Togu na support post with male and female figures

Within every quarter of a Dogon village is at least one togu na, or men’s rest house. Located near the central plaza, they are the first structures built in a village when it is founded. Its low ceiling is designed so that the men who congregate within cannot stand upright, but are obliged to harmoniously sit in communal repose or engage in discussions of issues important to the community. The rectangular, open-sided shelter is crowned by a thick roof of millet thatch supported around its perimeter by stone or wood pillars, which may be carved with exterior-facing imagery.

Most of the togu na posts that feature figural imagery are from villages on the Seno Plain, a sandy expanse extending from the Bandiagara’s cliffs to the Malian border with Burkina Faso. The majority of these pillars depict voluptuous female figures with pronounced conical breasts, but others feature animals, masks, and phallic imagery. In this example, two sets of footprints appear at the base of a symmetrical, rectilinear male and female pair. Drawing their imagery from Dogon myth, these footprints have been interpreted as those of Nommo, the living being who first stepped on and laid claim to earth.