Toguna post

In the central area of the village, the House of Men, the House of the Word, the Togu na or the Toguna, rises the privileged place of reunion of the notables. The Toguna is rounded and with greater square frequency, its thick roof formed by four or eight layers of millet spikes, four or eight in remembrance of the eight primal nomos or four pairs of nomos, is supported by numerous artistically carved poles or pillars. The male figures represent the nomos and the female figures represent the mother nutrition, human mother or mother earth, they are the same symbolic figure. Often, generous breasts of women remind us of this human mother and at one time the mother earth that feeds us.

The top of the pillars has the form of “Y” to support the beams of the roof, but at one time they represent the prayer of the Hogon, religious leader, when with his arms raised towards the sky implores the rain.

In this open room, the elders and elders gather to talk, to discuss issues that concern the life of the village or in other cases to administer justice.

As any political discussion can cause heat, everything has been planned to avoid them. At the entrance, you have to bend down if you want to penetrate the enclosure. It is already an act of humility, which recalls that no one is higher than others and that one must often bow down and not make his will prevail, while the inner height compels him to remain seated, so that if in the heat of the discussion one rises up wanting to impose himself on others, he will hit himself on the head, he will have to sit back and moderate the tone of his discussion. The sitting position moderates the spirits more. It is an old teaching of traditional wisdom.

This post or pillar has a motherhood sculpted in its center. A woman with generous breasts and a bulging belly, indicating that she has been a mother, has the value of motherhood in the African statuary, even if she is not accompanied by any children. On it the nourishing breasts that feed us as well as mother earth.

The part piled into the soil shows the deterioration suffered by time. Ancient dark grey patina.