Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 225
of corn or millet years had started from planting to planting, and most rituals were performed
between the harvest of guinea corn and the planting of millet. That had changed, and for
example har ghwe could now also be performed in a millet year. During my time the bull
festival and the adult initiation cycle of dzum zugune had already ceased decades previously,
and we had to completely reconstruct them from the collective memory of our older friends
who were able to recall them from their young adult years.
The seven moon phases and the days of the week
The Dghweɗe approach to day and night shows a similarly practical way of viewing the year.
We have learned that they only counted the months during the labour-intensive period.
Similarly, they considered the day to be only as long as the sun was in the sky, which is
reflected in 'sun' (fice) as their word for the day. The night was considered to be something
different and was referred to as vɗe. This meant that they had no general word for a day
referring to a 24-hour rotation of the earth, but only for daylight. Still, the night was important
for observation of the moon, and during the moonlight periods I always observed a much
busier 'nightlife' taking place in Dghweɗe. There was also a 'Ɗagha moon', which points to
their ability of 'seeing' things that ordinary people could not.
Table 5e: The moon cycles according to John Zakariya
John
reiterated
the
importance of planting
being the beginning of
khuɗi-gurthe
the year, by saying that
even
if the Dghweɗe
nagha‐gawli’e
were to start planting at
the end of the month,
pithace tile
they would still call this
the 1st month of the
til maɗakwa
traditional year. John's
reference underpins the
taka ghar ce tile
importance
of
the
beginning of planting
gurth ce tile
having been seen as the
traditional beginning of
the Dghweɗe year. That ritual planting was reportedly linked to the guinea corn year
underpins our hypothesis about the ritual importance of sorghum as a bi-annual crop.
First night - the moon has disappeared:
'Dying moon'
Second, next night:
'Middle of dark'
Around the third night:
'Ga-Ɗagha people can see the moon'
After the fourth night:
'Everybody can now see the moon'
Fifth step - waxing moon for several days:
'The shining moon'
Sixth step - 1st day of full moon
'Middle of the moon/month'
Seventh step - several days of waning moon:
'Increasing dark towards dying moon'
mca ce tile
Bulama Tada Zangav (1995) of Hudimche informed us that the moonlight dance fuk giɗa was
traditionally performed after the harvest, but said this tradition too had already more or less
disappeared. During my time there I never witnessed a moonlight dance, but remember it very
well from my time in Gouzda during the 1980s. Other of my Mafa memories apply to the
playing of the antelope flutes, which only happened during the bull festival of a sorghum
year. We know the Dghweɗe celebrated their bull festival bi-annually and not a tri-annually
like many Mafa. Every Dghweɗe bull festival was about ritually closing a successful sorghum
year.
Before we move on to bulama Ngatha's description of the bi-annual calendar of the Dghweɗe,
we will list the days of the week as given to me by John Zakariya (1995):
Table 5f: The seven days of the Dghweɗe week
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
possibly derived from Hausa
Dghweɗe: market day in Gava
Dghweɗe: market day in Gwoza
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litinine
tathregwe
ruma go zgune
