Dogon People -- Dogon Mask Traditions: The Awa Society in Depth
Dogon People -- Dogon Mask Traditions: The Awa Society in Depth
The Awa Society
The Awa (also Awa Society, or Awa Association) is the male initiation and masked dance society of the Dogon -- arguably the most important social institution in Dogon life outside the family itself. Membership is universal among adult men: all Dogon men are initiated into the Awa upon reaching maturity. The Awa's primary function is the performance of the Dama ceremony -- a multi-day masked dance held to end the period of mourning following a significant death and to send the soul of the deceased to the world of ancestors.
The Dama Ceremony
The Dama is held at intervals of several years, typically to commemorate multiple deaths that have occurred since the previous ceremony. It is among the most visually spectacular ceremonies in all of West African ritual life:
- Hundreds of masked dancers may participate, each wearing a specific mask from the Awa catalogue
- The dancing takes place on the flat rooftops of the hogon's house and in the central square of the village
- The ceremony lasts for multiple days
- Women may watch from a distance but are forbidden from approaching certain sacred masks
- The masks speak in a special ceremonial register that ordinary people cannot understand
The Mask Catalogue
The Awa maintains a catalogue of approximately 78 named mask types, though not all are present in every village. Key masks include:
| Mask | Form | Cosmological significance |
|---|---|---|
| Sirige | Towering plank mask; 4-6 metres height; carved with multiple tiers of figures | Represents the house of the Hogon; the multiple stories represent the floors of the cosmos; the figures encode the creation narrative; the tallest Dogon mask |
| Kanaga | Crossbar mask with a double cross-shaped superstructure | Represents the bird Kanaga, associated with the path of the soul; its double-cross form mirrors the Dogon cross symbol of the four cardinal directions |
| Satimbe | Female figure riding the top of the mask | Represents the Yasigine -- the women who are permitted to participate in the Sigui ceremony; uniquely gendered in a primarily male ritual context |
| Walu | Antelope form | Represents the antelope associated with cultivation; the first animal to assist the Pale Fox in his chaotic earth-making after escaping the cosmic egg |
| Dege | Bird form | Messenger between the world of the living and the world of ancestors |
| Fulani wo | Fulani woman form | A figure incorporating neighbouring Fulani ethnic elements; demonstrates the cosmological inclusivity of the Awa system |
Masks as Cosmological Texts
Each mask in the Awa catalogue is not merely a visual or ritual object but a cosmological text -- a three-dimensional encoding of specific elements of the Dogon creation narrative. A fully initiated Awa member can "read" any mask, identifying its iconographic elements and their cosmological referents. The Sirige mask in particular can be read as a vertical version of the cosmological sand diagram: its multiple tiers represent the descent from Amma through the Nommo to the human world.
This encoding principle -- cosmological knowledge preserved in carved and painted objects -- is precisely the same principle that applies to granary doors, sanctuary walls, and sand drawings. The Dogon do not separate artistic expression from theological content; in the Dogon system, all significant art is simultaneously cosmological record.
