Tellem

The Tellem people are an ancient African people who lived at the foothills of the Bandiagara Hills before the coming of the more powerful and dominant Dogon people in the 14th century. The Dogon were eventually fully ensconced in their present territory by the 18th century. It is believed that the Tellem were responsible for much of the art and culture that is now called Dogon. In fact, many anthropologists and historians like to refer to the Dogon culture as Dogon-Tellem as a way of referencing the enormous contributions that the Dogon got from the earlier people who occupied their current land.

It is believed that the Dogon originated in the Manding mountains near the borders of Equatorial Guinea and Mali. At the present time, there are 1 million Dogon living mainly in Mali in a region that stretches from the border with Burkina Faso in the east to the region of Sevare in the west. This vast region extends the length of the Bandiagara cliff.

The Tellem, who the Dogon call “the ones we found here,” are the original inhabitants who farmed and hunted in the Bandiagara cliffs. Yet when the Dogon were fleeing the onslaught of Islam, they sought refuge in the cliffs alongside and among the cliff dwellers who lived inside the cliffs. The meeting between the Dogon and the Tellem was unfortunate for the Tellem inasmuch as the Dogon, with superior weapons and experienced in warfare, often by being attacked themselves, were able to subdue and eventually wipe [Page 652]out or absorb the Tellem into their social and political systems.

Although the Tellem do not exist as a separate culture and their rich legacy has been absorbed into the Dogon culture, it is important to see them as predecessors to one of the most unique human cultures. One can see the exuberance of contemporary scholars with Dogon culture through a reflection of the Tellem contributions in the sculpture and rituals of ancestors known as Dogon-Tellem water nommo forms.

Remarkably, the Dogon have never disavowed the inheritance they received from the ones who came before them to the areas of the Bandiagara cliffs. Like the Tellem, the Dogon have long resisted outside religion, preferring to hold onto the customs and traditions that have been passed down from one generation to another. At the core of their values and social stability is the acceptance of the centrality of the Tellem in their world-view. No one can escape the intricacies of Tellem philosophy and the convergence of the two ideals, the Dogon and the Tellem, in the cauldron that was war, interaction, and ideology. Keeping the Tellem inheritance bequeathed to them as a key component of their response to outside religions, the Dogon have become one of the most visited communities in Africa.