Nowadays, the Dogon blacksmiths forge mainly scrap metal recuperated from old railway lines or car wrecks. So, little by little, the long process of iron ore reduction, which demands a perfect knowledge of fire and its temperatures, has been abandoned.
One of the last smeltings was done in Mali, in 1995, by the Dogon blacksmiths. The event became the subject of a film which was entitled Inagina, The Last House of Iron.
Eleven blacksmiths, who still hold the secrets of this ancestral activity, agreed to perform a last smelt. They
gathered to invoke the spirits.
They sunk a mine shaft, made charcoal, and built a furnace with earth and lumps of slag. The last furnace - or Inagina - meaning literally Ç the house of iron È, gave birth to 69 kilos of iron of excellent quality. With this, the blacksmiths forged traditional tools intended for agriculture, the making of weapons, and jewellery for the Dogon people.
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