CONSERVATION TOLOY PROJECT PROPOSAL ASSOCIATION DOGON INITIATIVE (ADI) IN COLLABORATION WITH FOUNDATION DOGON EDUCATION (SDO) JUNE 2015 CONSERVATION TOLOY CONTACT INFORMATION Name of the organization Foundation Dogon Education Postal address Herengracht 408, 1017 BX Amsterdam Country The Netherlands Telephone 0031 20 6735762 Fax 0031 20 6620931 Email [email protected] Type of organization foundation Profile of organization Education is the focal point of FDE to improve the quality of life of the Dogon in Mali. The opportunity to learn is the basis of sustainable development. The local popula- tion is actively participating in the building process. Exchange and transfer of know- how is regarded as the most important building block for the future. Website organization www.dogononderwijs.nl Name of contact person Jurriaan van Stigt (SDO) Name of other persons involved Association Dogon Initiative (ADI) Amatigue Dara (ADI) TABLE OF CONTENTS Project information 5 Introduction to the heritage 6 A. Site information 1.1 Description of the heritage 8 1.2 Cultural value 10 B. Site potential 2.1 Significance of the heritage 12 2.2 Description of disaster that caused damage to the heritage 14 2.3 Urgency of the situation 16 C. Project proposal 3.1 Description of the damages to the heritage 20 3.2 Activities proposed for safeguarding the heritage 39 3.3 Conservation plan 40 3.4 Expected time-frame for realizing the proposed activities 44 3.5 Follow-up of complete restoration 45 3.6 How the future maintenance of the site is secured and expected outcome 46 Additional information 47 Bibliography 49 3 PROJECT INFORMATION Name Conservation Toloy _ Toloy Cave A Location Pégué, Cliff of Bandiagara, Sangha Region, Mali, Africa GPS coordinates 14,453541 ; -3,299510 SÉVARÉ MOPTI SANGA PEGUÉ BANDIAGARA Fig. 1 - Map of the Dogon Country: location of Pégué _ Toloy Cave 5 INTRODUCTION TO THE HERITAGE Located in the center of the Republic visits to the Dogon villages. Nowadays Dogon and the Tellem in the same area of Mali, on the southern border of the Sangha is the starting point for the (Bedaux 2004). Recent research in the Sahara, the Dogon country has been groups of tourists that want to go to the Dogon area and new C-14 dates revealed included on the UNESCO World Herit- surrounding villages, since it offers tour- that Toloy coiled clay buildings were age List since 1989. It was inscribed as ist accommodation and guide service made from the V century BC up to the a cultural and natural site on the basis (Dainese, 2012). VI century AD (Mayor et alii, 2014). The of criteria V and VII, and is one of the This application relates specifically to arrival of the first Tellem in the area largest mixed sites inscribed in the World the conservation of a group of around has to be dated in the XI-XII century AD Heritage List of UNESCO. It extends over 30 small buildings situated near Pegué, (Bedaux, 1972). 4,000 km² and, as such, is an area where between Sangha and Ireli. The site is These buildings are the oldest cultural around 500.000 people are living in 289 situated in a rock shelter designated remains in the Sangha region. Moreover, villages. Among them, Sangha is one of as “Cave A” by the Dutch researchers the Toloy Cave yielded abundant ar- the most important central villages in in 1964, but called “Toloy Cave” by the chaeological material dispersed around the Dogon area due to its size. It consists locals. These constructions were used as the entire cave. It was re-used several of a conglomeration of scattered ham- granaries, but later on they were re-used times and contain a mixture of several lets and it is divided in two parts: Sanga- as tombs. By taking samples from the chronological phases which shows the du-bas, formed by the villages Djammani walls, these coiled clay buildings were sociocultural dynamics of the last 25 Nah, Djammani Gouradou, Bongo, date between the V and II century BC centuries in the Dogon country. The Gogoli, and Sanga-du-haut, formed by (Bedaux, 1972). This cultural phase re- ethno-archaeological researches, carried Ogol Dah, Ogol Leye, Sangui, Enguele, ceived the name of “Toloy”, the so called out from 1964 until today, show us a Dini, Bini, Barou Kou and Barou Nah. pre-Dogon period. socio- cultural and economic complexity, Sangha is also the village where many According to the verbal tradition, the where human occupation was already important investigations into the Dogon cave was used and occupied by the present in this area from the post-Ne- culture were carried out. In the thirties, ‘Tellem’, which abandoned it before the olithic period (Mayor et alii, 2005). the area of Sangha became the outpost arrival of the Dogon (Griaule, 1938). Therefore, the Toloy cave is not only of of the French professor Marcel Griaule The Dogon considered the Tellem not as outstanding importance for the history and later on of the ‘Griaule school’. The their ancestors, but according to some of the Dogon area, but also for the histo- ethnographers built a permanent camp, tales, as supernatural beings who were ry of African architecture, as it contains from which they visited nearby villages able to make ropes stand vertically in the oldest known architectural remains for more than 60 years. In the sixties, the air for reaching their caves. What of clay architecture south of the Sahara. this region became also the focal point the Tellem left, the Dogon considered Therefore, the main goal is to preserve for some Dutch architects, like Herman as their heritage (Bedaux, 1977). After the special architectural, cultural and Haan, Aldo van Eyck, and Joop van Stigt, many years of research, today we cannot historical value of the Unesco heritage of where they stayed and departed for exclude a period of cohabitation of the the Toloy. Fig. 2 - The site is located near Pégué in a valley parallel to the Bandiagara Escarpment [photo: 1975] 6 SANGUI DJAMMANI NAH Technical Lyceum DJAMMANI GOURADOU BONGO BARNA OGOL LEYE DINI OGOL DAH GOGOLI BAROU BINI TOLOY CAVE Fig. 3 - Location of the Toloy Cave in relation to the surrounding villages [Google Map, 2015] 7 A. SITE INFORMATION 1.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE HERITAGE The site is located near Pegué in a valley 50 meters wide starting near Sangha and running parallel to the Bandiagara Escarpment. On the steep walls of the sandstone plateau, it is possible to find a group of shallow caves of ± 200 m in length. These caves owe their existence to the infiltration of water into the sand- stone that has expanded horizontal gaps (Bedaux, 1972). The main one of these rock shelters is the Toloy Cave (cave A), which is 43 m long and 13 m wide. The maximum height is 4 m. This cave is easily accessi- ble by a rock situated at its entrance and it contains many coiled clay buildings and varied archaeological material. Sangha Toloy Cave Bini Escarpment valley Pégué Toulou Pégué Na Plain of Gondo Fig. 4 - Location of the Toloy Cave [from the drawing of Herman Haan, 1965] 8 Fig. 5 - View of the Toloy Cave and the circular constructions built with coiled clay [photo: 2013] Fig. 6 - View of the Toloy Cave accessible by a rock situated at its entrance [photo: 2013] 9 Fig. 7 - Situation in 1964 [Herman Haan, 1964] Fig. 8 - Situation in 1981 1.2 CULTURAL VALUE The construction techniques of these settlements into the landscape. In fact, Some of the structures are characterized circular coiled clay buildings of Toloy is the architecture has been adapted to by spindle-shaped clay coils with finger- unique and incredibly old. In fact, the benefit from the physical constraints of prints, while others show a wide circular Dogon and pre-Dogon architecture is well the place (Unesco, 1989). clay coils. known for its unique earthen architec- The typology of architectural techniques These buildings are the oldest cultural ture, which shows the traces of a deep used in the construction indicates a remains not only in Sangha region, but rooting of the population in its territory strong cultural identity and, in the same also in sub-Saharan West Africa. In fact, and an harmonious integration of human time, an evolution of local traditions. anthropological and archeological re- 10 Fig. 9 - Situation in 2014 Fig. 10 - Situation in 2015 searches were undertaken from 1964 to This means that the pre-Dogon popula- secondary dunes and rock shelters, also 2015 exactly in the Toloy Cave in ques- tions, on the edge of the political-eco- constitutes a natural area of exceptional tion. Through analysis, the researchers nomic sphere of the Ghana Empire, have beauty with an impressive geological have proved that these human settle- actually participated in the West African features. For all these reasons, the Toloy ment, characterized by social and cultural socio-economics dynamics, as the mate- Cave is part of the UNESCO World Herit- complexity, were present in this area rial and objects found in the cave show. age and it needs to be protected for its since the last 3000 years (Mayor et alii, To conclude, the cliff of Bandiagara, Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and 2005). characterized by a presence of caves, for its role within the local community. 11 B. SITE POTENTIAL 2.1 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HERITAGE The Dogon became known to the western culture in 1907, when the first monograph of the lieutenant Louis Desplagnes “Le plateau central nigérien” was published in Paris. We owe our actual knowledge about the Dogon to French ethnologists, especially to Griaule, who in 1931 with the Mission Dakar-Djibouti inaugurated the era of the field research in the Dogon Country.