The phrase “Africa star people” usually refers to the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa. They are famous in anthropology and alternative-history lore for oral traditions detailing the binary star system of Sirius and invisible white dwarf star Sirius B, which they claim was taught to their ancestors by amphibious celestial beings called the Nommo. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Dogon and Sirius

• The Tradition: Recorded by French anthropologists in the 1930s, Dogon cosmology describes Po Tolo(Sirius B), stating it has a 50-year elliptical orbit around the main star, is extremely heavy, and is invisible to the human eye. [1, 2]
• The Nommo: Oral history states that amphibious, fish-like beings (the Nommo) descended from the sky in a vessel to bring water, wisdom, and knowledge of the cosmos to humanity. [1]
• The Controversy: While popular books like Robert Temple’s The Sirius Mystery argue this proves ancient contact with extraterrestrials, subsequent anthropological studies suggest the advanced astronomical details may have been inadvertently introduced, misunderstood, or influenced by Western questioning during early 20th-century fieldwork. [1, 2]

A video detailing the legendary astronomical background of the Dogon people:

56s

Centuries before NASA, they mapped a star invisible to the human eye. 🤯✨ The Dogon …

1.1K views · 7 months ago

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Other African Starlore

• The San and /Xam: Southern African groups viewed the Milky Way as ashes thrown into the sky by a girl to create light, and saw Orion’s Belt as three grazing zebras.
• The Xhosa: Use the appearance of the Pleiades (IsiLimela) as a traditional marker for the agricultural and growing season. [1, 2]

Would you like to explore the anthropological debates surrounding Marcel Griaule’s research on the Dogon, or read more about other indigenous African constellations?