The Sigui procession takes about seven years to complete, moving slowly from one Dogon village to the next along the great cliff face. At each village, there are days of dancing, feasting and ceremony. Men wear tall decorated masks and special costumes of red fibres, and they dance through the village in long lines to music that is only heard at the Sigui - special songs that have not changed in hundreds of years.
Because the Sigui happens only once every 60 years, most people will see it only once or twice in their lifetime. That makes it enormously exciting - grandparents tell grandchildren about the last one, describing what it was like in detail so the memory carries forward. When the next Sigui arrives, those children, now grown up, recognise the costumes and songs from the stories they were told.
Preparing for the Sigui is a community effort that begins years in advance. New masks are carved, new costumes are made, and young men learn the special dances from the elders. The Sigui is not just a festival - it is the way the Dogon community marks the passing of time and renews its shared identity. Nobody is a stranger at the Sigui.