Koma

shapeshifter · Mali · West Africa

Not independently attested as a Dogon spirit. No Dogon shapeshifter named 'Koma' appears in Griaule's ethnography or other sources; the name instead matches the Komo, a powerful secret society of the Bambara (Bamana) and other Mande peoples, whose fearsome helmet-masks invoke nyama. The Dogon masked funerary rites are the Awa society and dama with kanaga masks.

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