alsohappens in rituals associated with Nommo, theancestors, and the other fundamental cults.

Other major objects found in and aroundDogon altars include a leather string with a duge (abead or stone) that represents the egg of the worldand a bundo (a small clay vessel) for libations.

Daily life in traditional Dogon society is madeup of a series of colorful rites that maintain thecontinuity of the people's idea of the organizationof the world. Other rites are rites of renewalwhose purpose is to renew the life force (nyama)that flows with the blood in every human beingand is part of the vital energy that controls humansociety at all levels and the universe at large.

The Dogon rites of continuity are of two types.The first are rites of passage of the kind found inall cultures across the world that mark key mo-ments in the traditional life cycle from birth todeath. The most representative of these rites ofpassage are funeral ceremonies, which are con-nected with beliefs in the continuity of the lifeforce beyond death. The second type of rites ofcontinuity consists of ceremonies that form partof four primary cults in Dogon culture, namelythe cults of Binu, Lebe, Arnma, and Dyougou.The most representative of these are the rites con-nected with the cult of Binu.

The Dogon funeral ceremony is the high pointof a series of rites of passage that begin with birthand naming ceremonies and include initiation andmarriage ceremonies. The cult of Binu exists topromote growth in the widest sense of the wordand so do the rites associated with it.

The most important of the rites of renewal inDogon culture is the very elaborate Sigui cere-mony held every 60 years to mark the passage ofone generation and the beginning of another. An-other important ceremony of renewal comprisesthe death anniversaries, called Dama, held everyyear to mark the doings of one or more personswho died in the previous year.

The timing of the ceremony of Sigui is tied upwith Dogon knowledge about the Dog Star, SiriusA, and the movements of its smaller but heaviercompanion around it. The Dogon believe that thebig bang which led to the explosion and expan-sion of the seed of the world into the egg out ofwhich everything in the world emerged began atthe present location of Sirius. It takes Sirius B 60years to orbit round Sirius A, and the Dogon be-lieve that this period of time represents a signifi-cant span which affects the life of the world.People who were born during the last Sigui are onthe threshold of old age while those who were oldmen at the last Sigui are either dead or on their

The Dogan Creation Story 53

way to the spirit world. The 60-year period thusrepresents a major shift in generations and of thelife of the world. It is therefore an excellent occa-sion to make sacrifices and invoke powerfulforces for the renewal of the world. In essence, theSigui ceremony reenacts the story of creation.

The annual death anniversaries are less elabo-rate but no less colorful or less connected with theDogon story of the origins of the world order. To-day, there are three kinds of Dama. The first is ageneral Dama, held in honor of several personswho died in the previous year. The second is a spe-cial grand Dama, held in honor of one great per-sonality. The third is a special adapted Dama thatis performed as theater.

It must be stated in conclusion that contro-versy surrounds much of the above reconstruc-tion of the Dogon creation story, especially withregard to its scientific and philosophical under-pinnings. The Hamitic myth which holds that noblack race has ever created any complex struc-tures of the imagination has misled some scholars(such as Temple, 1976) to seek explanations forthe Dogon's advanced knowledge first (withoutsuccess) in European and Arab sources, and ulti-mately in ancient Egyptian sources. Temple endsup settling for extraterrestrial visits from the re-gion of Sirius A and B. But today, as old-fash-ioned stereotypes about Africa disappear in theface of more intimate knowledge of the continentand its culture, the Dogon creation story and theworldview, science, and philosophy that informand are informed by it have come to gain betteracceptance as one of the most original and fasci-nating mythic explanations of the universe, of ourworld, and of human culture.

Further ReadingAzuonye, Chukwuma, Dogon, New York: Rosen,

1996Ba, Amadou Harnpate, and Marcel Cardaire,

Tierno Bokar, le sage de Bandiagara, Paris:Presence Africaine, 1957

DeMott, Barbara, Dogon Masks: A StructuralStudy of Form and Meaning, Ann Arbor,Michigan: UMI Research, 1982

Ezra, Kate, ed., African Arts special issue 21:4(August 1988)

--, Art of the Dogon: Selections from theLester Wunderman Collection, New York:Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988

Goldwater, Robert, "Introduction," in Sculpturefrom Three African Tribes: Senufo, Baga,Dagon: [Exhibition} Spring 1959, New York:Museum of Primitive Art, 1959

Griaule, Marcel, Conversations withOgotcmmeli: An Introduction to DogonReligious Ideas, London: Oxford UniversityPress for the International African Institute,1965; New York: Oxford University Press forthe International African Institute, 1970

Griaule, Marcel, and Germaine Dieterlen, "TheDogon of the French Sudan," in AfricanWorlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas andSocial Values of African Peoples, edited byDaryll Forde, London: Oxford UniversityPress, 1954; New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1960

--, Le Renard Pale, Paris: Institutd'Ethnologie, 1965; as The Pale Fox, ChinoValley, Arizona: Continuum Foundation,1986

Imperato, PascalJames, Dogon Cliff Dwellers:The Art of Mali's Mountain People, NewYork: L. Kahan Gallery/African Arts,1978

Laude, Jean, African Art of the Dogon: TheMyths of the Cliff Dwellers, New York:Brooklyn Museum/Viking, 1973

Pern, Stephen, Masked Dancers of West Africa:The Dogon, Amsterdam, The Netherlands:Time-Life, 1982

Roy, Christopher, The Dogon of Mali and UpperVolta/Die Dogon von Mali und Ober-Volta,Munich, Germany: Jahn Gallery, 1983

Temple, R.K.G., The Sirius Mystery, New York:St. Martin's, 1976; London: Futura, 1976

Traditional StorytellingToday

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