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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, 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 things 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, but our new resource people added one more
perspectives to our understanding of the subjects.
On our tour of the village we saw schools, mosques, 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. |
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