Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 184
So does all this only highlight the very fragmentary nature of the oral history of Dghweɗe? If
we put Ngara to one side as being more or less fictional, it is Thakara who appears in our
lineage tree as the true 'son' of Dghweɗe, presumably because Ghwa'a is the early arrival zone
not only for the formation of the Dghweɗe, but also for quite a few other ethnic groups of the
Gwoza hills. It also seems, in the context of Dghweɗe as a whole, that Ghwa'a is much further
removed from influences from the western plain, including links to slave raiding from the
plains, than Kwalika might have been. We remember that Hamman Yaji came up via Kwalika
and Korana Basa, and was allegedly aided by Hambagda. Perhaps Ghwa'a has always been
the safer place, and was much less exposed to the dangers of the western plain.
We will now describe the descendants of Thakara, as was told to me in particular by Zakariya
Kwire and Ɗga Parɗa (also known as dada Ɗga). There was much less dispute over this, and
we summarise it in the lineage tree below as follows:
Figure 12d: Lineage tree of the Thakara of Ghwa'a
Thakara
__________________|______
|
|
|
|
Ngaladewe Washile Btha Nighine
________|___________________
|
|
|
|
|
Gajiwe Dzata Leshe Fakuwe Ndawaya
According to our two Ghwa'a friends, Thakara begat Ngaladewe, Btha and Nighine, and they
stayed in Ghwa'a. Thakara also begat Washile, whose lineage branch seems to have expanded
beyond Ghwa'a, because we find three of his 'sons', namely Gajiwe, Leshe and possibly also
Fakuwe, as local lineages in Kunde. Gajiwe can also be found in Taghadigile. Dzata is
another 'son' of Washile, who forms a separate lineage branch among the forementioned three
'sons' of Thakara in Ghwa'a. I was told that Ndawaya left Ghwa'a, and only two of his
descendants allegedly remained.
It seems that the process of local group formation was significantly less violent in northern
Dghweɗe than in southern Dghweɗe, at least if we neglect possible violent conflicts before
the descendants of Thakara formed when Ghwa'a was still an early arrival zone (see Figure
11). If we take our oral sources at face value there was not much mention of tribal warfare
other than against Vaghagaya. We remember that Kunde fought Gathaghure (Figure 8a).
However, our Kunde friends told us in 1995 that there had once been warfare between the
many 'sons' of Washile, because they had significantly increased in number. This led to
fighting, which resulted in their scattering, and some of them even left. In Chapter 3.6 we
present the social relationship terms underlying the Dghweɗe concept of local group
formation, and invite the reader to consult Figure 13 to see the locality connections of the
descendants of Thakara.
We know that Kunde formed after Ghwa'a, as did Taghadigile. Because Washile-Thakara
became so numerous, they had to expand from Ghwa'a to Kunde. We have not yet mentioned
that Gathaghure belonged, sometime between 1912 and 1927 until the Hamman Yaji years, to
a traditional southern Dghweɗe under the dominance of the Vaghagaya. However,
Gathaghure changed its traditional allegiance, and our oral sources explained that the reason
was that the Vaghagaya had shown Hamman Yaji the way for his attacks on Ghwa'a. We
remember from Taɗa Nzige's account in Chapter 2.2 that Hamman Yaji had entered the
Dghweɗe massif from the western foothills and Kwalika. Gathaghure henceforward
celebrated the bull festival together with Ghwa'a, Kunde and Tatsa (see Table 9), while
Hembe continued to celebrate it together with Vaghagaya and Takweshe. We learn in Chapter
3.13 that the bull festival ceased to be performed some time during late colonial times, and
mention this example here to highlight how fluid traditional allegiances along the borders
between the two traditional parts of Dghweɗe might have always been.
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