sigui

Sigui, sometimes written Sigi, is a major ceremonial festival of the Dogon people of central Mali. The festival commemorates creation myths and marks the advent of a new generation within Dogon society. It is famed for its elaborate, handcrafted masks and the ensembles of dancers who perform within the rites, often accompanied by drums and other instruments. The rites serve to renew social memory, recount ancestral lineage, and reaffirm cosmological knowledge within the clan groups that participate.

The timing of Sigui is irregular in modern times, but traditional accounts place it on a very long cycle, commonly described as about every six decades. The exact schedule varies among villages, depending on lineage calendars and observed celestial or seasonal cues. When held, the ceremony can last several weeks and involves a sequence of public and private events, culminating in public dances and processions in which newly created masks are presented.

Mask imagery draws on Dogon cosmology, with representations of ancestral beings, mythic archetypes, and the performers who act as intermediaries between the human world and the spiritual realm. The Sigui masks are distinct to the cycle and are typically new works crafted for the occasion; they are treated with reverence and are rarely shown outside the ritual context. Participation is traditionally restricted to members of specific secret societies and elders; outsiders may be allowed only under controlled conditions.

Scholarly attention to Sigui has grown since the early 20th century, notably in ethnographic accounts by researchers such as Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, and in later critical discussions about fieldwork practices and Dogon cosmology. Today, Sigui remains a central, though infrequent, event in Dogon cultural life and a focus of anthropological study.