Pair of African Dogon Carved Wood Door Locks with Figural Effigies

West Africa, Mali, Dogon peoples. Two carved wood door locks each in the form of a standing figure with a columnar body, extended horizontal crossbar, and a head surmounted by tall paired horns or ears. The larger example stands on two carved legs and carries incised linear decoration across the torso, with a rectangular slot cut through the body to receive the sliding bolt. The interior of the slot is reinforced with an iron panel, and iron pegs sit within the mechanism. The second lock has a rounded body with incised diagonal hatching and a tapered projecting element opposite the crossbar. Both show worn surfaces and a dark patina consistent with age and handling. Among the Dogon, the granary is the household's structural metaphor: its plan, its contents, and its closure are bound to cosmological ideas set out in the Ogotemmeli material recorded by Marcel Griaule. The lock, ta koguru, is a compound of two carved parts, a fixed housing and a sliding bolt, with loose pegs that drop into the bolt and can be lifted only by a matching toothed key. The carved head surmounting the housing is commonly read as an ancestral or tutelary presence, a guardian standing watch over stored millet and family goods. Item # 203813

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