ASC Seminar: A Dogon prophet and the UNESCO cultural heritage of Mali

In the Dogon funeral a cycle of funeral songs called the baja ni is performed, in a mesmerizing night of singing. The songs are attributed to Abirè, a blind singer/prophet of old, who roamed the cliff area of the Dogon in the second half of the nineteenth century, leaving a huge legacy of funeral chants. This ‘Homer of the cliff’ also made prophecies at each village he visited, predicting what would happen in that particular place in the future. Together, prophecies and baja ni form a crucial heritage of the Dogon area. Speaker: Wouter van Beek, African Studies Centre Leiden. Please register

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