Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 275
treated with this medicine to make them flower, or certain grasses that might otherwise be
considered weeds were tied to certain types of trees to stop the strong wind.
Useful grasses
Grasses played a huge role in Dghweɗe subsistence economy, and Table 7c shows a selection
of those mentioned by a variety of friends with the additional help of John. We can see that
most useful grasses are used for making mats and ropes or for roofing, while some had a
ritual function, and it seems that rainmakers used grasses the most in their ritual work. The
list is far from complete, and perhaps the conclusion drawn is incorrect due to lack of more
comparative data. We present some as photographs in Plate 19a and 19b below.
Table 7c: List of useful grasses used by the Dghweɗe
Botanical
name
Axonopus
Dghweɗe and
other languages
Ghalaghala
Hausa: Kirikiri
Dhava
Za'aghaya
Tgija wushile
Vraza
Kwazire
Short summaries of various uses
Carpet grass is used by rainmakers to tie to ngurangura
trees to control the growth of a crop. Against the strong
wind.
Zana mat (Hausa term generally used for grass mats).
For roofing houses. This grass is not removed as a weed
from a cultivated terrace field due to its function for
roofing. Members of the Ɗagha specialist lineage use it to
treat muscle tightness. They used this grass together with a
piece of charcoal and went over the body with it [Chapter
3.23].
Tgija is the name of this grass, while wushile means hegoat. This grass was used by rainmakers to tie around beans
to keep the flowers on the plant so that it could produce
beans. Rainmaker did that for the people. [see Plate 19b]
Used for zana mat production. It was also used by the
rainmakers.
Used for zana mat and played a role in the bull festival.
Plate 19a below shows an image of the carpet grass (ghalaghala) the rainmaker used to tie to
the ngurangura tree, but we are not sure whether the name Diospyros mespiliformis is
correct. It was reported that the rainmaker would tie carpet grass around the tree, and
depending on whether he tightened or loosened it he was able to control the wind, and in that
way demonstrate his power. We remember that rainmaker Ndruwe Dzuguma of Gharaza
explained how he 'tied the wind' for that very reason (see Table 5h). Apart from that, we do
not know whether carpet grass had any other use in Dghweɗe material culture.
Plate 19c shows how za'aghaya (ghaya = house) grass was used for roofing, and by the
Ɗagha specialist lineage to treat muscle tightness. We are not entirely sure whether the
reference of this grass being used for roofing only refers to rope making, or if this grass was
also used to cover the peak of a thatched roof. Unfortunately, we do not have any scientific
names for any of the useful grasses listed here, except for the carpet grass.
Finally, there was tgija wushile (Plate 19b), which was used by the rainmaker to promote the
growth of beans. We are not entirely sure whether the word wushile for he-goat is simply part
of the name of the grass, or whether it was used in any other way in the context of sacrificing
a he-goat. We see in our photograph that it grew between rocks. Plate 20b below shows how
we photographed our Dghweɗe rainmaker friend tying it to the flowering stem of a bean
plant.
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