Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 100
Ske as cornblesser and rainmaker lineages are, in Dghweɗe, linked to an alternative legendary
story of Katala-Wandala of the hills as their mother (see Chapter 3.13).
It is difficult to see how Katala became part of the Tur tradition in Dghweɗe. Here Katala is
the daughter (not the mother) of Wandala who once lived in Tala Wandala, a place which
would later become known as Kunde (part of Ghwa'a). Wandala-Mbra was seen here as a son
of Mbra, the great apical ancestor of not only the Dghweɗe, but also many other groups of the
Gwoza hills. We discuss Mbra extensively in Part Three, and here only summarise that there
are contradicting opinions as to whether he left 'Fitire' (Tur) himself, but there seems to be a
general agreement that the cause was overpopulation in Tur. We do not know what exactly
happened to his son Wandala, but he was seen as a contemporary of 'Dofede' (Dghweɗe), who
was another son of Mbra. Wandala's daughter Katala subsequently married Tasa who was
recognised as a son of Dghweɗe, and out of that marriage came Ske and Gudule. Ske, also
known as Gaske (descendants of Ske), was the ancestor of the Dghweɗe rainmaker lineage,
while the descendants of Gudule were seen as the representatives of the original inhabitants of
Dghweɗe.
In particular, the role of Gudule raises complex questions with which we will deal repeatedly
in the context of Part Three. At this point we only want to raise two aspects which seem to be
important. The first is that both lineages had ritual functions related to the production of
fertility, one from above (rainmaking and ritual planting), and the other from below (starting
with the bull festival then cornblessing to increase the yield). Their roles were also mirrored
in the pairing of those functions by descent. The other was related to the already mentioned
role of outsiders as founders, who became important by the marriage to a local girl and by
having many descendants, which eventually rendered them much more numerous than the
original settlers. We will see, in our chapter on the oral history of local warfare, how the
Gudule were defeated by Vaghagaya. The latter was the son of a local nobody by the name
Mughuze. He had become houseboy to an autochthonous founder by the name of Hembe,
who had only daughters. Mughuze and his descendants later became so numerous that they
defeated the Gudule who had decreased in number over time. After their defeat, the
descendants of the Gudule wanted to leave but were asked to stay by the victors, most likely
because they were still needed as custodians related to the ritual maintenance of the fertility of
the land.
The fact that the account of Katala, which speaks of noble strangers from the east rather than
of a local nobody as an outsider, is a written claim from the Wandala Chronicles, gives our
Katala-Wandala from the hills legend an oral historical cloud. The legend does not have to
invent a noble stranger, because it is not about creating an Islamic dynasty in hindsight, which
covered up a former ritual practice of dealing with the reproductive capacity of descent. The
Wandala Chronicles deal twice with a situation where a conflict linked to genealogical
seniority and greater reproductive number is resolved by inventing a noble outsider. The first
is Baka Aisami, who marries the daughter of Malgu and then replaces Kawe, the younger
brother of Wandala, because the first one could not provide a successor and the Wandala
lineage was not prolific enough. When Baka Aisami's died, Wandala as the more senior
lineage representative returned and contested the succession, but he could not succeed
because Faya's descendants were too numerous, and Katala became the first female ruler of
the still non-Isamic Wandala dynasty. At this time they were all still in Ishga-Kawe.
The more senior lineage of Wandala-Mulgu, which had left for Tsa, is in a way comparable
with Gudule who left for 'Gudulyewe' (Gudur). Unfortunately we cannot go deeper into that
at this point, and advise the reader to consult the chapter about the Dghweɗe bull festival. The
descendants of a less successful, in reproductive terms, Wandala-Mulgu lineage, were finally
reconciled by Agamakiya as custodians of the earth for the whole of the Wandala kingdom. In
Agamakiya's case, we have again the invention of a noble stranger, but this time it is a hunter
from Yemen known as Gaya. The problem was that Agamakiya did not have a son, and to
continue the dynastic line his daughter Zegda had to follow him, but it is much more likely
that Agakuma Gile, the chief of Kirawa, had an illegitimate son with Zedga. His name was
98
