Bronze Dogon box with saddled animal (Mali)

Dogon offering cup with hyena (Mopti region, Mali)

In the very complex Dogon cosmogony, the Kungowulunin hyena (sometimes considered a jackal) appears as a solitary and soulless being who could hold the universe on his back, but who could also corrupt human bodies and spirits until they became beings incapable of understanding beauty of creation.
Kungowulunin is an ambiguous and chaotic spirit from which, however, we must not escape. That is why his strange figure continues to be reproduced on walls, doors or offering vessels.
The offering cup presented shows the Kungowulinin hyena supporting the world egg, an egg with a tiny image of the hyena (or jackal) as its cover.

Height: 18.0 cm; Length: 31.0 cm; Width: 11.0cm; Weight: 1.72 Kg