Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 240
When I started working in the Gwoza hills in 1994 I was very much inspired by my work
among the Mafa, and was systematically mapping local shrines in the foothill communities. I
started in the Lamang-speaking area, and after working my way around the hills I realised that
most clan or lineage groups had their own local shrines. I came to this realisation by not only
mapping the local shrines, but also their ritual owners. This was still part of my 1994 survey
study described in Part One. Unfortunately I did not maintain that systematic mapping regime
when I started working in Dghweɗe, which means we are not able to correlate the shrines
listed in this chapter with an exact geographical location. However, what we seem to have
worked out is that the Dghweɗe distinguish between lineage shrines (khalale) and other local
shrines. We also know that the Dghweɗe, similar to the Mafa of Gouzda, had a calendrical
regime related to their family ancestors reaching back at least three generations, and the
rituals were performed in the foyer of the house. By comparison, the Mafa of Gouzda used
the front courtyard for serving their family ancestors up to four generations removed
(ibid:187ff).
We start our chapter on the distribution and custodianship of local shrines in Dghweɗe by first
examining the different types of shrines we can distinguish, and first of all point to Durghwe
as the most important shrine. We have referred on several occasions to the importance of
Durghwe, and we will discuss its various aspects as a mountain shrine separately in Chapter
3.17. For the present chapter we have worked out a basic structure to classify Dghweɗe local
shrines, one category being what we call lineage shrine (khalale), and in the first chapter
section we present as an example the Vaghagaya lineage shrine. After that there is a dedicated
section on the spatial aspect of the Dghweɗe ritual order as it progressed from the house to the
lineage group sites. There we present the sacrifice to a lineage shrine, called har khalale,
roughly meaning 'slaughtering for the lineage shrine', and ask ourselves whether this might
have been a regular sacrifice in the past.
In the section after that we provide the reader with a list of seventh-born sons (thaghaya) as
custodians or lineage priests across Dghweɗe, and explain and discuss that list. We close the
chapter with a final section listing places that have ritual functions across Dghweɗe. Some of
the places listed will occur later in other contexts, such as in the chapter on the various stages
of the adult initiation rituals (dzum zugune) in Ghwa'a, and also in the chapter about
existential personhood, where we discuss cursing. We remember the legend in which the
mother of Vaghagaya cursed her son Kwili'a for not being supportive of her, and that
subsequently his lineage did not increase. This in turn would have meant that his lineage
never owned a lineage shrine.
We remember our hypothesis, from the chapter about specialist lineages, that neither the
Gaske rainmakers nor the Ɗagha peacemaker lineages seemed to have owned lineage shrines,
while the Gazhiwe cornblessers did have one in the oral historical context of Gudule. We are
not going to discuss this aspect separately here, but are aware that none of the local shrines
we list was owned by either of them.
Types of shrines
The Dghweɗe seem to distinguish between two main types of local shrines for worshipping.
One is the lineage shrine referred to as khalale, and the others are communal shrines
unattached to a specific lineage ancestry (such as Vaghagaya) and are named in terms of
custodianship only. My friend John explained that they would not be referred to as khalale,
but by their proper name, for example 'Durghwe'. Durghwe was topographically the highest
community shrine in Dghweɗe, mentioned in the context of Vaima's expedition to see the
resident of Borno and the legendary account of Zedima, but we will neglect Durghwe here.
There were other places of local interest I am going to name, and will briefly deal with them
when they are raised in the context of a chapter. Some of them are places for cursing, and
such places were listed by some British colonial officers. I do not really consider cursing
238
