Dogon Toguna beam (Mali)
Carved Toguna Dogon pillar (Mopti region, Mali)
In the center of each Dogon village there is always the Toguna (in the Dogon language, "Great Refuge") or Shonan (in the Dogon language, "House of the Word"), an open construction, generally raised on eight wooden pillars (one for each of the eight primordial ancestors) that support a roof made up of thick layers of millet stalks, superimposed year after year until reaching eight (again the cosmic number...).
The Toguna is the house where circumcised men meet every day to discuss the problems of the town, to do business, to judge misdemeanors and crimes, or simply to take refuge from the midday sun. It is usually a peaceful place, but sometimes the debates and trials get heated and, to avoid greater evils and blows, the roof of the Toguna is raised just one meter from the ground, forcing the members to remain seated.
The decoration of the enclosure is usually sober, although the Togunas of the villages located in the southern half of the Bandiagara cliff usually have their pillars finely carved with characters from Dogon mythology or reliefs calling for fertility.
Sometimes the Toguna is erected on a slope and then the rear pillars become testimonial and barely exceed 70 mm in length. This is the case of one of the ones we offer at Black Market that, despite its size, has been decorated with the relief of an androgynous ancestor on which two breasts are arranged as a desire for wealth and fertility. The shaft is separated from a forked capital by an aquatic motif and on the left arm of the fork the artist carved the head of a Nommo, an ancestral, hermaphrodite and amphibious creature.
Length: 70cm; Weight: 2.45 Kg
Material: Wood |
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At Black Market we are not antique dealers. Nor do we intend to appropriate the different and very diverse cultures that have existed throughout Africa. At Black Market we offer, however, a selection of all the art generated by men and women that, in many cases, we admire and know personally.
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