Tribal Art

Belgian African art collection.
Effigy of figurative ancestor seated, hands resting on knees. In African tribal art, this type of sculpture associated with individual worship adorned the Dogon family altar. Thick ritual crusty patina.

Carved for the most part on commission by a family, Dogon statues can also be the object of worship by the entire community. However, their functions remain little known. In parallel with Islam, Dogon religious rites are organized around four main cults: the Lebe, relating to fertility, under the spiritual authority of the Hogon, the Wagem, the cult of the ancestors under the authority of the patriarch, the Binou invoking the world of the spirits and directed by the priest of the Binou, and the society of the masks concerning funerals.