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Onion field near Bandiagara escarpment, Mali, June 1998 Photo ©1998 by L. Lee McIntyre |
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Onion field near Bandiagara escarpment, Mali, June 1998 Photo ©1998 by L. Lee McIntyre |
The Dogon are famous across western Africa for growing onions. The soil, climate, and rainfall are just right, and Dogon farners grow enormous quantities of onions in thse small, rectangular plots that are dried and shipped to markets all over west Africa to be used for seasoning. In the mythology of the Dogon, as recorded by a famous French folklorist, the rectangular plots represent the order imposed on the natural world by humankind as he clears and prepares the fields for planting.