Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 104
were the still very traditional Dghweɗe montagnards of Ghwa'a, and the increasingly
established new local Muslim elite in Gwoza town. It was now all about forced resettlement
in the plains, since the attempts by British colonial officers to initiate a successful process of
self-governance in the hills had admittedly failed.
Coming under German and British rule
As a result of Colonel Pavel's expedition to Dikwa 1, which started in Garoua, and moved, in
March and April 1902, up the western chain of the Mandara Mountains, Madagali became the
centre from which that part of northern Adamawa was ruled. In August that year Hamman
Yaji's father, Ardo Bakari, the lamido of Madagali, was killed by two German bullets. It was
during the German attempt to capture Zubeiri (former emir of Yola) at Bakari's residence
(Dominik 1908:208-214), and shortly afterwards his son Hamman Yaji became the new
lamido.
In 1906, Zimmermann 2 made an expedition up the western chain of the Mandara Mountains,
and he tells us that Hamman Yaji was a very positive example of a ruler, someone who
always paid his tribute, kept his lamidat in order and kept the mountain population under
control. Zimmermann also informs us that the boundary between the lamidat of Madagali and
the Sultanate of Wandala was between Madagali and Disa, a small 'Inselberg' to the southwest
of Gwoza town. While Zimmermann allocates Disa to Wandala, he states that the 'Lufua,
Goso, etc' (ibid) would pay tribute to Madagali.
We can therefore conclude that at that time the lamidat of Madagali controlled the area along
the western foothills, including what today is Gwoza town, but not Disa which is a bit further
out on the western adjacent plain (see Plate 7b). Madagali had successfully infringed on the
Wandala dominance along the western foothills during late pre-colonial times, an influence
which survived into the colonial period. The place-name 'Goso' for what would later become
Gwoza, gives us another hint. Originally 'Goso' or 'Guze' was an old name for a place in
southern Dghweɗe, also orally referred to as 'Gharguze', meaning Goso/Guze in the hills
(ghar = mountains) and so formed part of what would later become Korana Basa (Figure 8).
Zimmermann also tells us that the 'Seledeba pagan' (the Zelidva) were under Wandala rule,
and that they conflicted with the 'Wuahas' (Lamang), despite their otherwise close
relationship. We know that sections of the Zelidva further north of Luvua still speak Lamang
today, for example in Wala and Warabe, but speak 'Abaiwa' (a dialect of Wandala) around the
northern tip of the Gwoza hills and Glavda to its east (see Figure 3a), indicating a long precolonial relationship between Wandala and the northern Gwoza hills.
The map of the German cartographer Max Moisel (1913) gives us some idea of a potentially
preconceived boundary across the Gwoza hills (see Figures 7 and 7a), and we will come back
to that in greater detail in our chapter: 'Names and places'. We want to mention here that the
Bezirksgrenze (district boundary) on Moisel's map indicates that the southern part of the
Dghweɗe massif and the Hiɗkala valley (bordering on what should later become Gwoza
town) consisting of Vile, Hambagda and Hudugum, was seen by the German cartographer as
being under Madagali. Ghwa'a ('Dohade/Johode'), meaning the northern part of Dghweɗe, and
Guduf, Chikiɗe, and Glavda, as well as Mafa, belonged to the Wandala sphere of influence.
They had their headquarters in Mora. Moisel's district boundary also marks the division
between Adamawa and Borno.
Hamman Yaji took advantage of the years of colonial uncertainty during the Great War.
While Garoua was taken by the British very early on, Mora in the north remained a problem,
but after it fell at the end of 1914, both Madagali and Mora came temporarily under French
Eldridge Mohammadou gave me in 1994 a copy of Pavel's original report from 1902, which was
marked with the Archive reference: 'Abschrift zu K.10853'.
2
Zimmerman's expedition report from 25 Jan. 1906, German Colonial Archives, Berlin: FA1/120.
1
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