Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 110
because he had to see his mother and ask her what to do. 3 When he went to see his mother and
explained to her, she said to him: ‘Who allowed that child to trouble others like that? A child is a
child to every woman and a mother is a mother to every child. Take this corn stock and give it to
him [Hamman Yaji] and he should not trouble anybody again. Go and make sure that such a thing
will not happen again.’ 4
Kaftrusa came back after three days and told them what his mother had said to him and he climbed
on his horse to begin the journey to see Hamman Yaji, together with Vaima and his friends. When
they reached Plata [Madagali], they went to Hamman Yaji’s house, and also to his other house in
the hills, but he wasn’t there. The bird who had been leading them right from the place where the
stone they had kicked had magically disappeared in the ground, led them to kwir uvawa
[presumably the central plateau of the Mandara Mountains], where Hamman Yaji was hiding.
Before they left for kwir uvawa the Dghweɗe delegation went to the market place of Madagali,
where they found people selling suya [Hausa: skewer kebab]. There the Plat-ha tried to get hold of
them, but when they saw Kaftrusa, they got frightened, kneeled, and then ran away. Now Vaima
took all the suya for them to eat, just like that.
On the way to kwir uvawa, they found Hamman Yaji hiding in a cave. When Hamman Yaji saw
Vaima, he jumped on Vaima's back and licked him. When Kaftrusa wanted to kill him, Vaima
said: ‘Please don’t kill him. He has already climbed on my back and licked me. If you kill him I
will die as well’. 5 Kaftrusa agreed to this and Hamman Yaji was arrested. Back in Madagali,
people were now freed from slavery and advised to identify their cattle and then to go home, but
Vaima accompanied Kaftrusa back to Maiduguri where he witnessed the execution of Hamman
Yaji. The first attempt by the colonial powers to execute him was with guns, but the bullets could
not harm him. Next they tried to burn him, but they could not succeed. Now dry potassium was
ground and put on the ground. They stripped Hamman Yaji naked and poured water over him and
the potassium, and he dissolved in the potassium, just like that. This is how Hamman Yaji died.
We know that the Dghweɗe account of the killing of Hamman Yaji does not meet the
historical truth, as Hamman Yaji died a natural death in 1927 while in exile. They chose
Vaima, also known as Baima and first ward head of Ghwa'a, but we do not know whether
Vaima was already ward head when that happened. Lewis mentions Baima in 1924 but
Hamman Yaji had already stopped writing in his Arabic diary in 1920. The narrative is
embroidered by magical events linked to the application of vavanza (Cissus quadrangularis)
of which the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage are ritual owners (see Table 12b). The successful
outcome of the narrative could be interpreted as a result of a successful peacemaking mission,
in which the Dghweɗe are the survivors, while Hamman Yaji dies a painful death. Vaima had
to beg the British representative not to kill him, and that Hamman Yaji had licked his back,
which meant that he had surrendered and Vaima was the moral victor.
There is nothing in Lewis’s or Featherstone’s reports to indicate something like this
happened, but some individual reports by British touring officers in Adamawa province, as
already quoted above, suggest that it was known to the British that Hamman Yaji continued
raiding the hills south of Dghweɗe. This happened despite him having been warned, however
great doubt remains as to whether Hamman Yaji continued raiding in Dghweɗe after 1920.
One might conclude that the Dghweɗe experience actually relates to an earlier period, and
that the narrative about the Dghweɗe delegation to Maiduguri, leading to Hamman Yaji’s
arrest, is perhaps the result of the legendarisation of oral history at a later stage.
What possibly needs to be added, is that if the British authorities had acted at a much earlier
point and stopped Hamman Yaji, such a legendary tale might never have been constructed in
the first place. The meeting of all the different delegates from further south to Tur might have
taken place, considering that Durghwe was reportedly used as the most northerly rain shrine
Because the British representative was seen as thaghaya (seventh born/custodian), his mother loved
him very much, since the eighth born was cast out at this time. Saying that he would have gone to see
his mother presumably meant that the delegation hoped for a favourable outcome of their request.
4
The corn stalk signifies peace since a woman cannot fight. To give a corn stalk to Hamman Yaji
would turn him into a woman and disable him from troubling people again.
5
In Dghweɗe tradition, one didn’t kill an enemy who was licking ones back during a fight, because this
was seen as a sign of submission.
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