Eliot Elisofon filming Dolo, the blacksmith, Ogol du Haut village, Mali

"Blacksmiths, irine, and their wives, live amongst the Dogon, although their houses are always at the peripheries of a settlement. When a smith wishes to establish himself, after years of apprenticeship with his father, he requests dwelling and forge space from the village of his choice. Aside from their integral role in the Dogon economy, blacksmiths are responsible for carving ritual statues in wood, and their wives make the pots, wone, used in ancestral shrines, but do not make other pots." [Lane P., 1988: Settlement as History: A Study of Space and Time amog the Dogon of Mali, University of Cambridge]. This photograph was taken by Maya Bracher when she traveled to Africa from October 26, 1970 to end of March 1971. She was on assignment for Eliot Elisofon when he wrote, produced, and directed a four-hour television series for Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting Company) titled Black African Heritage (1973). The series was divided into four segments, lasting 50 minutes each: The Congo, The Bend of the Niger, The Slave Coast, and Africa's Gift.