Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 321
Summary of sequential order of the schematic base elements of har ghwe:
1. Beer is filled into both of the tughdhe thala inside the lower kitchen, where they remain
overnight.
2. Next morning a he-goat is slaughtered.
3. Father's grave is cleared and tughdhe kule is taken there for ritual consumption.
4. Tughdhe kule is placed between roofs above the joint entrance of lower and upper room.
5. Exogamous lineage brothers cook ritual sauce in the dedicated male sauce kitchen.
6. Zal thaghaya calls other participants from outside to join the celebrations.
7. The ceremony over the potsherds inside 'stomach' of thala is carried out.
8. The ceremony with eating bowl filled with beer over ancestor stones is carried out while
both tughdhe thala remain filled with beer inside 'stomach' of thala.
9. Rest of the beer from tughdhe kule is drunk outside the tiny dada ancestor room.
Before we move on to discuss what we know about other ritual pots, we show in Plate 37a and
37b two images of the ritual beer pots in Buba's 'stomach' of thala, one from 1998 and another
from 2005. Buba explained to me in 2005 that he had removed his father's personal tughdhe
thala and still needed to replace it with his own. Since then he has died, and now we do not know
what the situation is due to the impact of Boko Haram. Many of the old Traditionalists were
forced to join the sect after 2012, and if Buba were still alive he would most likely not have dared
carry out any such ritual of the past.
In Plate 37a we see Buba's father's personal tughdhe thala pot to the left (A), and recognise that it
was placed on the same side as the dada stone of his deceased father, namely at the foot of his
stomach of thala. We remember the use of potsherds during har ghwe, and that they had been
positioned in line with the ancestor stones. In the centre of Plate 37a we see the jahurimbe beer
bowl (B), and to the right Buba's father's zal jije pot (C) correctly positioned behind the wuje
stone representing his deceased great grandfather. We also remember the ritual potsherds being
put there for the har ghwe ritual (see Figure 20b again).
Plate 37a: Buba's main three ritual thala pots in 1998
Plate 37b: Buba's zal jije pot in 2005
Plate 37b shows the small aperture of his father's zal jije pot (C), and the little ndafa sauce pot
(D) on the left. The latter was taken, together with the jahurimbe bowl in the centre of Plate 37a,
for libating beer over the three ancestor stones. The photo in Plate 37b was taken in 2005 after
Buba's father had died, but if we compare the two zal jije pots, we see the broken piece from the
outer rim of the pot in both, and realise they are identical. That the zal jije pot was still the same
after his father's death seems to confirm that the personal tughdhe thala had so far been taken out
and presumably ritually broken, but we do not know whether it had already been replaced by a
tughdhe kule to be stored in the dada ancestor room. After all, the personal tughdhe thala
represented the life force of a zal thaghaya as owner of the house having come to an end. That in
the meantime Buba, as the new zal thaghaya and owner of the house, had not yet put his personal
tughdhe thala there seems unfortunate, but we can no longer ask Buba how he is doing, and
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