Научная статья на тему 'The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations’ to Dogon Plateau'

The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations’ to Dogon Plateau Текст научной статьи по специальности «История и археология»

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Ключевые слова
MALI / DOGON / ORAL HISTORY / MIGRATIONS / МАЛИ / ДОГОНЫ / УСТНОЕ ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЕ ПРЕДАНИЕ / МИГРАЦИИ

Аннотация научной статьи по истории и археологии, автор научной работы — Kutsenkov Petr A.

Despite the increased attention to the Dogon by anthropologists and ethnologists, there are many “white spots” in the history and ethnography of this people. For example, not so long ago it was believed that they speak six languages; then their number grew steadily, and now linguists number already thirty Dogon languages, conditionally united in the family of Dogon languages of the macro-family of Niger-Congo; it is possible that there are even more of them. The history of migrations on the Bandiagara Highlands and the adjoining plains also remains poorly understood. All existing hypotheses, one way or another, based on oral traditions (often without specifying the informant and/or source). Only to a small extent are they based on archaeological data. In addition to the “common Dogon” historical tradition, which states that this people came to the Plateau around the turn of the 16th century, there are historical legends of individual villages, their neighbourhoods and even families. They can be very different from the ‘general’ version. From this point of view, two oral histories of the village of Endé are of great interest. Based on the analysis of these legends, it is possible to draw with all possible caution a preliminary conclusion that the Dogon country was populated in two stages: the first one falling between the 10th and the 13th centuries, and the second between the 15th and the 19th centuries. In all examined villages exists the same model of relations between the local population and the aliens: the new group usurps political and military power and gives the old population its clan name, but itself adopts its language and culture. Such relations designed to prevent possible conflicts. The article based on an analysis of the Dogon oral history collected during field research between 2015-2018.

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Исторические предания деревень догонов и миграции на Нагорье Бандиагара

Несмотря на повышенное внимание к догонам со стороны антропологов и этнологов, в истории и этнографии этого народа остается множество «белых пятен». К примеру, еще не так давно считалось, что догоны говорят на шести языках, потом их число постоянно росло, и теперь лингвисты насчитывают уже тридцать догонских языков, условно объединяемых в семью догонских языков макросемьи нигер-конго. Возможно, что их еще больше. История миграций на Нагорье Бандиагара и прилегающие равнины также мало изучена. Все существующие гипотезы так или иначе основаны на устных традициях (нередко без указания информанта и/или источника) и лишь в небольшой степени на данных археологии. Помимо «общедогонского» исторического предания, утверждающего, что этот народ явился на Нагорье в конце XV XVI в., существуют исторические предания отдельных деревень, кварталов и даже семей. Они могут очень сильно отличаться от «общедогонской» версии. С этой точки зрения большой интерес представляют два устных исторических предания деревни Энде. На основе анализа этих и других преданий и со всей возможной осторожностью можно сделать предварительный вывод о том, что Страна догонов заселялась в два этапа: первый с высокой долей вероятности можно датировать X-XIII вв., а второй XV началом XIX в. Во всех обследованных деревнях прослеживается одна и та же модель отношений автохтонного населения с пришельцами: пришлая группа узурпирует политическую и военную власть и дает старому населению свое клановое имя, но сама принимает его язык и культуру. Статья основана на анализе устных исторических преданий догонов, собранных в экспедициях 2015-2017 гг.

Текст научной работы на тему «The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations’ to Dogon Plateau»

2018

ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА ВОСТОКОВЕДЕНИЕ И АФРИКАНИСТИКА

Т. 10. Вып. 3

ИСТОРИЯ И ИСТОЧНИКОВЕДЕНИЕ

UDC 801.83

The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations' to Dogon Plateau

P. A. Kutsenkov

The Institute of Oriental Studies of RAS,

12, ul. Rozhdestvenka, 107031, Moscow, Russian Federation

For citation: Kutsenkov P. A. The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations' to Dogon Plateau. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, pp. 330-339. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2018.304

Despite the increased attention to the Dogon by anthropologists and ethnologists, there are many "white spots" in the history and ethnography of this people. For example, not so long ago it was believed that they speak six languages; then their number grew steadily, and now linguists number already thirty Dogon languages, conditionally united in the family of Dogon languages of the macro-family of Niger-Congo; it is possible that there are even more of them. The history of migrations on the Bandiagara Highlands and the adjoining plains also remains poorly understood. All existing hypotheses, one way or another, based on oral traditions (often without specifying the informant and/or source). Only to a small extent are they based on archaeological data. In addition to the "common Dogon" historical tradition, which states that this people came to the Plateau around the turn of the 16th century, there are historical legends of individual villages, their neighbourhoods and even families. They can be very different from the 'general' version. From this point of view, two oral histories of the village of Endé are of great interest. Based on the analysis of these legends, it is possible to draw with all possible caution a preliminary conclusion that the Dogon country was populated in two stages: the first one falling between the 10th and the 13th centuries, and the second between the 15 th and the 19th centuries. In all examined villages exists the same model of relations between the local population and the aliens: the new group usurps political and military power and gives the old population its clan name, but itself adopts its language and culture. Such relations designed to prevent possible conflicts. The article based on an analysis of the Dogon oral history collected during field research between 2015-2018. Keywords: Mali, Dogon, oral history, migrations.

In 2015-2017, the author of this paper undertook three expeditions to the Republic of Mali. Studies were performed in the south of Mopti region, villages Endé, Kani-Bonzon

© Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 2018

(Kani Na), Kani-Kombole and Bagourou (Bankass Cercle), Semari (Samari) (Douentza Cercle), Tintan (Tintam), Oume and Dogani (Bandiagara Cercle). The Bandiagara Plateau was not explored by Russian scientists until recently; the only expedition to the Dogon country was conducted in 2008 by A. Yu. Siim (Moskvitina), Senior Researcher of Center of Political and Social Anthropology, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS. The major objectives of these expeditions included, inter alia, collecting oral histories of individual villages, which sometimes differ markedly from those found in the literature (one of them is already published [1]).

The choice of this people is explained by the fact that since the late 1940s the Dogon are treated as a canonical object of ethnological and cultural studies, predominantly, by the French school (M. Griaule, G. Dieterlen, M. Leiris, J. Laude, etc.). Russian researcher V. B. Mirimanov can be attributed to this school, too.

The Dogon society represents an extremely complex ethno-social organism (ESO) composed of many groups that migrated to the Bandiagara Highlands at different times. Their ethnic territory (Pays Dogon, or Dogon Country) is located on the Bandiagara Plateau (= Dogon Plateau) and the adjacent plains of the southeastern part of the Republic of Mali (Mopti region; Mopti, Djenne, Bandiagara, Bankass, Douentza and Koro Cercles). The population number of Dogon does not exceed 800,000; about half of these inhabit Bandiagara Highlands. The share of Dogon in Mali population is estimated differently, from 2 % to 6 %. There are no big towns in Dogon Country but Bankass, Koro, and Ban-diagara can be considered rather large settlements in Malian scale. The ethnic territory of the Dogon is adjoined by the city of Mopti, the capital of the same name region and the most important economic and cultural center of the Republic of Mali.

Since the late 1980s, a lot of facts have been accumulated that contradict the concepts of the French school. Thus, recent researchers failed to find anything that would resemble even slightly the myths in 'God of water' collection by Marcel Griaule [2]. Some other information contained in the publications of Griaule and other researchers of the French school, raises numerous questions. For example, modern migrations of groups to the Dogon Plateau described in the 'Pale Fox' monograph by M. Griaule and J. Dieterlen, mentions the village of Kani Na (Kani-Bonzon) as non-existent (actuellement disparu) at present and this error was neither corrected, nor commented upon in the posthumous edition of 1991 [3, p. 17]. Meanwhile, this village does not only exist, but also stands as the administrative center of the rural commune (of the same name) and the author was privileged to be presented to its present and former mayors. Therefore, field studies were essential to verify the information contained in the French ethnological literature.

Despite the increased and somewhat morbid attention to the Dogon, a lot of 'white spots' still remains in their history and ethnography. For example, until recently, it was believed that they spoke six languages; and since then the estimated number of spoken languages has been steadily increasing and by now linguists have registered thirty (!) Dogon languages, conventionally grouped into the Dogon family within the Niger-Congo language macrofamily [4]. Probably, their number is yet more. The difference between these languages is so great that the inhabitants of the Bondum culture-historical region in the northeast of the Bandiagara Highlands (villages of Dogani, Borko, Tintan, Semari, Minty, etc.) do not understand the Tenkan native speakers (Bankass Cercle, southwest Bandiaga-ra escarpment) and use Bamana, Fulfulde, or French for communication with them. Each Dogon language is subdivided into many dialects. Small villages of the Bankass Cercle,

4-10 km off the Endé village (well familiar to the author) are quite often populated by newcomers from Endé belonging to the same Guindo tige (clan) and having relatives in that village. However, Tenkan pronunciation is markedly different from the 'reference' language. And even more, within the Endé village, inhabitants of the Ogodengu and En-dé-Wo quarters speak different dialects. To teach their native language, one village school can use the French alphabet, whereas in the nearby village it can be supplemented by the same phonetic signs, as those used in Bamanankan writing (e; q; o).

The history of migrations to the Bandiagara Highlands and the adjacent plains is also poorly understood. All existing hypotheses, one way or another, are based on oral traditions (often without specifying the informant and/or the source) and only to a small extent — on the archeological data. Most are reviewed in the study Archéologie, histoire et traditions orales: trois clés pour découvrir le passé Dogon (Archaeology, history and oral tradition: three keys to the past of the Dogon) by A. Gallay et al. [5, p. 26-28]. Some hypotheses were not included in this list, e.g., the views of the currently neglected Malian ethnologist Bokar N'Diaye, who systematized the available information.

In his opinion, the modern Dogon were formed mostly upon two ethnic substrates: the aboriginal Tellem and aliens from the south, the Habe, which retreated from the territory of the contemporary Burkina Faso under the Mossi pressure in the 10th century [6, p. 190]. And, incidentally, this information is confirmed in the Mossi oral tradition: according to personal communication from A. A. Dim Delobsom, following the Mossi invasion into the territory of modern Burkina Faso, part of its population went to the Bandiagara Highlands (Dogon Plateau) [7, p. 1]. In the same 10th century, according to N'Diaye, another wave of migrants started from the territory of modern Mauritania (Hod esh-Sharqi province). These people were subdivided into clans, 'white' (of which nothing is known for sure), and 'red'. The latter, in turn, consisted of two groups. One of them crossed the Niger around the town of Sansanding, east of Segou town [6, p. 190]. Sansand-ing is an old town: in 1796, it was visited by the famous Scottish traveler Mungo Park who described it as 'a very large town, numbering eight to ten thousand inhabitants'. It was an important market where 'Moors' traded salt, Mediterranean beads and corals for "golddust sand and cotton-cloth" (i.e., bogolanfini, which is a famous production in Segou and the surrounding towns. — P. K.) [8, p. 199]. These people passed Sansanding and settled in the Niger-Bani confluence, where they established specific relationships with the Bozo people (no-marriage joking relationship, sanankuya). This people became known as the 'Konrogoy' or 'Kolon, i.e., 'red', and their settlements have survived until present under the names of Garadugu, Koron, Kuru, Kolon, Orondugu, and Koronbana (not always indicated on the maps). Later, this group migrated to the Bandiagara Plateau and formed the N'dogom tribe (B. N'Diaye calls it 'clan'), which includes the most numerous tige (jamu, clans) of the Dogon, the Togo and Guindo from the Endé and neighboring villages. Thus, B. N'Diaye places the arrival of the Endé founders to a rather early period. As we will see below, his opinion deserves a very close attention and analysis. Unfortunately, the Malian ethnologist did not specify his sources of information, neither the informants nor even the names of villages.

Other researchers date the arrival of the second migration wave to the early 14th century: '... during the reign of Mansa Kanku Musa1, the Emperor of ancient Mali, four

1 Reign: 1312-1337.

Dogon tribes (Aru, Dion, Domno, and Ono) refused to accept Islam and went to this part of the Sahel' [9, p. 4]. At the same time, there is evidence that the older population, Bobo and/or Tellem, lived on the plateau, at least up to the 18th century [10, p. 232].

These rather conflicting data lead us to at least one conclusion: two waves of migration are reliably recorded in the history of the Dogon Country, and they took long time. There is almost no doubt that each consisted of several groups that came to the Highlands, both together and separately. Meanwhile, the experience of the author's field studies on the Bandiagara Plateau allows him to assert that oral histories of individual villages can differ significantly from the 'conventional' versions of settlement of the Dogon Country and exactly there we can find information to clarify and elaborate the pattern of migrations. Unfortunately, these texts are mostly unpublished. The only exception, to a certain extent, is presented by the Ounjougou international project [11], but even there the priority is given to the general history of Dogon migrations, rather than the history of this village. However, the undoubted achievement of the project participants is performing archaeological excavations in the Highlands, which has already yielded outstanding results: some of the world's oldest ceramics have been found in the Dogon country (10,000 BC) [12, p. 39; 13]. Another achievement is an examination of Dogon ethnography (in particular, the ethnography of handicrafts) in the context of oral traditions and history of migration, as exemplified by a comprehensive monograph by C. Robion-Brunner, which is dedicated to Dogon metallurgy [14]. The same refers to ceramics studies: reliable and, most importantly, diverse informants (women-potters, their blacksmith husbands and other persons related to ceramics manufacturing — one way or another) provided data confirming those in oral tradition and data from archaeological excavations [10, p. 226]. Unfortunately, neither are these works completely free from inaccuracies (see below, on Tintan village).

It should be noted here that another problem needs to be urgently resolved: the history of migrations as such should be separated from the history of establishing the 'ideological' component in the unique Dogon ESO, because it had decidedly undergone 'conscious reconstruction of the ideological tradition, as defined by L. E. Kubbel [15, p. 84].

Modern Dogon possess an extremely strong sense of solidarity and several markers of ethnicity, which enables an unmistakable identification of a certain village as Dogon. In material culture, it means characteristic clothes, the famous toguna, altars of the Dogon God-Creator Ama (Amma), the shape of the Kanaga mask top reproduced in architecture and visual art (even in children's dolls), certain types of door locks and figures with raised hands denoting the rainmaking ritual. This can be complemented with 'ideological' markers: joking kinship with the Bozo, Songhai and Fulbe (Peul), as well as with jamu Keita (Malinke) and Coulibaly (Bambara from Segou)2. More recently, the Dogon sananku was joined by the Tuaregs (Tamasheq) and Arabs (Moors)3. These markers also include the obligatory mention of the exodus from the 'Mande country', which seems to be present, in

2 Recorded by the author in the Old Segou (Sekoro), in late November 2017: When the Leader heard that he bears the Dogon name of Ansouma Guindo (Ansouma = 'Firstborn' in the Tenkan language, the same as Nci in the Bamanankan), he noted that he speaks the Segou dialect (I be Segu kuma def>), and requested to break off with the Dogon immediately, under pretense of their unreliability, and join the glorious jamu of Coulibaly. Needless to say, this was accompanied by the unanimous laughter of all those present — both the Dogon and Bambara.

3 Sanankuya with the Tuaregs and Arabs was announced at Ogobanyan Dogon cultural festivals in Bamako in January 2017, and particularly, in late January 2018.

one form or another, in all Dogon oral histories, even among those groups that obviously have nothing in common with Kangaba [1, p. 107].

However, historical legends of the villages (and, in particular, those of individual quarters of a village) can disagree greatly in details from their 'official' versions intended for aliens and legends found in the literature. For this reason, historical legends of individual villages should be treated more carefully; hopefully, this would eventually produce a detailed picture of populating the Dogon country, free from the 'conscious reconstruction of the ideological tradition'. With regard to the latter, the mechanism and history of its emergence are unclear and we can but hope that this problem would be resolved in the future.

The Ende village (Kani-Bonzon rural commune, Bankass Cercle, Mopti region) has two major versions of its establishment and both diverge from the versions of populating the Highlands and the adjacent plains outlined by A. Gallay, B. N'Diaye, A. Bilot, and other researchers. According to the first, associated with the Ende-Wo quarter4 and shown in the explication at the Ende village museum, the village founders came from the 'Mande country' (a triangle between the Kangaba, Kita and Bamako towns in Western Mali). They crossed the Niger, not around the Sansanden, but east of the modern Bamako; settled initially in the Inner Niger Delta, where they became 'brothers' (sananku) to the Bozo fishermen. Then the Dogon moved to the Sofara village, about 40 km north-east of Djenne, and then turned northward, to the town of Sevare, (which is located already on the Dogon ethnic territory). Then they separated: some occupied the territory between the towns of Sevare and Bandiagara and others moved southward and between the late 15th and early 16th centuries settled in the Dukun, the territory of the modern Kani-Bonzon (Kani Na) village. However, this place, still worshipped as sacred, was soon abandoned: it turned out that the local pond dries up in the winter. Therefore, people moved to the rocks, about 1.5 km off the Dukun, where a perennial spring was available. From there, the Dogon settled along the entire rock ledge of the Bandiagara. They reached their present-day habitat on the Bandiagara Plateau in the late 15th — early 16th centuries.

It should be noted that this version of populating the Bandiagara rocky ledge is partly evidenced by cultural monuments. Thus, contrary to widespread belief, the famous masks of the Dogon are not characteristic of all ethnic groups: they exist only in villages located along the rocky ledge and in the immediate vicinity, in the valley of the Seno and the Highlands, i.e., exactly where to the people from the Kani-Bonzon migrated. We should also mention the same types of fabrics and door locks, though the latter vary quite widely. At the same time, sculpture in the round does not reveal the same uniformity; on the contrary, each village has its own distinct style, which, in turn, is split into numerous individual styles. The difference between the village styles can be very large and this applies even to villages that belong to the same 'kafo' (currently, rural communes). So, little similarity is observed between the sculpture of villages Ende and Teli that belong to the same rural

4 The Ende consists of four quarters, which actually represent independent settlements: Ogodengu ('The residence of the Leader' (ogo), Ende-Wo ('I'm in the Ende'), Ende-Tooro ('Ende Fetish') and Guirankanda ('New homes', Guinekanda — in official documents). In accordance with the Law No 96059, Annex V, November 4, 1996, there are three rural settlements on the territory of the Ende: Ende-Guinekanda, Ende-Toro, and Ende-Ogo-Dengou (wording as in the text of the law) but the quarter is called 'Ende-Tooro' ('tooro' means 'fetish' in Tenkan, 'toro' — 'star'). The Ende-Wo quarter was not granted the status of an independent settlement (is part of the Ende-Ogo-Dengou rural settlement) [16].

commune Kani-Bonzon, while sculptures originating from this village have nothing in common with the known Dogon styles.

The above version of historical legend, which is preserved by residents of the Ende-Wo quarter, fits the general historical legend presented by B. N'Diaye only in the part of establishing special relationships with the Bozo fishermen during their life in the Inner Delta, whereas the 'Mande country', Sofara and Sevare is not even mentioned by him. According to the version of the Ende-Tooro and Ogodengu quarters, the village was founded 200-300 years prior to the turn of the 16th century. The ancestors of the Guruvan clan that inhabit both quarters did not come from the west but from the north, where they lived for some time with 'Sonike' (Soninke?)5. Initially, they populated the southern Bandiagara Plateau (Dogon Plateau), where they founded the villages of Daga and Soninghe, then separated and founded three more villages: Ende, Djundourou and Jabatelou; this version has been recorded recently6. Both versions of the historical legend confirm equally that the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro appeared earlier than the Ende-Wo. So, in both versions the ancestor of this quarter says the same phrase: 'I'm in the Ende'; the reign of the Leader called Eneba ('the Firstborn of the Ende'), born already in the Ende-Wo (informant: Sey-dou (Justin) Guindo from the Ogodengu quarter) is dated not earlier than the second half of the 16th century. He was preceded by ten leaders ('ogo' (ogo) and, assuming an average term of 30-year rule (one generation), by the beginning of the reign of Eneba, a settlement in the Ende has already existed for about 300 years, which roughly coincides with the possible date of the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro foundation. At the same time, certain correspondences are observed for the B. N'Diaye version: the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro legends clearly indicate the relationship with the Soninke, whose ethnic territory is located in the north of Southern Mali, along the border with Mauritania. If the ancestors of the Guruvan clan started their way from the south of modern Mauritania, they just could not pass it. Since Soninke speak one of the Mande languages and are considered as such, this part of the historical legend can be interpreted as one of the versions of the exodus from the 'Mande country'.

The analysis of distribution of clan names also proves that the population of the En-de-Wo quarter actually came to the Ende later than the ancestors of the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro quarters. Thus, the current population of the Soninghe village has the clan name (tige) of Kossoge, or Kassoge, which represents a variant of the Kadiounoge, or Ko-diounoge clan name. However, the current population of the Ende village, except for Seiba smiths, refers to the Guindo tige, though residents of the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro quarters, according to the second version of the legend, came from the Soninghe and should be referred to the Kossoge tige. The most plausible explanation for this discrepancy is that the founders of the Ende-Wo (Guindo) conquered this territory and gave their clan name to the entire village population, but adopted the local language. Another argument is sharing powers between the quarters: the Ende leaders (ogo, ogo) originated mostly from the Ogodengu quarter, while the lagans were natives of the Ende-Wo exclusively.

5 According to informants, Seydou (Justin) Guindo and Bokari Guindo (Ende village, Bamako), the name of this village does not mean 'Soninke', as one might think, but 'those who breed/ keep watch over horses' and originally sounded as son-dengue: son — 'horse' (compare so in the Mande language), and dengue — 'breed/ keep watch' (Tenkan language).

6 A photocopy of recorded historical legends of the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro quarters is kept in the author's personal archive (in press); its abridged version is available on the Internet: [17].

The matter is that, contrary to the common belief, lagan is not a high priest or a 'spiritual leader': both ogo and lagans had political, military, and spiritual power, but, according to numerous statements of the Ende residents, ogo corresponds to dugutigi ('village leader') for the Mande, and lagan — to faamace ('king'), or, according to some informants, kafotigi, whose power extended over several villages forming the kafo ('region' or 'district'). In this case, there was a probable usurpation of power by the invasive group, as happened in the Bondum cultural and historical region in the North Highlands, where the alien Kassambara brought into subjection several older, long-existing villages, and gave their clan name to this population (see below).

In private conversations, the inhabitants of the Ogodengu quarter share some additional details of its historical legends concerning the Tellem, the Dogon predecessors, whose buildings are kept well preserved on a rocky cliff above the village. According to the Ende-Wo version, all Tellem went southward and south-eastward, to the territory of the present-day Burkina Faso. But, according to Seydou (Justin) Guindo, the Guruvan clan of the Ogodengu quarter, residents of this quarter, as well as the Ende-Tooro quarter, coexisted peacefully with the Tellem for at least two centuries. In his opinion, the ancestors of the Guruvan clan did come from the Mande country between the 12th and 13 th centuries and spoke one of the Mande languages, but when settled in the Ende, they took the language of Tellem and mixed with them.

Anyhow, two migration waves are recorded in the oral historical tradition of the Ende village: the first dates back to the 12th and 13 th centuries, and the second to the 15th and 16th centuries. The first wave is associated with the foundation of the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro quarters, and the second with the Ende-Wo. Until the 1960s to mid-1970s, all quarters were located on a rocky ledge, but later their population moved to the valley at the foot.

The conflict in the dating of migration from the territory of modern Mauritania between the B. N'Diaye version and the one preserved in the historic legend of the Ogodengu and Ende-Tooro, may be illusory, since the first tells about the start of migration, and the second — about the time when the ancestors of inhabitants reached the Bandiagara cliffs and founded a village. Obviously, their way could be quite long and wandering, especially bearing in mind the mention of transitional settlements in the Bandiagara Highlands, where the group stayed for some time. Meanwhile, the Ende-Tooro and Ogodengu version does not mention the stop in the Inner Delta and the Bozo, which is present in the Ende tradition.

Information about at least two migration waves is recorded reliably in the historical legends of other cultural and historical regions of the Dogon country. Thus, in the north-east, in Bondum, the Semari villages (Dangol-Bore rural commune, Douentza Cercle, Mopti region, Republic of Mali) and the Tintan (Borko rural commune, Bandiagara Cercle, Mopti region, Republic of Mali) oral tradition kept information about the time of their foundation and, in the first case, it is dated precisely at the year 1269 [1, p. 107].

The village of Tintan was founded somewhat earlier, about a thousand years ago. We know the name and tige (clan name, jamu) of its founder, the great hunter Anabari Kiaba (informants — brother of the village Leader Boureima Kassambara, his son Mamudu Kas-sambara, Pabel Kassambara). The villagers will show you the place where his house stood and the stone where he laid out his hunting prey. Interestingly, they are located virtually within the village of Tellem, abandoned by now but visited actively by the Tintan resi-

dents. It is also important that the ceramics of Tellem preserved in their village are absolutely identical to the modern ceramics from Tintan and the Dogon iron fetishes 'mome' (mome) from this village are virtually indistinguishable from those in the abandoned Tellem villages in the South Dogon Country7. Between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, several villages in the Bondum region were occupied by the Bambara from the Kassam-bara jamu (clan), who came from the villages of Sa and Gulumbo in the Inner Niger Delta, about 80 km north of Tintan. The whole Tintan story, prior to the Kassambara invasion, is inexplicably omitted from descriptions of this village: as reported by H. Blom, the Kas-sambara ancestor from the Tintan was called Amabari [18, p. 79]. He refers the time of the village's foundation as the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is likely that here a vexing confusion has taken place: Blom mistook Amabari (or Anabari) Kiaba for the Kassambara ancestor per se. Notably, this error is quite common in the literature: C. Robion-Brunner also relates the foundation of the Tintan village to the late 18th and early 19th centuries [14, p. 45-47].

In general, the history of migrations on the Bandiagara Plateau reveals the pattern demonstrated in Map. With regard to 'reconstruction of the ideological tradition', both in the north and in the south of the Highlands, in the Ende, the same model of relations between the local population and aliens is traced: the new group usurps political and military power and gives the older population its clan name, but instead assimilates its language and culture. This happened in the Ende village after the arrival of people from Guindo tige and in the Tintan after the Kassambara invasion. Probably, between the 12th and 13 th centuries, similar process occurred in the Ende between the aboriginal Tellem and the first wave of migrants. Such relations invoke certain associations with a kind of 'social contract' intended to prevent possible conflicts between the natives (aboriginal) and the aliens who had seized power: they 'take' power and give the natives their clan

Map. Migrations to the Bandiagara Plateau

7 Four Tellem fetishes from the neighboring areas of the Ende village and one fetish 'Mome' from the Tintan village were transferred by the author to the Peter the Great MAE RAS (Kunstkamera).

name, but instead adopt the local language and culture (probably, the only exception refers to the masks directly associated with the aliens from the 'Mande Country'). It may be suggested that this 'reconstruction' was needed to reconcile various historical legends and make their hybrid version look more or less credible. Each group that recognized the exodus from the 'Mande country' and sanankuya kinship with the Bozo thereby declares its belonging to the Dogon ESO. At the same time, each such group remembers perfectly its true history, though it is intended for 'internal use' only. In any case, oral historical legends of the Endé village prove that the Dogon country was actually populated in two stages: the first can be dated, with high probability, to between the 10th and 13 th centuries, and the second to between the 15th and early 19th centuries. There is no doubt that each of these migration waves, in turn, was composed of many groups. Unfortunately, we can not yet give a confident answer to the question as to whether these mysterious Tellem represented the vanguard of the first migrant wave to the Highlands.

References

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2. Griaule M. Dieu d'eau: entretiens avec Ogotemmeli. Paris, Éditions du Chêne, 1948. 221 p.

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Received: March 21, 2018 Accepted: June 15, 2018

Author's information:

Petr A. Kutsenkov — PhD, Dr. Sci. of Cultural Studies, Leading Researcher; pkutsenkov@gmail.com

Исторические предания деревень догонов и миграции на Нагорье Бандиагара

П. А. Куценков

Институт востоковедения РАН,

Российская Федерация, 107031, Москва, ул. Рождественка, 12

Для цитирования: Kutsenkov P. A. The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations' to Dogon Plateau // Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2018.

Т. 10. Вып. 3. С. 330-339. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2018.304

Несмотря на повышенное внимание к догонам со стороны антропологов и этнологов, в истории и этнографии этого народа остается множество «белых пятен». К примеру, еще не так давно считалось, что догоны говорят на шести языках, потом их число постоянно росло, и теперь лингвисты насчитывают уже тридцать догонских языков, условно объединяемых в семью догонских языков макросемьи нигер-конго. Возможно, что их еще больше. История миграций на Нагорье Бандиагара и прилегающие равнины также мало изучена. Все существующие гипотезы так или иначе основаны на устных традициях (нередко без указания информанта и/или источника) и лишь в небольшой степени — на данных археологии. Помимо «общедогонского» исторического предания, утверждающего, что этот народ явился на Нагорье в конце XV — XVI в., существуют исторические предания отдельных деревень, кварталов и даже семей. Они могут очень сильно отличаться от «общедогонской» версии. С этой точки зрения большой интерес представляют два устных исторических предания деревни Энде. На основе анализа этих и других преданий и со всей возможной осторожностью можно сделать предварительный вывод о том, что Страна догонов заселялась в два этапа: первый с высокой долей вероятности можно датировать X-XIII вв., а второй — XV — началом XIX в. Во всех обследованных деревнях прослеживается одна и та же модель отношений автохтонного населения с пришельцами: пришлая группа узурпирует политическую и военную власть и дает старому населению свое клановое имя, но сама принимает его язык и культуру. Статья основана на анализе устных исторических преданий догонов, собранных в экспедициях 2015-2017 гг.

Ключевые слова: Мали, догоны, устное историческое предание, миграции.

Контактная информация:

Куценков Пётр Анатольевич — канд. искусствоведения, д-р культурологии; pkutsenkov@gm ail.com

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