Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 282
hamlet, because in my view it is the best maintained one that I came across in the
neighbourhood of Dghweɗe. We can see the extensive use of stone, and can assume with
good reason that it looked very similar in parts to how Dghweɗe looked a decade or so ago.
There was not much difference between the exteriors, but parts of the interiors were different,
as we can see in Plate 27a below where we present an elaborate Chikiɗe house shrine for
comparison.
We will briefly refer to elements of the smooth stonewalling of the Dghweɗe, Chikiɗe and the
Guduf in the light of key features of the archaeology of the DGB complex. We recommend
consulting the joint web presentations from 2002 1 to see the DGB architecture in greater
detail, and also my research from 2004 2 on the earlier mentioned pots with small apertures.
There we can see that these could be found all across the Gwoza hills, including the Gvoko,
Glavda and Lamang, along with the surrounding foothill areas. Comparatively, smooth
stonewalling such as that of the Dghweɗe could only be found among the three groups
already mentioned, behind which was the main worship area where many of the typical ritual
beer pots were kept. We will then discuss in the next chapter why we think the Dghweɗe
ritual beer pots had small apertures, and show a technical reconstruction of the way the small
apertures were once made.
Following that short comparative reminder, in the next section we will present the groundplan
of a traditional Dghweɗe house. After hopefully developing an idea of the architectural
principles of a traditional Dghweɗe house, we will demonstrate the interior architectural plan
of rooms and passageways, keeping to our digital documentation mentioned above. While we
will use greyscale versions of some of the most informative series of photographs, some of
them will be illustrated further with the help of computer drawing software. This involves
overlaying line drawings and the use of indicative letters to highlight the important elements
of parts of the internal building. The most important building materials were stone, wood and
adobe plastering. We divide the house into two main parts, which consists of the foyer area
and lower and upper room complex, and the animal sheds. While the kitchens, children's
room and granaries were part of the foyer area, the animal sheds were linked to the father's
and the first wife's room. The three granaries were the structures that divided the central
passageway from the upper passageway.
The landscaped terrain of a settlement
We have learned in the previous chapters that the Dghweɗe constructed their houses where
they found enough stones and clay to build, while surface water was not desirable since it was
important to avoid flooding. Unlike the Mafa or the Gvoko, but similar to their next-door
neighbours the Chikiɗe and Guduf, they used stone rather than adobe for the outer walls of
the main buildings. However the granaries and many other parts were also made of adobe.
The most significant similarity between them was the smooth front dry stone wall called
dhanga with the frequently decorated large thatched roof of thala above it. There is no literal
translation for thala, but we translate it here as house shrine, and use the word thala in the
context of its various other applications, as in 'stomach' of thala or 'bed' of thala.
On each side of the front walls, the houses had a kitchen with a smaller thatched roof, which
gave them their typical impressive look when individual houses agglomerated into hamlets on
terraced hillsides. Two or three houses often shared an elevated foundation platform amid
carefully maintained terraced infields, which the Dghweɗe referred to as the 'stomach of the
settlement' (khuɗi luwa). We have already discussed the importance of manure in keeping the
infields fertile, and in the subsequent chapter section we will describe how the Dghweɗe also
used the word 'stomach' (khuɗi) when referring to their house shrines as 'stomach' of thala.
This highlights terrace farming as being the main means of food production, and as such is a
1
2
David, Muller-Koack, Sterner (2001/2002): https://www.mandaras.info/DGB_NCameroon/index.htm
Muller-Kosack (2004): https://www.mandaras.info/DGB-Godaliy_Research/index.htm
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