I have spoken a few times about strange events that don't seem to have a ready answer, well here is another one. The Dogons, a tribe in Mali were brought to prominence by Robert Temple who wrote a book titled The Sirius Mystery. Outwardly, the Dogons don't seem to us to be much different from other tribes in the area. They are usually found in the districts of Bandiagara and Douentza in Mali in West Africa. They number around 300,000 individuals and seem to be jammed into an area about 125 miles long. They live along cliffs. The cliffs are called the Cliffs of Bandiagara and are mainly composed of sandstone. The cliffs contribute to the the unearthly feeling that the area gives off.

One big mystery is the origin of the Dogon people. There are many different stories about where the Dogon people came from. Each oral tradition is different, depending on the clan that tells it. They are also known as Dogom. When you encounter a mystery like this, one which presents no concrete evidence, it is almost impossible to solve it. Could these people have descended from some ancient Egyptian race? Some people believe this to be true. The Dogons may have made several major moves in their history, moving to Mali relatively late, around the 15th century. There are many that believe that the Dogons were chased out of their homeland by invaders. I personally believe that there is just no evidence of what happened. Perhaps a lack of food or water could have caused their journey. This would not be the first time in history that necessity accounted for a mass exodus.

These are a mysterious people that have strange rituals. Many of you ufo followers out there will find that what I am about to tell you about the Dogons, is related to the subject of ufos. I know that this sounds absurd on the face of it, but it is true. Those of you that have read Robert Temple's book know what I am talking about. As far as is known, no scientist had ever decided to investigate this tribe before the 20th century when two French anthropologists named Marcel Giaule and Germaine Dieterlen researched the tribe in 1931. They continued their research for the next 30 years. I guess they got the bug when they found out about the mystery the Dogons were harboring. There are several different religious cults among the tribe. Their beliefs are different from each other.

Why do I say that there are strange things about the Dogons? The fact is that about nine years after the French anthropologists decided to study them, they revealed some of their secrets to them. Out of nowhere they started talking about the star Sirius. They told them that this star had a companion that was invisible to the human eye. They then went on to state that the star's dark companion took 50 years to move around Sirius in an elliptical orbit and that it was made of material that was extremely heavy. They also stated that it rotated on it's axis. Well, you can imagine how the anthropologists were startled. There was just no way that this primitive tribe could have ever known this. The information was completely accurate. This invisible companion star was not even photographed until 1970, but it had been suspected to have existed since the 1840s. They just had too much information.

Sirius A and B in X-Ray Light
Photo Source: NASA/ CXC/ SAO

As if this wasn't enough, artifacts were found that depicted that star system that were over 400 years old. A third lighter star was also said to be revolving around sirius but it has not been found to date. The tribe not only knew too much about Sirius, but they had a comprehensive knowledge of Saturn's rings and Jupiter's four main moons. So where did all this knowledge come from? Did this tribe have any advanced scientific instruments for this kind of detection? The answer has to be no, since the world at large didn't at the time that they revealed their secrets. Was this some sort of advanced ancient knowledge? Not according to the Dogons.

The Dogons claim that in their past, alien beings that lived in the water, from the Sirius system had visited them and imparted this knowledge. The aliens were named the Nommos. The Dogons claim that they came here to help mankind. It is said that the Nommos arrived in some sort of ship that belched fire and made loud noises like thunder. Were the Dogons visited by extraterrestrial beings? Some scientists believe that they were not, but were visited by someone from an advanced society on earth that told them about such things. On the surface it might seem possible, but it certainly doesn't explain the 400 year old artifact. If and when that third star that they talked about is discovered in Sirius then that will be the icing on the cake. It will blow away any of the other explanations and we will be left with the Nommos. If this happens it will just be another unexplainable fact for a planet of many unexplainable facts.