Dimensions off base: 48.7 x 9.5 cm
Dimensions with base: 52 x 12 cm
Origin: Mali
Culture: Dogon
Period: Mid 20th century
Material: Wood
Total weight: 1992 g
Provenance: Former Private Private Collection
Condition: Important slit to report due to the antiquity of the piece.
Beautiful patina due to use

The statue represents a man camped on short legs resting on a cylindrical base, the body leaning slightly forward. The arms are glued along the body, the hands taking position on the knees. A small
protruding navel is in the middle of the abdomen. The subject wears a hare mask completely covering his face, only the ears being visible on each side of the head.
The face of the mask is part of a rectangular geometrical perspective (nasal ridge, mouth, cavities for the eyes) with a cartoony look. Two big ears emerge from the top of the skull, evoking
unambiguously the animal represented.

This type of fetish is linked to the hare mask, or Dyommo, made by male dancers, a member of the mask society, the Awa. These masks were worn during ritual ceremonies bringing together the initiates
according to a hierarchical distribution by age group.

The Dogons are a people found in Mali, their settlement area stretching from the Niger River loop to the plateau and the cliffs of Bandiagara. The origin of this population dates back to the 14th
century when it occupied the Mende, a region located in the center of what is now Mali. The isolated nature of their habitat has allowed the hatching and the preservation of a great cultural
richness.

Dogon mythology consecrates Amma as the only god. He created the land and made it his wife. A termitiere, clitoris of the earth, stood as a rival of the male sex, and Amma had to slaughter it. An
only son was born, Yurugu or the Pale Fox. The excised land was more docile to her husband and gave birth to the Nommo, both male and female, ideal couple, master of water and speech.

Like many African peoples, the Dogons practice animism and ancestor worship. Thus, the Omolo marks a concern for fidelity to the law of the ancients, the legitimate foundation of society
erected into law. This law manages the social relations, establishes the rules of devolution of the inheritance the matrimonial norms, the forms of solidarity, the interdicts, the ideal social
behaviors in social hierarchy, the system of control of cults and rites.