Pendant Sun O Necklace Of God

These small pieces have for the Dogon the same sacred value as large wooden statues or masks or other iron objects. This pendant is a distinctive high worn by the notables and by the Hogon itself. When a fire dies, the pendant is destroyed and melted to make a new one.

This pendant represents a sun whose rays converge towards five semicircles formed by concentric semicircles that form the central core of the jewel. The other side instead of the semicircles carries a circular cord with a spiked drawing just like that of the sun's rays.

A legend tells that the firmament had ten suns with which it lit the earth, but one morning a hunter fired his arrows killing nine of them but the tenth managed to hide and flee. From then on the cold settled on the earth destroying lives and crops to such an extent that to remedy this tragedy the fire of the entire Dogon territory gathered to pray and beg the surviving sun to re-enlighten and heat the earth. The sun was sensitive to these pleas and accepted. In gratitude they asked a blacksmith to make this pendant. And since then some men called this sun pendant “the necklace of God”.