Our Story
MyDogon began long before there was ever an idea of creating a shop.
The story started in 2007, when I travelled to Senegal for the first time at the age of sixteen. It was initially simply a journey over Christmas and New Year — my first introduction to West Africa and the beginning of a connection with the region that would shape many of the years that followed.
Shortly after returning to Europe, I came into contact with an Italian association organising summer camps in Bamako, Mali. In August 2008, I travelled to Mali for the first time and spent two weeks participating in one of those projects.
I returned the following year. And the year after that.
What began as a summer experience gradually became a constant part of my life. Until 2019, I returned to Mali almost every year, usually spending several weeks in Bamako and occasionally travelling there at other times of the year as well.
DISCOVERING BAMAKO
Over time, Bamako became much more than a destination I visited occasionally.
I came to know its streets, neighbourhoods and markets — particularly the Grand Marché, where workshops, traders and countless small shops offered objects made across Mali and the wider region.
That is where I began buying small cast-metal sculptures and carved objects simply because I liked them.
I brought them back to Europe in my luggage, kept some at home and gave many others to family and friends. Again and again, I noticed the same reaction: people wanted to know where the pieces had come from, how they had been made and where they could find something similar.
FROM COLLECTION TO MYDOGON
For many years, however, there was no business behind any of this.
The collection simply continued to grow.
Eventually, space became limited and I began selling some of the pieces I had accumulated over the years. To my surprise, they repeatedly found buyers who shared the same fascination for their unusual proportions, handmade surfaces and individual character.
That was when a simple idea began to take shape: perhaps the objects I had been bringing home for years could find a wider audience beyond my own circle of friends and family.
MyDogon grew from that idea.
A CONNECTION THAT REMAINED
During later visits to Mali, some of the traders and contacts I had come to know spoke about how difficult business had become as fewer international visitors came to Bamako. Several encouraged me to take pieces back to Europe and introduce them to people there.
Today, that personal connection remains an important part of how I approach MyDogon.
The aim is not to create a catalogue of identical products. I prefer objects with visible craftsmanship, unusual forms, individual patinas and the small differences that reveal how they were made.
CONTEMPORARY CRAFTSMANSHIP
The pieces offered by MyDogon are, unless explicitly stated otherwise, contemporary decorative objects rather than archaeological artefacts or antiques.
Many draw on artistic traditions associated with the Dogon region of Mali — from riders and elongated human figures to cast vessels, carved doors and architectural forms — while being made for the world in which we live today.
For me, this combination is exactly what makes them interesting: traditional techniques and visual languages continuing through contemporary craftsmanship.
FROM BAMAKO TO YOUR HOME
MyDogon remains a small and personally curated project.
I select pieces for the same reasons I originally brought them home myself: because something about their form, surface or character catches my attention.
And whenever an individual object is photographed for the shop, the piece you see is the piece you receive.
Nearly two decades after my first journey to West Africa, MyDogon is a way of sharing something that has accompanied me since I was sixteen.
I hope you find a piece here that fascinates you as much as these objects fascinated me when I first discovered them in Bamako.
Riccardo
Founder, MyDogon