Finally, we will mention Kunde again in the context of Ghwa'a, due to the oral historicaltradition of it once having been known as Tala Wandala. As we know, this view isunderpinned by the legendary claim that the descendants of the Wandala of Kirawa once livedin this part of Kunde, which was still known by this name during my time. It was evenclaimed that the Wandala originally came from the hills, as this is even expressed as part ofthe Tur tradition (see Figure 9) where Katala-Wandala is linked to Mandara-Mbra. We havediscussed that tradition and acknowledged that we do not know how old it is. That TalaWandala existed as a place allegedly before Kunde was occupied by descendants of theWashile, who in turn formed three or even four local lineage branches in Kunde over time,indicates an earlier period. This could have been even some time before the Vaghagaya hadexpanded, at least if we consider the descendants of Thakara-Ngara to be one of the oldestlineage section of a Dghweɗe ethnogenesis.We mentioned in the previous chapter that Tala Wandala might have also just been a placewhere the Wandala occasionally took refuge. We have one version claiming exactly that,from bulama Ghdaka of Hembe (1995), who will later also give us his version of howMughuze was once socially adopted by Hembe. He confirmed to us that Kunde was onlycolonised later by the Ghwa'a people coming from Taghadigile. Bulama Gdaka claimed thatthe Wandala had been living in Kunde until that time and that the Hembe and Kunde peoplehad provided them with food. This would certainly have been during pre-colonial times, butwe do not know how early and whether it would have been before or after the Wandala leftfor Doulo in the mid-17th century. Whatever the chronological framework, his versionrepresents an oral historical tradition that Kunde was a place for the Wandala of Kirawa toretreat as a result of food shortage. It also shows that the relationship between Ghwa'a and theWandala was much more linked to the history of the Wandala of Kirawa, and in that sensehas a different historical quality to that which we learned in the previous chapter section aboutKwalika as the most southwestern part of pre-colonial Dghweɗe.ConclusionThis chapter has given us an insight into the way the Dghweɗe trace their common ethnicroots through a shared ancestry from a mythical personage by the name Mbra or Ngra of Tur.There are contradicting assumptions as to whether Mbra arrived himself in Dghweɗe. Wediscussed the Tur tradition in the previous chapter, and learned that 'Johode' (Ghwa'a) is seenas a place from where other groups belonging to the same tradition claim to have comethrough at an earlier time. In the context of that, Mbra appears as an apical ancestor for manyother groups in the Gwoza hills, not only to the north but also to the south of Ghwa'a. Themost important of those in Dghweɗe itself are the Mughuze-Ruwa and the Thakara clangroups. However, we had to acknowledge that the more we enter into the details of how thosegroups evolved, the more complicated their ancestries are in terms of descent, and much of itseems to be fictional, more serving a local sense of belonging rather than beingstraightforward patrilineal descent.We showed that there might not only be one version of a Dghweɗe lineage tree, but throughcomparison hoped to establish that Dghweɗe-Mbra as the central genealogical link haspossibly integrated other lines of descent into an emerging Dghweɗe ethnicity. We discussedWasa and Tasa as the most obvious ones, and also Kwiyaka bringing about Hembe. We wereable to show how the Mughuze-Ruwa developed from local outsiders into a powerfulmaximal line of descent. We saw how population pressure rather than descent was the moredecisive historical variable to bring about local group formation. In the light of that, wehypothesised that southern Dghweɗe, where Korana formed at the very end of the process,might have started to take shape during the 17th century when higher rainfalls might have ledto intense south to north migration. We think that the importance of Tur as a place of originfrom the south might have established itself in the collective memory as a result of that periodof humidity.183
It seems that your browser's pop-up blocker has prevented us from opening a new window/tab. Please click the button below to open the link manually.
