The Dogon Tribe people in Africa came from Sirius

The Dogon are an ethnic group indigenous to the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso.

The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000. They speak the Dogon languages, which are considered to constitute an independent branch of the Niger–Congo language family, meaning that they are not closely related to any other languages.

The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions, their mask dances, wooden sculpture, and their architecture.

Since the twentieth century, there have been significant changes in the social organization, material culture and beliefs of the Dogon, in part because Dogon country is one of Mali’s major tourist attractions.

The principal Dogon area is bisected by the Bandiagara Escarpment, a sandstone cliff of up to 500 meters (1,600 ft) high, stretching about 150 km (90 miles).

To the southeast of the cliff, the sandy Séno-Gondo Plains are found, and northwest of the cliff are the Bandiagara Highlands.

Historically, Dogon villages were established in the Bandiagara area a thousand years ago because the people collectively refused to convert to Islam and retreated from areas controlled by Muslims.

Dogon insecurity in the face of their historical persecution caused them to locate their villages in defensible positions along the walls of the escarpment. The other factor influencing their choice of settlement location was access to water.

The Niger River is nearby and in the sandstone rock, a rivulet runs at the foot of the cliff at the lowest point of the area during the wet season.

Among the Dogon, several oral traditions have been recorded as to their origin. One relates to their coming from Mande, located to the southwest of the Bandiagara escarpment near Bamako.

According to this oral tradition, the first Dogon settlement was established in the extreme southwest of the escarpment at Kani-Na.

Archaeological and ethno-archaeological studies in the Dogon region have been especially revealing about the settlement and environmental history, and about social practices and technologies in this area over several thousands of years.

Over time, the Dogon moved north along the escarpment, arriving in the Sanga region in the 15th century. Other oral histories place the origin of the Dogon to the west beyond the river Niger, or tell of the Dogon coming from the east.

It is likely that the Dogon of today are descendants of several groups of diverse origin who migrated to escape Islamization.

It is often difficult to distinguish between pre-Muslim practices and later practices.

But Islamic law classified the Dogon and many other ethnicities of the region (Mossi, Gurma, Bobo, Busa and the Yoruba) as being within the non-canon dar al-harb and consequently fair game for slave raids organized by merchants.

As the growth of cities increased, the demand for slaves across the region of West Africa also increased. The historical pattern included the murder of Indigenous men by raiders and enslavement of women and children.

For almost 1000 years, the Dogon people, an ancient ethnic group of Mali had faced religious and ethnic persecution—through jihads by dominant Muslim communities.

These jihadic expeditions formed themselves to force the Dogon to abandon their traditional religious beliefs for Islam.

Such jihads caused the Dogon to abandon their original villages and moved up to the cliffs of Bandiagara for better defense and to escape persecution—often building their dwellings in little nooks and crannies.

The Dogon religion is the traditional religious or spiritual beliefs of the Dogon people. Dogons who adhere to the Dogon religion believe in one Supreme Creator called Amma (or Ama).^[20][21][22]

They also believe in ancestral spirits known as the Nommo in their language, also referred to as “Water Spirits”.

The Dogon are primarily agriculturalists and cultivate millet, sorghum and rice, as well as onions, tobacco, peanuts, and some other vegetables. Griaule encouraged the construction of a dam near Sangha and persuaded the Dogon to cultivate onions.

The economy of the Sangha region has doubled since then, and its onions are sold as far as the market of Bamako and those of the Ivory Coast. Grain is stored in granaries.^{[citation needed]}

Since the late 20th century, the Dogon have developed peaceful trading relationships with other societies and have thereby increased variety in their diets.

four days, Dogon people participate in markets with neighboring tribes, such as the Fulani and the Dyula. The Dogon primarily sell agricultural commodities: onions, grain, cotton, and tobacco.

They purchase sugar, salt, European merchandise, and many animal products, such as milk, butter, and dried fish.

There are two endogamous castes in Dogon society: the smiths and the leather-workers. Members of these castes are physically separate from the rest of the village and live either at the village edge or outside of it entirely.

While the castes are correlated to profession, membership is determined by birth. The smiths have important ritual powers and are characteristically poor.

The leather-workers engage in significant trade with other ethnic groups and accumulate wealth. Unlike norms for the rest of society, parallel –cousin marriage is allowed within castes. Caste boys do not get circumcised.

Boys are circumcised in age groups of three years, counting for example all boys between 9 and 12 years old. This marks the end of their youth, and they are initiated. The blacksmith performs the circumcision.

Afterwards, the boys stay for a few days in a hut separated from the rest of the village people, until the wounds have healed. The circumcision is celebrated and the initiated boys go around and receive presents.

They make music on a special instrument that is made of a rod of wood and calabashes that makes the sound of a rattle.

‘Sigi’ is a society-wide ritual to honor and recognize the first ancestors. Thought to have originated as a method to unite and keep peace among Dogon villages, the ‘sigi’ involves all members of the Dogon people.

Starting in the northeastern part of Dogon territory, each village takes turns celebrating and hosting elaborate feasts, ceremonies, and festivities.

During this time, new masks are carved and dedicated to their ancestors. Each village celebrates for around a year before the ‘sigi’ moves to the next village. A new ‘sigi’ is started every 60 years.

The traditional dama consists of a masquerade intended to lead the souls of the departed to their final resting places, through a series of ritual dances and rites.

Dogon damas include the use of many masks, which they wore by securing them in their teeth, and statuettes. Each Dogon village may differ in the designs of the masks used in the dama ritual. Similarly each village may have their own way of performing the dama rituals.

The dama consists of an event, known as the Halic, that is held immediately after the death of a person and lasts for one day.^[43]: 68

Masks used during the yincomoli ceremony include the Yana Gulay, Satimbe, Sirige, and Kanaga. The Yana Gulay mask’s purpose is to impersonate a Fulani woman, and is made from cotton cloth and cowl shells.

The Satimbe mask represents the women ancestors, who are said to have discovered the purpose of the masks by guiding the spirits of the deceased into the afterlife.^[43]: 74

The Sirige mask is a tall mask used in funerals only for men who were alive during the holding of the Sigui ceremony (see below) The Kanaga masqueraders, at one point, dance and sit next to the bundkamba, which represents the deceased.

The yingim and the danyim rituals each last a few days. These events are held annually to honor the elders who have died since the last Dama. The yingim consists of both the sacrifice of cows, or other valuable animals, and mock combat.

Large mock battles are performed in order to help chase the spirit, known as the nyama, from the deceased’s body and village, and towards the path to the afterlife.

The danyim is held a couple of months later. During the danyim, masqueraders perform dances every morning and evening for any period up to six days, depending on that village’s practice.

The masqueraders dance on the rooftops of the deceased’s compound, throughout the village, and in the area of fields around the village.

Until the masqueraders have completed their dances, and every ritual has been performed, any misfortune can be blamed on the remaining spirits of the dead.

• The sect of the creator god Amma. The celebration is once a year and consists of offering boiled millet on the conical altar of Amma, colouring it white. All other sects are directed to the god Amma.

• Sigui is the most important ceremony of the Dogon. It takes place every 60 years and can take several years. The last one started in 1967 and ended in 1973; the next one will start in 2027. The Sigui ceremony symbolizes the death of the first ancestor (not to be confused with Lébé) until the moment that humanity acquired the use of the spoken word. The Sigui is a long procession that starts and ends in the village of Youga Dogorou, and goes from one village to another during several months or years. All men wear masks and dance in long processions. The Sigui has a secret language, Sigui So, which women are not allowed to learn. The secret Society of Sigui plays a central role in the ceremony. They prepare the ceremonies a long time in advance, and they live for three months hidden outside of the villages while nobody is allowed to see them. The men from the Society of Sigui are called the Olubaru. The villagers are afraid of them, and fear is cultivated by a prohibition to go out at night, when sounds warn that the Olubaru are out. The most important mask that plays a major role in the Sigui rituals is the Great Mask, or the Mother of Masks. It is several meters long, held by hand, and not used to hide a face. This mask is newly created every 60 years.
• The Binou sect uses totems: common ones for the entire village and individual ones for totem priests. A totem animal is worshiped on a Binou altar. Totems are, for example, the buffalo for Ogol-du-Haut and the panther for Ogol-du-Bas. Normally, no one is harmed by their totem animal, even if this is a crocodile, as it is for the village of Amani (where there is a large pool of crocodiles that do not harm villagers). However, a totem animal might exceptionally harm if one has done something wrong. A worshiper is not allowed to eat his totem. For example, an individual with a buffalo as totem is not allowed to eat buffalo meat, to use leather from its skin, nor to see a buffalo die. If this happens by accident, he has to organize a purification sacrifice at the Binou altar. Boiled millet is offered, and goats and chickens are sacrificed on a Binou altar. This colours the altar white and red. Binou altars look like little houses with a door. They are bigger when the altar is for an entire village. A village altar also has the ‘cloud hook’, to catch clouds and make it rain.
• The Lébé sect worships the ancestor Lébé Serou, the first mortal human being, who, in Dogon myth, was transformed into a snake. The celebration takes place once a year and lasts for three days. The altar is a pointed conic structure on which the Hogon offers boiled millet while mentioning in his benediction eight grains plus one. Afterwards, the Hogon performs some rituals in his house, which is the home of Lébé. The last day, all the village men visit all the Binou altars and dance three times around the Lébé altar. The Hogon invites everybody who assisted to drink the millet beer.
• The twin sect: The birth of twins is a sign of good luck. The extended Dogon families have common rituals, during which they evoke all their ancestors back to their origin—the ancient pair of twins from the creation of the world.
• The Mono sect: The Mono altar is at the entry of every village. Unmarried young men celebrate the Mono sect once a year in January or February. They spend the night around the altar, singing and screaming and waving with fire torches. They hunt for mice that will be sacrificed on the altar at dawn.

Villages are built along escarpments and near a source of water. On average, a village contains around 44 houses organized around the ‘ginna’, or head man’s house.

Each village is composed of one main lineage (occasionally, multiple lineages make up a single village) traced through the male line. Houses are built extremely close together, many times sharing walls and floors.

No, a third star in the Sirius system has never been officially found or confirmed.

Wikipedia / ABC Flash Point News 2026.