Long before colonialism erased many ways of being, African societies held expansive views of gender. Among them, the Dogon people of Mali believed that the “perfect human being is androgynous” a vision embodied in their revered ancestral spirits, the Nommo.
🐟 The Nommo: Androgynous Teachers of Balance
According to Dogon cosmology, Amma, the sky deity, created the Nommo. Amphibious, hermaphroditic beings who descended to Earth to teach humanity agriculture, language, and social order
The Nommo are described as fishlike creatures with humanoid features. Symbols of both masculine and feminine energy. They’re known as “The Teachers” and honored for bringing cosmic knowledge and balance.
⚖️ Gender as Balance, Not Binary
The Dogon believed early humans possessed both male and female spiritual elements. The foreskin represented femininity, while the clitoris represented masculinity. Rituals like circumcision and clitoridectomy were used to focus the person into one gender to maintain spiritual equilibrium.
In Dogon thought, the ideal human embodied both energies. Male and female fused into one whole. That sacred, energetic androgyny was considered perfect. To lose that balance physically or spiritually was to give in to chaos.
🌍 A Legacy of Fluid Identity
This belief wasn't unique. Across multiple West and Central African cultures including the Igbo, Yoruba, Chokwe, and Hausa gender fluidity and “third gender” identities were recognized, respected, and sacred. Such roles existed in spiritual hierarchies, communal authority, and ceremonial ritual long before gender became a rigid binary under colonial influence.
Why This Matters to Us
Fashion, identity, and liberation are rooted in ancestral ideology, not modern invention. Cultures like the Dogon remind us that gender fluidity is not new. It’s deeply, historically valid.
At Caxology, we honor that lineage. We center lived experience. We build garments with community voices, not for them. Fashion isn’t just aesthetics. It’s reclamation, history, and sovereignty in cloth form.
Together, we’re continuing this lineage in the language of contemporary design. You’ve always existed. Now let’s make sure it looks like it.
XoXo,
Mars
Read the Arcticle: https://medium.com/%40janelane_62637/the-splendor-of-gender-non-conformity-in-africa-f894ff5706e1
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