Barn Gate

The barn is one of the main buildings of the West African villages. They are given the generic name of barns, but in addition to hosting cereals and grasses, all kinds of foods such as shea butter or cecinas normally made from the meat of hunted animals are preserved for better conservation. But they also keep in them substances intended for magical-religious rites or any object of value to their owner. In Dogon territory these barns are located in the oceans of Bandiagará. As they are usually on different levels to access them it is necessary to use wooden stairs, simple tree trunks in which the steps and artistic figures have been carved in the back.

Traditionally, the doors of these barns are artistically sculpted, with symbols of their cosmogony. Nomes and Kanaga masks, as well as the breasts of the mother nutrition representing the fertility of the woman and the fields are figures that are often not missing in these small doors. Mythical animals and some scenes from the daily life of villages are also frequent.

Curious door in which in addition to the usual figures with the Kanaga mask, nomos, nourishing breasts and scenes of the village appear in front of two large cynocephals in the middle of which is a large bird that could be a marabou. Brown patina.