Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 168
not control the rain. Of course, we cannot take that legend at face value, but Tala Wandala
might still have existed as a place where the Wandala might have sometimes taken refuge
when times were hard, either for environmental reasons or as a result of a threat of warfare
from early competitors of the plains.
We put the Guduf to the north of early Ghwa'a, but are not sure whether the Podoko still lived
there then. Also, we infer that Ghwasa had already left 'Johode' and moved to what would
later become Zelidva, where he was adopted by the Lamang-speaking Zuwagha clan. We see
the Glavda to be still occupying not only the eastern plain, but also the Moskota hills, before
the Mafa arrived and drove them out.
We see Hembe where Kwalika is now. We are using Mathews (ibid) as a source, who tells us
that Gudule once lived not far from there. This is why we put Gudule next to Hembe and
consider both as early settlers in pre-Korana southern Dghweɗe. We strongly assume that
Dghweɗe was already spoken during that time, when, according to our oral sources, the
Gudule were considered to be the most numerous group in southern Dghweɗe. However, the
Gudule must have also risen to that status, but we do not have a time frame for it, only that
they were eventually replaced by the Mughuze-Ruwa.
Another reason for listing Hiɗkala in Figure 11 is because we think it was already exposed to
Wandala slave raids along the foothills before the Mughuze-Ruwa formed in southern
Dghweɗe. However we do not have any oral evidence from Dghweɗe that they ever settled in
the hills, but we know about the linguistic connection with the Hide of Tur and their claim to
have come via mount Gulak, which suggests that they were once Margi speakers. That Hde is
in linguistic terms closer to Lamang than to Gvoko, does suggest some kind of pre-Korana
connection between Lamang speakers and the hills.
Unfortunately, all our oral data are extremely fragmented, and there are many narratives but
not enough connecting evidence. Also, the details were already preshaped by the collective
memory of our narrators before we even wrote them down. Reshaping them any further by
too much ethnographic decontextualisation is very seductive, but perhaps not what we want,
considering they are in the first place unsatisfyingly suggestive and incomplete. This is why
we will not indulge any further in the migratory traditions of our wider subregion, and
concentrate instead on our oral sources and what they tell us about the local formation of what
we have decided to call the Dghweɗe house of Mbra.
Conclusion
The Tur tradition is a well known oral tradition of origin, naming Tur to be the place from
which many groups of the Gwoza hills claim to have once originated. Mathews is the first to
mention, in 1934, 'Johode' as a place in the Gwoza hills where other ethnic groups also
claimed to have come from, before they moved on to their final destination. Although
‘Johode’ was the Hausa version of Dghweɗe, it was originally also used in reference to
Ghwa'a. Mathews tells us that the Chikiɗe claimed to have previously settled in 'Johode'. He
however fails to identify 'Fitire' as Tur, but acknowledges, by referring to the Gvoko, that it
was population pressure that had made them leave Tur. He was also the first to mention that
the word 'Ngra' was the place the 'Ngoshi' (Gvoko) had come from, something that was
confirmed to us 60 years later in Gvoko and Kwalika, namely that there were Hide-Ngra,
Gvoko-Ngra and Dghweɗe-Ngra. We also concluded that Mbra and Ngra meant the same,
namely a manifestation of the wider shared belief in a widely shared ancestry from Tur,
which also included the Wandala, and could even be found in Nduval on top of the Oupay
massif.
In the case of Dghweɗe, we think that this belief intensified as a result of the rise of the
Mughuze-Ruwa, being the latest integration into the Tur tradition, and to create a sense of
ethnic belonging, but we want to raise doubt as to whether this belief was there before.
During colonial times, the Dghweɗe were often referred to as 'Azaghvana', while 'Dofede' was
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