The Dogon people, indigenous to the land southwest of the Niger River belt in Mali, are speakers of the Dogon languages. This is a small and closely-related language family spoken by about 600,000 people across its dozen languages. Linguists often classify these languages as separate but the Dogon consider themselves part of one, united ethnic group. Although it is the third most-spoken language in Mali, Dogon is only spoken by an estimated 6% of the population.

Idrissa Sagara is a language activist and ancestral speaker of Dogon living in Mali. Idrissa’s project focuses on recording the memory of ethnic conflict and terrorism of community members in a variety of the Dogon language called Tegñusô, spoken in the Bandiagara Escarpment in Dogon country. In addition to this archiving, Idrissa has his sights set on a dictionary of the variety, learning materials, and even autobiographies of the elders in the Dogon community as long-term goals for his project. Memories of elders in the Dogon community are invaluable in cultural and historical preservation.