Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 200
Vragei of course is Vaghagaya, which he classes as an exogamous lineage group occupying
the individual wards of Korana Basa, Korana Kwandama, Hudimche and Gharaza. We are
already familiar with this local setting from the previous chapter. This implies, if we follow
Mathews, that Kwalika, Gathaghure, Ghwa'a, Kunde and Taghadigile are also exogamous.
We know that Kwalika and Gathaghure descend directly from Mughuze, but recognise that
Mathews does not list Takweshe separately. We know however that Takweshe was also
occupied by direct descendants of Mughuze, while Taghadigile was occupied by descendants
of Washile and as such was linked to Ghwa'a and Kunde.
We see from the above that Mathews confuses place names with clan or lineage names, and at
the same time he says that most of them were exogamous. If we compare his list with our
Table 4 in Chapter 3.1 which lists the Dghweɗe settlement units and lineage names, we can
see that each of his place units had several lineages living there. If we compare these with our
Dghweɗe lineage tree (Figure 12), and then with the more detailed descending tree for
Thakara only (Figure 12d) whom Mathews does not mention at all, we recognise that
Ngaladewe, Washile, Btha and Nighine were all lineages in Ghwa'a. If we now single out
Washile as an example we can see that Washile was the only lineage among them which had
split further as a result of moving on to other localities, but remained with Ghwa'a as their
shared local beginning. In Figure 13 below we reproduce the Thakara lineage connections
together with the localised spread of Washile to demonstrate this again, and apply the terms
ksage and kambarte for better understanding.
Figure 13 demonstrates that the Gajiwe lineage lived in Kunde and Taghadigile, while the
Leshe and the Fakuwe both lived in Kunde. Only the descendants of Dzata stayed in Ghwa'a,
and most of the Ndawaya moved on to a new place unknown to us. All other direct
descendants of Thakara remained in Ghwa'a, and we know that the Btha lineage were
thaghaya (seventh-born custodians). In this way they provided the lineage priests for all the
descendants of Thakara.
Figure 13: Example of kambarte and ksage in relation to Thakara-Ngara of Ghwa'a
Ngara [ksage]
|
Thakara [kambarte]
__________________|_____________________________________
|
|
|
|
Ngaladewe (Ghwa)
Washile [ksage]
Btha (Ghwa'a)
Nighine (Ghwa'a)
|
(thaghaya lineage)
_________________|_________________________________
|
|
|
|
|
Gajiwe
Dzata
Leshe
Fakuwe
Ndawaya
(Kunde & Taghadigile) (Ghwa'a)
(---------Kunde--------)
(moved on)
We know that all the lineages were potentially exogamous, but not necessarily according to
where they lived, as shown in the example of Washile. We refer to Washile here as ksage
from the genealogical point of view of his descendants Gajiwe, Dzata, Leshe and Fakuwe.
Washile and his co-descendants Ngaladewe, Btha and Nighine would possibly refer to Ngara
as their ksage connection, while Thakara was their local beginning in Ghwa'a, and as such
their kambarte ancestor. The Btha as the thaghaya lineage (seventh born) were responsible
for local custodianship, similar to the Ghuna lineage of the Vaghagaya. We will discuss the
distribution of local shrines and their custodianship links across Dghweɗe in Chapter 3.9.
Exogamy rules
I learned that sknukwe were a group of 'brothers' who could not intermarry because they were
related through the male line only, while zbe referred to being unable to intermarry due to
matrilateral relations along both parents' extended family lines. Apparently, in the case of zbe
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