Observations placeholder

Conversations with Ogotommeli (An Introduction to Dogon Religious ideas) – Professor Marcel Griaule

The most important of all these objects is the iron hook fixed in the pediment which is the anvil of the smithy.  The hook is most often a double one, one of its branches ending in a tight curl.  This is the horned forehead of the celestial ram, whose curved horns hold the rain clouds.  The two curled ends are also thought of as two hands which will retain moisture and secure abundance….

‘Who is this ram?’ asked the stranger

‘It is the Great Nummo [spirit] of heaven, the Nummo pair’

‘The ram is the male and the calabash the female.  It is a ram of gold.  Before every storm in the rainy season he may be seen moving in the vault of heaven’...................

The ram is also a symbol of the world system

The Ram Nummo [spirit creator of soul] is a symbol of the world system; the calabash is the sun, his body is the earth, his forehead the moon, his eyes are the stars in the sky.  … The ram is the male and the calabash the female…

‘When the Ram Nummo [spirit] appears in heaven’ he added ‘he wears a calabash between his horns’…… the calabash is also the female Nummo [spirit], the essential woman.. the ram puts the calabash on his head to hold her between his horns …...........

The golden ram came down by [the rainbow] from heaven and plunged into the great pools of the earth.  ‘You can see him, when there is a violent storm .. he plunges among the water lilies, crying ‘the water is mine, the water is mine!’