Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 235
already know from our Table of Contemporaneity in Chapter 2.1 of Part Two. We connected
the Tur tradition with the wet period of the 17th century, of which the development of what
would become Korana Basa is, in oral historical terms, at the tail, while 'Johode' (Ghwa'a), as
the early arrival zone, forms the oral-historical starting point. In chronological terms, the
expansion of the Vaghagaya, here marked as 'Korana Basa', is contemporary not only with the
Wandala capital having been moved to Doulo, but also with the end of the DGB period, with
DGB1 as the latest active and most impressive of the sites, also in terms of size.
Figure 16: The paleoclimatic context of archaeological, written and oral source locations
If we consider for a moment our Dghweɗe calendar, with the bull festival perhaps prospering
during this wet period, as well as perhaps the competitive adult initiation cycle dzum zugune,
we could see 'Johode' as having already existed as an early arrival zone before the extreme
rise of rainfall. We suggested in Chapter 2.1 that DGB1 might have experienced a revival
period during the mid-16th century, when Idris Alauma of Borno, as a result of his siege,
replaced the 'pagan usurper' of Kirawa the 'brother of Umar'. This puts the formation of
Dghweɗe, as we come to know them in this book, into the wet period, presumably
contemporary with the formation of the Mafa. This highlights the end of the DGB period,
which was marked by the capital of Wandala being moved from Kirawa, first to Doulo and
later to Mora. We refer to that period as ‘the late pre-colonial’, of which we managed to
identify the tail end by connecting the oral history of local warfare to the early colonial
history of names and places as passed on to us by Max Moisel (see Chapter 3.1 and 3.2).
If we consult Figure 16 again, we can see that throughout the last 300 years, the Dghweɗe,
who were by then fully formed, were confronted with a very cyclical palaeoclimatic history of
at least four higher and six lower interchanging Lake Chad water levels. If we add up the
higher and lower water levels we have ten altogether, and if we divide 300 by 10, we come to
an average of 30 years of either arid or semi-arid climate conditions. This is quite a distinct
pattern in comparison to the previous palaeoclimatic pattern of climate change in our
subregion. Considering how far north the Gwoza hills reach towards the Sahel region, we can
imagine that in the labour-intensive terrace culture of the Dghweɗe, which was by then fully
developed, an ambitious target for an adult might well have been the ability to keep all three
granaries full for seven years. This is of course only a hypothetical scenario, but perhaps not
unconvincing, as the Dghweɗe calendar presented above presumably evolved under these
palaeoclimatic conditions.
Our palaeoclimatic background scenario in Figure 16 shows that DGB2 existed much earlier,
perhaps long before the Tur tradition (at least the way we have come to know it) came about.
We also see that Kirawa as a historical place most likely already existed during the early days
of the formation of Wandala state, following the move from Ishga Kawe further north. It was
king Agamakiya who was then first king of Wandala, and his son Abalaksaka who followed
him, during the most likely early days of this rapidly deteriorating first wet and then very arid
period. We infer that this triggered an early north-to-south migration, and we know from our
source the early Venetian mapmaker Fra Mauro, that not only Wandala but also the Margi
already existed as place names in the historical records.
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