Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 188
Zadva story in greater detail here, for purpose of comparison with the Mughuze tale. This is
to highlight the typical features in both stories, and because they have a close relationship
with Dghweɗe via their founding ancestor Ghwasa. He was a stranger who was perceived as a
nobody, being the opposite of a noble stranger. Both were local outsiders and gained local
legitimacy through a successful marriage with the daughter of an autochthonous clan member.
In terms of the underlying time frame, the Ghwasa narrative possibly goes back to the 16th
century or earlier, while the Mughuze narrative belongs, according to our studies, more to the
humid 17th century. The latter is also much closer to the time when the Wandala Chronicles
invented their version of a noble stranger. We begin our chapter with the Mughuze narrative.
Hembe and Mughuze
Mathews (1934) tells us how 'Shegelewe of Hembe' found 'Moghzo' wandering starving in the
bush, and decided to take him into his house. 'Moghzo' subsequently seduced his daughter, for
which he was driven out, but he shot a buffalo and gave one of its legs to 'Shegelewe' to heal
the breach. He then married Shegelewe's daughter and had three sons with her. The story
reminds Mathews (ibid) of a similar one about how 'Hambagda' was adopted by 'Hugugum'
in Hiɗkala. Without repeating it here, it highlights how frequent such narratives are. Mathews
also tells us that Hembe originally lived in Kwalika, but does not say whether this was the
time when Mughuze married Shegelewe's daughter. We showed earlier that there might have
already been early pre-Korana Tur traditions in Kwalika, to one of which Hembe's ancestor
Kwiyaka (Figure 12) might also have once been linked.
In our interview below, it is not 'Shegelewe', but Hembe himself, who becomes Mughuze's
father-in-law. We failed to ask bulama Ghdaka of Hembe for clarification on this, but tend to
view Mathews' 'Shegelewe of Hembe' from 60 years previously, as the more authentic
version.
Perhaps there are several versions, and there might well have been a dispute among my local
protagonists as to who Shegelewe was, had I asked. We should nevertheless remember that it
is Mathews who points to the Hembe as being the more autochthonous clan than the Gudule.
He does this by making not today's Hembe ward, but what would later become Kwalika, their
place of local origin. It is therefore contradictory to accept Hembe as the father-in-law of
Mughuze, and not Mathews' 'Shegelewe of Hembe', considering Hembe as a place only came
about after he or his forebears had moved on from Kwalika.
Hembe is a settlement unit to the immediate south of Kunde, and was, like Gathaghure, along
the border area between traditional Ghwa'a and Vaghagaya. We learned that Gathaghure
joined traditional Ghwa'a in early colonial times, while Gudule, adjacent to Gathaghure,
formed, at least administratively, part of Korana Basa (Figure 8). We know about Hembe as
the autochthonous father-in-law of Mughuze, and learned that Mughuze married Hembe's
daughter Bughwithe (originally known as Dugh Viye). Their son Balngada, to whom the
interview below refers at the beginning, is seen as a direct descendant of Mughuze. We told
the story of how Dugh Viye turned around, carrying baby Vaghagaya on her back, due to the
gravity of the stone in his hand. The Balngada are the founder lineage of Gathaghure. We
know that Hembe would have defended Gathaghure, if, in the past, the latter had been
attacked.
The following story is of how Mughuze was taken in by Hembe and then married his
daughter. He subsequently increased in number in comparison to the more numerous Gudule,
but Mughuze's descendants eventually defeated the Gudule. This is how it was told to me by
bulama Ghdaka of Hembe in 1995, when he refered to Balngada as 'Gathaghure'. We
reproduce the tale and leave the original English translation by John Zakariya mostly intact, to
preserve the ethnographic authenticity of this part of the interview:
186
