The Dogons is
the denomination of a people living on the dried plateau of Bandiagara in Mali and who
mention in their tradition, a cosmogony so fantastic that it seems
straight coming
out from a novel of science-fiction. But let us analyze first how all this strange history
begun :
Those are two French ethnologists, Marcel GRIAULE and Germaine DIETERLEN
who after having been initiated by a dogon priest in 1946,
will publish after 4 years of inquiries in 1951 a study in the newspaper of the
"Africanists' Society" with the title:
A "Sudanese system of Sirius",followed by a book
titled "The pale fox" subtitled "the cosmologic myth ,
works and thesis of the
Ethnology Institute of Paris" where they gave the account of what the priest unveiled
to them, on the Universe's vision of the Dogons. But what they told then, was so extraordinary,
that nobody will not able to believe them.
II The Dogons' cosmogony.
To begin with, it is necessary to be aware of that these Dogons claim to know,
firstly, a long time ago, two companion stars of Sirius which is the most brilliant star
of the sky and that we can see in the start of february , almost just over our head in the island of Guadeloupe around 8 pm
. But we can see,to the naked eye, only an alone star and it
was only in 1862, that the American astronomer Alvan CLARKE discovered, thanks to a
powerful telescope, the second star that was called then Sirius B.
However the Dogons themselves assert that exists a third star, we could
have named Sirius C, and they tell us especially that their ancestors would justly had
coming, there are millennia, from a planet in orbit around this 3rd star that we do not
still know. But let us see, more in detail what tell us on this subject the Dogons. They assert
that Sirius possesses first a smaller companion and especially
heavier that they named
PO Tolo or Po-Digitaria using the name of an african cereal seed, very small and very heavy, seed
they are regularly using with. But especially the Dogons know that Sirus B therefore Po-tolo
buckles its elliptic orbit around Sirius A in 50 years and in order of that, these Dogons
celebrate all the fifty years, the feast of Sigui whose ceremonies aim to regenerate the
World, here is its importance, without doubt, in order, to get good crops. But it is to begin with,
the German Bessel who was the first, in 1844, to suspect the existence of this second
star, in aim to explain peculiar oscillations by the apparent movement by Sirius while the
theoretical orbit of this star Sirius B, we know it, invisible to the naked eye, was calculated
by Peter in 1851 and its period by revolution was specified by
50.090 years by Van Den
Bas in 1960. However these very Dogons knew it already, but how have they known that the
period of revolution was justly of 50 years ?
This star Sirius B is what it is called a "white dwarf". It is more old
than Sirius A, but measures only approximately 30 000 Km by diameter, so two times and
half that by the Earth and its density is by 50 000 while its mass reach 90% of our Sun's.
But what to tell on this third star Sirus C that the dogons assert to know? They named it
Emma Ya or Sorgo or also the "women's star" and they tell that this star has a
revolution's period of 32 years around by Sirius A on a very eccentric elliptic
orbit and that is, (and that is rather remarkable as precision), perpendicular to that of
Sirius B. The Dogons, who drawn these orbits on their precious objects without doubt to
better visualize them, assert especially that Emma ya, possesses several planets in orbit
around it and it is by from one of these planets, that would have come their ancestors,
there is very long time on board of the NOMO interstellar vessel whose form and the
way of effect resembles to the lunar rocket of Apollo.
Concerning researches by the astrophysicians on this star Sirius C, in 1991 in
the review "Astronomy & Astrophisics", the astromomers, Jean Marc Bonnet-Bidaud et Cecile
Gry tell us that they in presume its existence as the result of the observation of a change
in the color of the system, through ages, and think that this hypothetical 3 rd companion of
Sirius could well have an very flatten orbit as a comet and after analysis with a coronograph
occulting the dazzling light of Sirius A, they selected two of these traveler bodies without
arriving still to determine which of these stars shows the same Sirius'own movement. However
from the 1920's years, a half-dozen of astronomers brought
the observation of a 3rd
very weak star susceptible to belong to the system, but no confirmation has
been able to emerge until then.
The last works led by astronomers jean-Louis Duvent et Daniel Benest of Nice's
observatory who used numerical simulations of computers , seem to strengthen the
hypothesis of a 3rd body'existence with a very weak mass,
0.5 time more than the solar mass and with apparent magnetude , 5 to 10 times weaker than Sirius A.
(To see the french Revue "CIEL ET ESPACE" d'Aout 1995, Article
of Olivier FEVRE the Sirius' enigma).
Elsewhere the Dogons have equally other astronomical knowledges, all as staggering from
a backward tribe, living on the center of Africa and practically without external contact.
They know the different phases by Venus, that are almost analogous with those of the Moon and they
have given 6 different names to the various aspects that presents, according to them, this
planet, as they had known how to observe it, by exterior. Elsewhere, they divide the Sky in 22
equal parts and in 266 constellations and they also tell that Venus possesses a companion,
that could have be without doubt, the asteroid Toro, recently discovered between the
Earth and Venus.
They know also the 4 larger satellites of Saturn
nevertheless invisible to the naked eye, but they ignore however planets to the beyong Saturn, so Uranus, Neptune and
Pluton while they know the stellar compagnions of Sirius.
It is therefore evident that these Dogons was not been able, by themselves to acquire their
knowledge and they could not get its' revelation , only by cosmic initiators.
The Dogons claim also that the whole Universe turns in conical spiral and it has been
created from a central nucleus by the voice of AMMA their supreme god and this resembles
enough to what it is told in the Bible such as "In the beginning was the Verb of YaHWeH."
For them the Universe is infinite, but however measurable, what rejoined
the Einstein's theories and furthemore, they believe that infinite
worlds are moving away from us with very great speeds in a spiral movement so by a combination of translations
and of rotations, combination that is found as well ,they tell it, in infinitely small elementary
structures as well as in those infinitely great and we see there that they anticipate thus on
most modern conclusions concerning the expansion and the structure of our Universe.
the Dogons'tradition, as the priest OGOTEMMELI says it to us , tells also that
their ancestors were amphibious and that is why they celebrate the birthday of their arrival
on Earth named the "Fish's day" and that made again think of the SumÈrian tradition that
speaks us on OANNES the fish man who appeared , several times on the Persian Gulf's
beaches to civilize and educate manking.Le NOMO was red as the fire when it landed to
the North-east of the country, in a whirlwind of dust, then it was dragged in a depression
filled with water and it could thus float. Then amphibian astronauts went out from the capsule.
Elsewhere water plays a great role in the Dogons' who consider that fresh
water is of male nature and sea water of feminine nature that this water is
the vital force of the earth, force that is found even in the stone interior because humidity
is everywhere.NOMO, that designates also the Commander by the vessel, is descended on the
earth,with vegetable fibers drawn from plants growing already in by the Sky's fields
and after having created the Earth, plants and animals, he created the first human couple,
that fathered by the continuation, the eight great ancetors of Humanity.
His task ended, Nomo came back to the Sky. This observation get closer,
we see it, from a lot of known histories, and we discover well here, that the Dogons know
that there exists culturated earths elsewhere, in the sky, even though there is not
any long in 1772 some scientists whose
great chemist Lavoisier thought that
meteorites could not fall from the sky because according to them,
"there was not any stone in the sky."
But this are the revelations on the water, that tells us this dogon priest, that are
again more surprising, when one knows that the current science has only recently
discovered the possibility to obtain water from the rocks of the ground by wanting to
optimize the possibilities of surviving for men who could have stay on the Moon for long
periods and so by extracting from stones of the ground, with assistance of very pointed and
costly processes, the hydrogen and the oxygen which are at the origin the water molecule.
.III Conclusion
In conclusion, the extraordinary cosmic knowledge of the
Dogons,invite and question us, from now, and we will wonder long again,
how they have been able to know all that, without microscope,
neither telescope, and without applying superior mathematics which was necessary for us to progress. And we can
take then, if all that is true, the audacity to emit the hypothesis that the past
of our planet would be well more fabulous and revealing that the one which we are
so modestly used to accept from the official thesis.
Making out this article on the 15/09/98
and up dating it on the 18/04/2001.