Most Dogon figural sculptures were made for altars in shrines dedicated to ancestors, water spiritsm africulture, hunting, or prosperity. Shrines were where people made appeals to the gods and ancestors believed to sustain life. The figures were intended to assist in prayers and petitions, and their surfaces often show a rich patina accumulated from offerings made over many generations.

Artists from the Dogon culture, who lived in the dramatic Bandiagara cliff in Mali, often created figures in a simplified, nearly abstract style. Their most common motif is a human figure, frequently shown with one or both arms raised to the sky - a gesture interpreted as a plea for rain. The essence of primordial ancestors is expressed in representations of couples, twins, and sexual duality, important concepts in Dogon culture.