Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 176
to seal their friendship. However, according to our version from Hambagda, the beer turned
from 'blood back into beer' and not into 'water' as Mathews suggests. Nevertheless they
became friends and subsequently 'Hambagda' (also a former slave) gave 'Moghzurua' his
'powdered cactus'. According to the tale it was a very potent variety he had brought along
from 'Mutube' (Figure 4). Now 'Hambagda' pointed out to 'Moghzurua' that he should keep it
preserved in its 'horn'. This way it would be potent medicine for the increase of his people and
his reproductive power for a long time to come.
According to Mathews this horn still existed, and we assume it is the same horn I mentioned
above as the horn (drawa) of Ruwa, allegedly kept in Korana according to the village head of
Korana Basa in 1994. Mathews (1934) goes on by saying that:
Later, Korana drove out some of their number to Kolika [Kwalika], Haraza [Gharaza], and
Hudimsa [Hudimche] as they increased and got too numerous for Korane to support. Thus all
these four in some degree are descended from Moghzurua [Mughuze-Ruwa], and owing to the
special friendship between Hambagda and Moghzurua there was until recently no intermarriage
between any of them and Hambagda. Recently, Kolika and Hambagda have begun to intermarry.
Mathews (ibid) continues with 'Korane' (Kurana), to whom he refers as the son of
'Moghzurua'. The story goes that one day he came down from Korana Basa to Hambagda and
found a beer party in progress. Kurana interrupted the beer party and even broke a beer pot.
Altogether he behaved with such insolence that they beat him up and drove him away, but
Kurana returned that night with his people and burned Hambagda.
The above storyline shows some kind of sequence, in which Mughuze is first adopted by
Hembe while still in Kwalika, but later we find him again in Korana, where his magic horn is
still kept as a symbol of population increase, but eventually the friendship between the people
of Hambagda and Korana Basa was put to the test, because 'Korane' behaved badly during a
beer party. We show below, that 'Kurana' was indeed a son of Vaghagaya, showing clearly
that Mathews confused the two, but Mathews emphasises the friendship bond and the role of
powerful clan medicine. Later we will learn more about the importance of access to powerful
clan medicine, and that for example the Vile of Hiɗkala had a subregional significance.
The fact that Mughuze was seen as a former slave, and details in my field data about the use
of 'Hambadga's' clan medicine against Mandara raids, somehow throws a different light on
Mughuze. What is also puzzling is that Mathews’ 'Moghzurua' can easily be translated as
Moghuze-Ruwa. He might possibly have been a former slave who had escaped from Mandara
slave raids along the western foothills of Hiɗkala. Perhaps he had escaped from Hambagda
and had taken refuge in Kwalika, where he married Hembe's daughter?
If we consult Figure 12, we see that Hembe had Ngalewe and Kwiyaka before him, but we do
not know anything about those two. Perhaps they had lived in Kwalika, while Hembe moved
on and became the founding ancestor of Hembe, now facing the eastern plain (see Figure 8).
However, we learn later that Mathews does not connect Hembe himself to Mughuze, but
speaks of a 'Shegelewe of Hembe' (ibid) as being the name of the Hembe man who took in
Mughuze. We learn, in Chapter 3.5, how our oral sources inform us that Mughuze gave his
son 'Balngada', the founding ancestor of neighbouring Gathaghure, as dowry to Hembe.
We also want to note that an ancestor named 'Ngade', who had married a daughter of
Kwalika, appears not only in Mathews (ibid), but also in my fieldnotes, as an ancestor of the
Hudugum clans of Hiɗkala. It was indeed Mathews’ 'Ivra', who brought 'Hambagda' with his
clan medicine to Takweshe, which is the same as 'Ighwe' that appears in my notes as a son of
'Ngade' of Hudugum 60 years later. It appears that the above narrative can be connected with
the foothill origin of the specialist healer lineage group. They are known as the 'Ɗagha of
Kadzgwara' and are found in Kwalika as we find out soon.
We remember that there were two Ɗagha lineages, one from Mutube or Mulgwe (Figure 4)
and the other the Dghweɗe peacemaker lineage, linked via Wasa and Dghweɗe as associated
lineage to Dghweɗe-Mbra. Because the latter was a descendant of Wasa-Mbra, his Ɗagha
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