Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 217
Conclusion
There were three types of specialist lineage groups, of which the peacemaker lineage Ɗagha
and the rainmaker lineage Gaske were on the one hand perhaps the most prominent, while on
the other hand the rainmaker lineage Gaske and the cornblesser lineage Gazhiwe were more
representative of the cosmological dimension of the pairing of complementary ritual skills.
We used the example of Amuda and his divine food, and pointed to the similarity between
Amuda and Gudule, both being owners and communal custodians of their land. In that respect
we indicated cornblessing as having more to do with the fertility of the soils, and we know
that the Gudule were once defeated because the Mughuze-Ruwa replaced them as the largest
clan group. The role of the Gazhiwe as main cornblessers, and the fact that the Gudule were
considered as Dghweɗe thaghaya (custodians) of ritually starting the bull festival, is linked to
the importance of dung. We have not yet ethnographically contextualised the link between
manure production and the typical Dghweɗe mixed farming system, but already know how
crucial this was for keeping the soils fertile.
Aside from the similarity with Amuda and Gudule, and the fact that cosmological pairing
between cornblessers and rainmakers occur between both of them, the Gaske and Ɗagha are
in terms of local group formation not rooted in the custodianship of their territory, but are
associated lineages. In that respect we were able to establish a similarity between the Gaske
and the Ganjara, considering both were rainmaker lineages. We pointed out the other
Dghweɗe versions, showing the tendency of pairing or even tripling, by using the Dghweɗe
naming system as an underlying model for ancestral descent and local group formation. There
we saw Wasa and Wala as names for an older and a younger twin, appearing as 'fathers' of
Gaske and Ɗagha, while the name Ghamba for the next-born younger brother of twins was
seen to be the 'father' of Gazhiwe (instead of Gudule).
We discussed the importance of Cissus quadrangularis in connection with the very important
specialist lineage Ɗagha, and quoted Baba Musa, a former Ɗagha peacemaker, and showed
his tree of descent, and the legend in which the three 'sons' of Thigiɗa introduced them to the
special powers they were about to inherit. We again pointed out the difference between the
two Ɗagha lines in Dghweɗe, and that only the Ɗagha who were descended from Wasa were
seen as having the ritual entitlement to use particularly strong and powerful ritual vavanza
varieties for peacemaking. This could have led to infertility, particularly if very potent Cissus
quadrangularis were used, as shown in the example of Vaima (Baima). Our Dghweɗe friends
also told us that the Ɗagha had greater importance in the past, and that their influence had
faded away, while the rainmaker lineage Gaske was still very much in demand during the
mid-1990s, especially during the growing season.
We suggested again that rainmaking could, in any of these contexts, be interpreted as a
blessing from above, while cornblessing was associated with the ritual promotion of the
fertility of the earth from below. The interpretation of blessings from above and below is not
an expression my Dghweɗe protagonists would have used, but an ethnographic generalisation
we apply when referring to the underlying pre-Copernican cosmographic orientation of the
Dghweɗe of the past. It is a literary device, to evoke in the readership with a Coperican view
of the world, a relinquishing of their cosmographic orientation, substituting a vision of the
earth as a primordial ground rather than a functional modern surface world. We describe the
pre-colonial Dghweɗe view of the world from such a perspective in Chapter 3.16, which also
includes a discussion of a definition of the divine, and how it transcended their way of life on
the individual and collective level of interaction with their often crisis-ridden mountain
environment.
The next chapter introduces us to the basics of the ritual calendar of the Dghweɗe. This will
provide us with a structural framework with which to interpret their rituals as representations
of the struggle for survival in a cyclical semi-arid environment. We already mentioned that
terrace cultivation is a labour-intensive form of agriculture, and which therefore required a
higher population density than shifting cultivation in the plains. The ritual sequences as they
215
