DONSO, THE BROTHERHOOD OF TRADITIONAL HUNTERS

Donso means, in Bambara, “hunter”. To become a true donso (hunter), you must be initiated. This initiation is based above all on the study of the fauna and flora so as to obey the rule of donsoya: you do not kill in just any way, nor just any animal. This initiation is also completed by esoteric knowledge, the hidden face of knowledge, revealed only to initiates.

The new member is first entrusted to a master hunter to go through these different stages of initiation.

According to the myth of Sanen and Kontron, the ancestors of hunters, the hunters had no homeland. Their home was the bush. They belonged to no clan and no race.

Img: Moussa Kondé – Donso – Malinke – GUINEA