Tellem
The Tellem were an African ethnic group that lived in West Africa in eastern Mali . It was ousted by the Dogon migrating from the west around the 14th century and retreated to the southwest, to the north of what is now Burkina Faso , where they became the ancestors of the Kurumba people.
In Dogon lore, the Tellem are described as “dwarf people with red skin”. The construction, location and, above all, size of their still existing dwellings high up in the inaccessible cliffs of the Bandiagara cliffs indicate that they were pygmy people . Presumably, the location of the dwellings in the rocks offered protection from tall and mounted enemies.
The surviving buildings are used by the Dogon as storage rooms, temples, tombs and hiding places for masks and fetishes.
