Portrait Of A Traditional Dogon Village Bandiagara Escarpment Footage 25 years ago

This movie was made at a time when Mali was one of the poorest but also still one of the safest places on this planet.
The land of the Dogon covers over 400.000 hectares and includes approximately 300 villages scattered along the length of the escarpment. It is an area of great cultural significance. There are three natural regions: the sandstone plateau, the escarpment and the plains. More than two-thirds of the listed perimeter are covered by plateau and cliffs.
We could walk through the Bandiagara Escarpment and stay overnight in the villages, sleep in the yard of people's houses, which we did for several days. We were safe and welcomed as Tubabous (white people). There was never a feeling of insecurity or feeling threatened. Very seldom we were asked for money. We were very blessed to see the falaise so many years back at a time when not many people knew about it. it was beautiful in its roughness. I strongly believe tourism should never reach places like this.
The traditional Dogon architecture is impressive and fascinating.
The communities at the site are essentially the Dogon and have a very close relationship with their environment expressed in their sacred rituals and traditions.
In certain cultural areas, the Dogon villages comprise numerous granaries, for the most part square with a thatched tapering roof. The gin’na, or large family house, is generally built on two levels. Its facade built from banco. It is windowless but has a series of niches and doors that often decorated with sculptured motifs. The rows of male and female characters which symbolize the couple’s successive generations.
One of the most characteristic forms of the Land of the Dogon is that of the togu-na, the large shelter, a long construction that provides shelter under a roof of branches supported by roughly-shaped wooden poles, for a platform with benches for the men.
The totemic sanctuaries (binu), privileged places, are of a great variety: some, in caves, keep alive the cult places of the Tellem; others, built of banco, resemble houses. The most venerated are the responsibility of the Hogon, the priest of one or several villages living alone, his source of inspiration being the snake, Lèbe, whose totem is often sculpted near the door of his dwelling.
In this 25 year old movie you can see many of these features that you find in a traditional Dogon village.
The irruption of new « written religions » (Islam and Christianity) since at least the 18th century has contributed to the vulnerability of the heritage that today has suffered from the negative effects of globalization linked to the increasing development of cultural tourism and the phenomena of rural exodus, consequence of the drought of the last decades.
I have published some of my Malian experiences and photos on my blog "Nara - La Saheliènne" which is hosted on the wordpress platform. If you would like to find out more about me and my life in Nara follow the link:
chocolatnegro....
#mali #westafrica #bandiadgara #dogon #dogonvillage #falaisedebandiagara #bandiagaraescarpment

[@Isoffish-dg9xv]

So Impressiv and interesting those times will never come back but this is an importent picture of history