Dogon Hunter
Mali 2003
A Dogon man carrying a rifle waits in front of a baobab tree. We were resting from our climb up the cliffs of the Bandiagara. Of course, he didn’t need to rest.
He wears a long shirt-like garment made of fabric woven by the Dogon men on those tiny six-inch wide looms. I think the fabric is woven of wool as they don’t have cotton farms in the area.
His hat is distinctively Dogon. It has four tasselled corners and seems to be the shape of a sack…sort of. The large straw and leather hat hanging on his back is from the Fulani or Peul tribe.
He carried a beautiful leather bag…fringed and decorated with a few beads. My daughter noticed it and I asked the hunter if I could buy it. He was happy to sell it to me. It was dirty due to the dead animals it had carried on many hunting trips, but I figured it could be cleaned. I wonder what happened to that bag….