Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 209
Chapter 3.7
Specialist lineage groups
Introduction
Among the clans and lineages of the Dghweɗe there are specialist groups. One of these are
the Ɗagha who were known as peacemakers and diviners. They held a powerful position in
Dghweɗe society. The Ɗagha owned a great variety of Cissus quadrangularis (vazanza),
which were considered to be agents for regulating conflict situations or events. In Chapter
3.23 we present a list of the ritual varieties of vavanza used in Dghweɗe culture for
prevention and cure, and learn that they were not only owned by Ɗagha specialists but were
often commonly owned. Still, representatives of the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage owned many
of them, especially those seen as dangerous applications.
Apart from the peacemaker lineage, there were the rainmaker and cornblesser lineages, which
were often considered as complementary pairs. They were known throughout the Gwoza hills,
one dealing with environmental conditions from above through the control of rain and wind,
and the other dealing with the elements at work from below as in the fertility of the soils. This
had a cosmological dimension in terms of handling the management of fecundity and was
socially organised as ritual specialism by the patrilineal pairing of full brothers. This means
that the earlier mentioned cosmological interface can be found in the Dghweɗe lineage tree
(Figure 12), in the form of the complementary ancestral roots of Gudule and Ske being seen
as sons of the same 'kitchen' (kuɗige), meaning that they had the same mother.
The subregional aspect of cosmological pairing is demonstrated in the example of the celestial
origin of Amuda the cornblesser, who was in this way related to the local rainmaker lineage
Ganjara. The Amuda are a very small ethnic group at the foothills of the eastern plain, and
they inherited the divine gift of cornblessing from their paternal ancestor. He was believed to
have brought Cissus quadrangularis with him as his divine food. In the Dghweɗe case, it was
the Gudule lineage Gazhiwe who inherited cornblessing, as a punishment given to their
lineage 'father' Gudule for having been too keen to please a local girl. He had secretly cut the
white tail of his father's beloved cow as a present for the girl, which resulted in him being
excluded from rainmaking. At the same time he was promoted, and was made custodian
(thaghaya) of Dghweɗe, with the responsibility of starting the bull festival. This was at least
how the Gudule explained their relationship with the Gaske, who were given the job of being
exclusive rainmakers by their shared lineage ancestor Tasa.
The Dghweɗe also seemed to like to connect the cosmological concept of twinhood with that
of descent in the context of their specialist lineage groups. This will be discussed here, and we
will show a couple of alternative scenarios suggested to us by some of our Dghweɗe friends,
in which, for example, Tasa and Wasa, as the key ancestors of all Dghweɗe specialist
lineages, appear differently. This aspect touches on the Dghweɗe culture of naming, and the
naming of twins, who are generally seen as communal reincarnations of previous twins. For
both of these we have dedicated chapters further on. We are briefly going to raise the aspect
of pairing here because of its relevance for linking specialist lineage descent and the
promotion of fecundity.
We have already mentioned the other Ɗagha specialist lineage, known as Ɗagha Kadzgwara,
and have pointed out that they have an oral historical connection to Mutube and Mulgwe,
mainly via the Lamang-speaking groups of the western plain. They are not seen as true
Ɗagha, and we will briefly revisit the distinction between the two Ɗagha specialist lineages
in this chapter, by pointing again to the importance of the role of clan medicines not only for
promoting fecundity, but also for controlling plagues and diseases. We revisit that aspect in
the chapter about the bull festival, in the context of the regionalisation of lineage specialism
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