Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 183
halt and be unable to move any further on his horse. It seems that the Ɗagha Kadzgwara have
a special link to Kwalika, and perhaps their reputation was later applied to Kwalika as being a
place of supernatural abilities, but our Kwalika friend denied this. Perhaps the story he told us
about the 'Hambagda' origin of the Ɗagha boy as an integrated outsider with special talents
throws yet a different light on it.
Ekkehard Wolff (1994:156ff) also mentions the 'Kadzagwara' as Ɗagha descendants of
Hambagda, and describes their relationship to Kwalika by repeating part of the pattern of
interaction with the Lamang of Hiɗkala described in this chapter. The similarities are quite
striking and do not apply only to the Kadzgwara, but also to the legend about the magical
horn (ibid:152) 3 and the story about turning children in the womb (ibid: 155). Another
similarity mentioned by Wolff is the supernatural ability to stop Wandala slave raiders
(ibid:150) in Hambadga, or that the Lamang of Hiɗkala relied on Kwalika to hide from slave
raiding in the foothill areas. All this suggests a very strong pre-colonial connection between
Hiɗkala and Kwalika as a main entry point to southern Dghweɗe. While Kwalika is the most
southwestern settlement of Dghweɗe, Ghwa'a is the most northeastern one and in pre-colonial
times was linked to the intramountainous eastern plain. We will now describe the lineage tree
of the Thakara of Ghwa'a. Apparently his descendants did not expand in the same way as is
remembered concerning the Vaghagaya-Mughuze.
Thakara of Ghwa'a
We have discussed Ghwa'a in the context of Mathews’ 'Johode' being an early arrival zone of
what would subsequently be considered the most ancient part of Dghweɗe. Other than its
southern part, Ghwa'a is geographically linked to the highest mountain on the Dghweɗe
massif. We know that its summit with the three rock pillars was called Durghwe and that it
was visible from afar, representing community shrines for the Dghweɗe, Chikiɗe and the
Guduf. Barth might have referred to Durghwe as Mt. Legga in 1851 (see Chapter 3.17) while
he was travelling through Margi land towards Yola. The word Ghwa'a means ‘mountain’ in
the Dghweɗe language, and the expression 'Wa'a' appears to be the Hausa version of it.
Gwal ghwa'a means 'people of the hills' in general, and not just people of Ghwa'a. We used
the term montagnard, derived from Leo Africanus’ (1529) first reference to mountain people
as montanari, this being the most appropriate translation. In that sense gwal ghwa'a serves as
a term of belonging for people of the Gwoza hills. For example, during my time, montagnards
who worked as seasonal workers in Maiduguri would refer to one another as being 'Ghwa'a',
even though they might be Guduf or Chikiɗe and not Dghweɗe at all. They did this
specifically to distinguish themselves from people who were not from the Gwoza area. So, in
our opinion, Ghwa'a as the most distinguished early arrival zone of the Tur tradition within
the Gwoza hills, means exactly that.
Unfortunately we do not have a legendary narrative of how Thakara, as the main ancestor of
Ghwa'a at the beginning of what we could perhaps refer to as a Dghweɗe ethnicity, came
about. All we know is what Mathews told us, namely that 'Dohede' arrived in 'Johode'
together with others, including the founding ancestor of the Chikiɗe. We have discussed the
possible symbolic role of 'Ngara' earlier, which might just be a reference to Mbra or Ngra, to
emphasise that Thakara-Ngara was indeed from Tur. We do not have a legend about Thakara,
and neither do we have one about 'Dohede', but we do have the one about Zedima, who
allegedly married Katala the daughter of Wandala, and who controlled Durghwe. Apart from
that, we do not seem to have any legend about Ghwa'a becoming the ritual centre of
Dghweɗe, so it seems that the former houseboy Mughuze-Ruwa outscores Thakara.
3
Wolff writes that the horn was stuffed with 'euphorbia', but surely he means Cissus quadrangularis (a
grape variety), a mistake I also made in the field because Mathews (1934) had already wrongly
identified it as a 'cactus', and wrongly referred to it again as 'euphorbia' because it is a succulent plant.
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