Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 216
peacemaking mission. We were told that this particularly dangerous vavanza later rendered
him infertile and he could no longer reproduce.
It seems that many Ɗagha who handled this type of vavanza did not have many children, or
ended up with none. This was reportedly a reason why they often did not want to be involved.
Usually they did it on request. For example, in the past some of the more potent vavanza were
used to protect against being wounded in tribal warfare. The Ɗagha involved performed
sacrifices beforehand to protect themselves, such as the killing of a red cockerel, and as a
result the vavanza allegedly fell into their open hands without them having to pick it off the
plant. This example told to us by our local Ɗagha friends in Dghweɗe certainly gives the
notion of ritual handling a very literal meaning.
Ɗagha and Gaske past and now
We were told by our Dghweɗe friends that not all Ɗagha were peacemakers. Some only
performed healing and divination, using a floating type of Cissus quadrangularis called
vavanz mandatha (see Plate 63k of Table 12a), something which could also be carried out by
especially-talented ordinary Dghweɗe. On the other hand, only a Ɗagha who was able to
claim to be a descendant of Wasa-Mbra could be a peacemaker, and this entitled him to use
some of the most dangerous ritual Cissus quadrangularis varieties listed in Chapter 3.23 (see
Table 12b).
In Chapter 3.23 we will discuss the concept of skwe, as the general term for ritual treatment
for managing good and bad luck linked to certain diseases, in which vavanza played a key
role. In Chapter 3.21 we will describe and illustrate how a Ɗagha diviner used vavanz
mandatha to diagnose illness, and how he would use the same vavanza to heal someone's
spirit. Such divine healing was still performed during my time, but Christians and Muslims
would perhaps not have approved of it.
I was told by quite a few of my Dghweɗe friends during the mid-1990s that the power of
Ɗagha was fading away, while the power of Gaske was still quite strong. Also at that time the
rainmakers of Gharaza were seen to be particularly powerful. My friend said he could not
remember one year when one would not have required rain. During every rainy season people
would talk about needing a Gaske intervention, and they would collect money to take to the
children of Dzuguma in Gharaza.
In the past, Ɗagha tried to prevent people leaving the mountains to live in Gwoza, Maiduguri
or Barawa. But this was no longer an issue. In the past they put vavanza along the pathways
leading out to prevent people leaving. At the time they would even announce publicly that they
were putting vavanza down in the streets, and that nobody should venture out of the
settlement. For two or three days after such an intervention no one could leave. This shows
how in this case peacemaking meant maintaining the unity of Dghweɗe in their mountainous
homeland.
As a reverse Ɗagha peacemaking action, vavanza was also used to prevent people invading
Ghwa’a. They also used vavanza to keep misfortune away, to stop any problems or bad luck
coming to Ghwa’a from outside. It could relate to disease or plagues, leopards taking animals,
or be used to keep baboons and monkeys away.
Most Ɗagha peacemaking activities of this type had ceased maybe decades before I first
visited Dghweɗe in the mid-1990s. We presume that the last Ɗagha peacemaking rituals
involving the use of Cissus quadrangularis against humans were to prevent people leaving the
hills during late colonial times, and perhaps even into some time after independence.
What we did hear, in the context of the Boko Haram invasion, was that some of their
members allegedly used Ɗagha techniques to save themselves from discovery by the Nigerian
army when hiding in the mountains. It is not certain whether the rumour is true, but according
to the Dghweɗe diasporas, that is what happened during the early days of Boko Haram.
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