Hogon Cup Ogo Banya

Ogo Banya are known as “Hogon cups”, which would be the translation of their name in some dialects. Despite all the conjectures about them that appear on the pages of antique dealers and gallery owners, there is no scientific certainty about either their origins or their use. Mathilde Buratti, who has studied these cups in depth, tells us that “the hypotheses are numerous and range from a cooking utensil to a ceremonial cup, or from a container to an object made purely for tourists”. The only established observation is that they are magnificent works of art, as Lieutenant Louis Desplagnes described them during his 1905 mission along the Niger, the first European able to report on Dogon culture.

Normally these cups are carved by the blacksmith, who is the sculptor of the Dogon, in hard wood, so they are usually carved in green wood, easier to carve.

Food remains found in some of them suggest that they functioned as containers, rather than having a purely symbolic or ritual role in the Hogon’s enthronement ceremonies. According to Desplagnes, at least one cup would have been used to preserve the village’s gris-gris (amulets). Basing her discussion on Desplagnes’s descriptions, Mathilde Buratti tells us that ceremonial use in a sacred or funerary context would be the most likely hypothesis, although an ogo banya was apparently used only very rarely.

The presence of female figures on many of these cups led Germaine Dieterlen and Hélène Leloup to associate them with women, suggesting that they belonged to the Hogon’s wife and were used to serve food, or that single-container cups belonged to women for female initiations, and double-container cups to the Hogon. Mathilde Buratti considers these theories very unlikely. Nor can the theories mentioned above about their use at enthronements or funerals be demonstrated, since the cups do not appear in films of these ceremonies made at the end of the 20th century, unless customs have changed. Robert Arnaud, Franz Olbretchs, Jean Laude and others have discussed an oral tradition according to which these cups were used in agrarian cults, specifically the sowing celebration held between April and early June, when the rainy season arrives. According to Mathilde Buratti, there are several different descriptions of this festival, also reported by Denise Paulme, Deborah Lifchitz and other researchers, although they share a common basis: “During the sowing festival, two species of animals are sacrificed on the altar of Lebé, cut up and cooked together. Once cooked, the dish is placed in the ogo banya (Arnaud 1921). The Hogon and each member of the council then eat a piece without looking, since they must have their backs turned to the cup. A portion is left as an offering. When the cup has two containers, food is placed in both, but only the contents of the larger one are eaten; the food in the smaller container is reserved for the ancestors. This rite apparently helps to obtain abundant rain and promote future harvests. The two species sacrificed vary according to the degree of drought.”

Mathilde Buratti therefore tells us that it is not unlikely that the cups were used in fertility rituals during sowing festivals, although the construction of the Marcel Griaule dam, 3 km from Shanga, the art market and the weakening of the local traditional religion have contributed to changes in the role of ogo banya.

This large cup has two containers. The first rests on two rows of caryatids, and the base of the second serves as its lid. The lid of the upper container is crowned by two crouching female figures with raised arms.