The Dogon in Eastern Mali are famous not only for their mask dances, but also for their legendary festival called Sigi that takes place every 60 years. But what about the other traditional music of the Dogon–the songs and the manifold drum music, the delicate sounds of the lutes and flutes, and the dirges that express the pain of the bereaved in an unparalleled way? There is a whole universe of different, and at the same time charming, sounds, ranging from the elderly men reciting in the secret language Sigi so to the women’s powerful festival songs.

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