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 When you get to Songo there is a sign that
says, "Welcome to Songo" and no children with their hands
out saying, "Give me, give me, give me!" Though less than 5
miles from the main road and a major ceremonial site, Songo doesn't
seem to get much tourism -- though it would love more -- and its people are markedly less jaded than
those on the escarpment and the cost of a guided village tour is a
great value.
   We spent a couple hours walking around Songo, discussing
culture, religion and lifestyle, and
looking at things. We revisited many of the topics that we had
discussed early on the tour, such as women and education, general
education, health care, safe drinking water, the relationship between
traditional practices and the relatively new worship of Islam,
weaving, architecture, village planning, tourism, economic activity
and Dogon history. In some case the more we "learned" the
less we seemed to know. There is a lot of contradictory
information being offered in these parts. None the less each new resource person added one more
perspectives to our understanding of the subjects.
  On
our tour of the village we saw schools, mosques, granaries, weavers, a
circumcision ceremony site, and sacred instruments. The musical
instruments were only taken out and used during the circumcision
ceremony. Definitely the most interesting part of the tour is the
circumcision site and the explanation of its function.
 Sacred
instruments (it is believed that if a pregnant woman hears these instruments
she will miscarry):
Current circumcision site:
Traditional circumcision site (this is a cave, near the old village site,
on top of a hill (upper left of first photo), with difficult access):
Relaxing back at the campement:
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Addendum: Songo has succeed in its desire to attract more tourist.
Concurrently, the price of village tours has gone up and the quality of tour
guides'
commentary has diminished. Being more like just another road side
attraction, we tend not to overnight there as much. |
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