Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 185
Finally, we will mention Kunde again in the context of Ghwa'a, due to the oral historical
tradition of it once having been known as Tala Wandala. As we know, this view is
underpinned by the legendary claim that the descendants of the Wandala of Kirawa once lived
in this part of Kunde, which was still known by this name during my time. It was even
claimed that the Wandala originally came from the hills, as this is even expressed as part of
the Tur tradition (see Figure 9) where Katala-Wandala is linked to Mandara-Mbra. We have
discussed that tradition and acknowledged that we do not know how old it is. That Tala
Wandala existed as a place allegedly before Kunde was occupied by descendants of the
Washile, 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 had
expanded, at least if we consider the descendants of Thakara-Ngara to be one of the oldest
lineage section of a Dghweɗe ethnogenesis.
We mentioned in the previous chapter that Tala Wandala might have also just been a place
where 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 how
Mughuze was once socially adopted by Hembe. He confirmed to us that Kunde was only
colonised later by the Ghwa'a people coming from Taghadigile. Bulama Gdaka claimed that
the Wandala had been living in Kunde until that time and that the Hembe and Kunde people
had provided them with food. This would certainly have been during pre-colonial times, but
we do not know how early and whether it would have been before or after the Wandala left
for Doulo in the mid-17th century. Whatever the chronological framework, his version
represents an oral historical tradition that Kunde was a place for the Wandala of Kirawa to
retreat as a result of food shortage. It also shows that the relationship between Ghwa'a and the
Wandala was much more linked to the history of the Wandala of Kirawa, and in that sense
has a different historical quality to that which we learned in the previous chapter section about
Kwalika as the most southwestern part of pre-colonial Dghweɗe.
Conclusion
This chapter has given us an insight into the way the Dghweɗe trace their common ethnic
roots 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. We
discussed the Tur tradition in the previous chapter, and learned that 'Johode' (Ghwa'a) is seen
as a place from where other groups belonging to the same tradition claim to have come
through at an earlier time. In the context of that, Mbra appears as an apical ancestor for many
other groups in the Gwoza hills, not only to the north but also to the south of Ghwa'a. The
most important of those in Dghweɗe itself are the Mughuze-Ruwa and the Thakara clan
groups. However, we had to acknowledge that the more we enter into the details of how those
groups evolved, the more complicated their ancestries are in terms of descent, and much of it
seems to be fictional, more serving a local sense of belonging rather than being
straightforward patrilineal descent.
We showed that there might not only be one version of a Dghweɗe lineage tree, but through
comparison hoped to establish that Dghweɗe-Mbra as the central genealogical link has
possibly integrated other lines of descent into an emerging Dghweɗe ethnicity. We discussed
Wasa and Tasa as the most obvious ones, and also Kwiyaka bringing about Hembe. We were
able to show how the Mughuze-Ruwa developed from local outsiders into a powerful
maximal line of descent. We saw how population pressure rather than descent was the more
decisive historical variable to bring about local group formation. In the light of that, we
hypothesised 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 led
to intense south to north migration. We think that the importance of Tur as a place of origin
from the south might have established itself in the collective memory as a result of that period
of humidity.
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