Equestrian ring

A European visitor to Dogon country early in the 20th century wrote of the "astonishing perfection" of the ornaments created by local blacksmiths through the lost-wax process. While copper-alloy ornaments have been created in the Dogon area for almost a millennium, exact dating of these miniatures remains largely speculative, established on the basis of stylistic analysis. Interestingly, there is no evidence of copper mining in the region. The metal may have been obtained through trans-Saharan trade networks that brought copper from Spain, North Africa, and the Sahara to commercial centers of the Sahel and Sudan.

A master blacksmith cast this miniature with elaborate detailing of the rider’s and mount’s finery. Armed equestrian figures give a sense of the importance of military might to Middle Niger settlements during a moment of increasing religious, political, and economic turmoil. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the western Sahel were defined by French and British colonial intervention, and by that of rival Islamic states. In an effort to expand their religious authority in the region, the Middle Niger polities maintained armies with impressive cavalries. An ornament like this one may have been owned by a member of those forces.