Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 198
Zal Nzage: According to John, this is a stranger who comes to settle. Somebody from
Vaghagaya who settles in Ghwa'a is called zal nzage. This also applies to somebody from
Guduf or anywhere outside Dghweɗe. It is somebody who has no base, and who is
exposed to being molested. He has no kin there.
Clan and lineage groups
It seems there are no clear terms for a clan or a lineage, but only terms that overlap in
meaning and which can also represent locality connections of settlement divisions. This is
nothing unusual, as shown by the history of the terms clan and lineage, but here we will avoid
a theoretical discussion about descent theory 2 and only use the terms as a technical reference
to local group membership based mainly on classificatory ancestral descent. Below we
discuss the terms ksage and kambarte, and from the limited data available we will see that
they are partly in opposition. By doing so we aim to establish best possible understanding of
the two Dghweɗe words, but still continue to use the expressions clan and lineage, in which
we view the term clan as the more embracing term, but often use lineage as an expression of
lineal descent, even for clan group ancestors.
In Korana Basa (1995) I was told that ksage was a reference to the genealogical origin of a
local descent group if one line of patrilineal descent was traced to an apical ancestor, while
kambarte referred to the specific nodal points of local ancestors within the all-embracing
ksage relationship. For example 'ksage Dghweɗe' meant that they all traced their descent to
Dghweɗe, while kambarte could be 'kambarte Ghwa'a or kambarte Vaghagaya', which I
interpret to be the two main localised maximal lineages of ksage Dghweɗe. Such an
interpretation makes ksage appear to be a term for clan, and kambarte a term for a lineage
section as a sub-unit of a Dghweɗe clan group. 3
By looking at the same scenario again, and by contextualising it with our acquired local
knowledge, we notice that my friends from Korana Basa gave a geographical and a
genealogical reference in their examples. By saying 'kambarte Ghwa'a or kambarte
Vaghagaya' they reinforced the patrilocal dimension of lineal descent between the two largest
clan groups of Dghweɗe. This reflects the traditional division of Dghweɗe as a whole, into
what we already identified as a late pre-colonial southern part and a northern part. We
illustrated this further in the chapter about the Dghweɗe house of Mbra. This suggests that an
understanding of the workings of ego-centred group formation is indeed conditional on what
ancestor-centred group membership meant in practice.
In Tatsa (1995) it was explained to me that I needed to include the term kuɗige (kitchen) to
truly understand the concept of ksage, since the genealogical origin grew from the sons of a
father who were born to one wife. This was illustrated by the example of the Gaske rainmaker
lineage. According to bulama Mbaldawa and elders, Gaske was ksage, while his descendants
in Tatsa, Sgana and Tagome were kambarte. The Gaske who had moved on had been born in
Ghwa'a to the same mother and father, together with other brothers who had remained in
Ghwa'a. This meant that they all originated from the same 'kitchen' in Ghwa'a, despite two of
them later moving to Tatsa where they married and started their own kuɗige as future base
units for new kambarte. Because the Gaske who had moved originated from the same kuɗige
(kitchen) as their brothers in Ghwa'a, together they were khaɓaka. This was a new term to me,
Adam Kuper (1988) gives a good summary of the history of descent theory by showing how 'clans'
and 'lineages' developed a theoretical group life of its own, which is also shown in our colonial sources.
We will return to that point in Chapter 3.21 when dealing with the misinterpretation of the concept of
lineage majority (gadghale) by colonial officers when they were promoting self-governance in the
Gwoza hills.
3
Meyer Fortes 1967 [1945]:45 explained that the Tallensi used 'the word for classes of plants and
animals' to also refer to 'agnatic maximal lineages' as a synonym for what in his opinion equates to a
clan.
2
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