Les ogo banya des Dogon

Abstract

Ogo banya are lidded ornate containers made from wood (especially Khaya senegalensis). There are only few items, about fifty in the world. Despite the low number of reported ogo banya, they have always been considered as an iconic work of art from the Dogon and widely admired for their beauty. In 1905, lieutenant Louis Desplagnes did some investigations into the French Sudan and characterized them as ‘Art’. Their function is not well known because no visual document shows those items in usual context. Ogo banya are studied through their find contexts, their iconography and their physical attributes in order to find out the most likely use among the assumptions made by Western authors.

Keywords

• Dogon
• lidded vessel
• iconography
• function