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.
Dogon men in their ceremonial attire
A Dogon hunter with a flintlock musket, 2010.
Dogon dwellings along the Bandiagara Escarpment.
Kanaga mask in three pieces; 20th century; 108 x 59.1 x 22.9 cm (421⁄2 x 231⁄4 x 9 in); Brooklyn Museum (New York City)
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over 1,241,238 square kilometres (479,245 sq mi). The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east by Niger, to the northwest by Mauritania, to the south by Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, and to the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is 21.9 million, 67% of which was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. The country has 13 official languages, of which Bambara is the most commonly spoken.
The pages above are from Timbuktu Manuscripts written in Sudani script (a form of Arabic) from the Mali Empire showing established knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Today there are close to a million of these manuscripts found in Timbuktu alone.
Griots of Sambala, king of Médina (Fula people, Mali), 1890
Cotton being processed in Niono into 180 kg (400 lb) bales for export to other parts of Africa and to France, c. 1950
WWI Commemorative Monument to the "Armée Noire"