The Dogon History & the Sirius UFO Enigma

The Dogon people live in the Homburi Mountains near Timbuktu, West Africa. This ancient tribe has lived close to the earth for thousands and thousands of years. Curiously, they seem to possess knowledge, which is incorporated into their traditions that modern scientists say they could not have acquired on their own.

At the center of their religious teachings is the knowledge of a star system -- that is not visible to the naked eye -- and so difficult to observe through a telescope that no photographs were taken of it until 1970; the Sirius 'B' binary system.

The Dogon say they received their knowledge from extraterrestrial visitors to the earth (the Nommo) who came from another star system.

This is their history. Our modern scholars wag their fingers and cluck their tongues dismissing it as no more than imaginary mythology spun by a primitive tribal group.

Nonetheless, perhaps we should pay a little attention and enter these precincts with an attitude of humility and an open mind.   As we shall soon see, the Dogon is not the only culture to have embedded the idea that, beings from space have visited the earth and made contact with humans in their cosmology.

The existence of the Sirius B (binary) system was first suspected by Western astronomers in 1844, when irregularities were noticed in the movements of the star, Sirius.

It was supposed that Sirius must be affected by a second star, and in 1862 a faint companion star was finally detected. Sirius B is a white dwarf that, although small and faint, is extremely dense; heavy enough to exert an influence on Sirius A. The Dogon name for Sirius B (Po Tolo) consists of the word for star "tolo" and "po," the name of the smallest seed known to the tribe. By this name they describe the star's relative diminutive size and density -- it is, they say, "the smallest thing there is."

The Dogon also claim that it is "the heaviest star," and is white as well. They thus attribute to Sirius B its three principle properties: a white dwarf which is a very small, very dense star. Their traditions go on to claim that it has an elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse, which it is; that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 +/- 0.09 years); and that the star rotates on its own axis (which science has determined, it does).

The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called "Emme Ya" ("Sorghum Female"). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date, Emme Ya has not been spotted by astronomers. In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon oral traditions include accurate knowledge of Saturn's rings and Jupiter's four major moons. The Dogon also have four calendars. A Solar, Lunar, Sirius, and Venus calendar(s) respectively; and they have long known that the planets orbit the sun.

Where did this modern knowledge come from?

The Dogon claim that their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos; amphibious beings sent to Earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning "to make one drink," and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers.

Now, the below insert depicts the ancient Mesopotamiam fish-like Oannes, higher beings. This seems to be what the Dogon were referring to.

[The behavior of UFOs suggests that monitoring is one of the main things they do.]

The Nommos, according to the Dogon, were more fishlike than human, and had to live in water. They also characterized them as being saviors and spiritual guardians:

"The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings." The Dogon priests claim that the Nommo will return one day. Dogon oral traditions are known only by a select number of their priests, and it represents a complex system of knowledge. If the star (Emme Ya) is eventually discovered in the Sirius system, this would give considerable weight to the Dogon's story.

French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen, recorded the foregoing information from four Dogon priests in the 1930's. The Dogon still survive and carry on these traditions to this day.

The story of the Dogon and their legend was first brought to popular attention by Robert K.G. Temple in a book published in 1977 called The Sirius Mystery.

Science writer Ian Ridpath and astronomer Carl Sagan criticized Temple's book, suggesting that this modern knowledge about Sirius must have come from Westerners who discussed astronomy with the Dogon priests.

The priests then included this new information into the older traditions according to them, which in turn, mislead the anthropologists (in the opinion of Sagan and Ridpath).

That hypothesis does not take into account a 400-year old Dogon artifact that depicts the Sirius configuration, nor does it acknowledge the ceremonies held by the Dogon since the 13th century to celebrate the cycle of Sirius A and B.

It also doesn't explain how the Dogon priests knew about the super-density of Sirius B; a fact only discovered a few years before the anthropologists recorded the Dogon cosmology. Once again, our scholars stick their nose where it does not belong and get it wrong!