Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 338
which one stands erect, which looks like gneiss. Rainstones were generally called kwir yewe,
meaning 'stones for rain'.
We remember from the arrangement of the two images of Plate 14 (Chapter 3.8) which showed
the younger brother of Ndruve Dzguma making rain in his house in Tatsa in 1996, that he also
had arranged his rainstones in what looked like a large piece of potsherd. However he was using
a modern metal bowl to pour the mix of sorghum flour and water over the rainstones, which
resembled a symbolic arrangement of mountains. We therefore suggest that the rainstones and
potsherd need to be seen as an intentional arrangement, in which the potsherd reminds us of the
role of potsherds as representations of a shared ancestral past in other ritual arrangments.
We do not know for sure whether rainstones were never taken out of the house, as Ndruwe
Dzguma told us, and there might have been exceptions. What we can gather from his account
below is that in the past rainmakers went to the houses of their senior Gaske rainmakers and
carried out rituals using the particularly powerful rainstones kept there. Ndruwe Dzguma began
by giving a sequential summary of the different traditional sacrifices, which we have already
quoted in parts in the chapter about the distribution and custodianship of local shrines. There he
referred to man skwe as an obligatory ritual which included sorghum flour in water being poured
over the ancestor stones. Perhaps Ndruwe Dzguma was referring to serving the ancestor stones in
his own house to preserve the power of his rainstones.
We will learn more about the concept of man skwe (man = handling; skwe = ritual treatment),
and the different types of skwe as ownerships of a variety of ritual treatments, in Chapter 3.23.
The man skwe Ndruwe Dzguma referred to was in our opinion linked to the rainstones as part of
the skwe a rainmaker owned, the ground sorghum flour in water poured over them being part of
the ritual treatment. According to Ndruwe Dzguma, it was the rainstones of Viringwa Ruta of
Ghwa'a which were the most powerful. He claimed that Viringwa Ruta was once the most senior
Dghweɗe rainmaker, but we do not know the location of his house in Ghwa'a. Ndruwe Dzuguma
tells us about one particularly impressive rain stone in Viringwa Ruta's house which was used as
a grinding stone for making clan medicines by all the rainmakers. This throws additional light on
the importance of stone, not only as a building material and ancestor stones, but as a ritual tool, in
this case the large rainstone of a senior Dghweɗe rainmaker as a medicine grinding stone.
Rainmaker Ndruwe Dzguma from Gharaza (1995) explained:
Thaghaya, the seventh born, is the one who inherits all the equipment for rainmaking, including
the house, but it is the firstborn, vjir mile (vjir = child; mile = first), who does all the necessary
sacrifices before thaghaya can act upon his task using the equipment. Ndruwe is now thaghaya
because the one who was thaghaya before him has left. Perɗa is the name of his older brother and
he is the senior brother who comes to his house doing the traditional Dghweɗe sacrifices and this
is the same across Dghweɗe.
God has distributed all sorts of gifts and talents, and the Gaske have the ability to make rain, while
the Ɗagha people were given the ability to use vavanza (Cissus quadrangularis). Ndruwe said that
he did not learn how to make rain, and that some children of the same father might be more gifted
than others. One can perform, just like that, he says, and adds: 'Nobody knows at the beginning
whether he has that gift. It is only when you perform that people will be surprised. But even when
you are gifted you have to wait for your elder brother to allow you to use the equipment. It is also
not necessarily thaghaya who is the most gifted, but it is thaghaya who inherits the father’s house
and with it the equipment for rainmaking since it cannot be removed from the house.'
For making rain he uses:
kwire yewe
rainstones [kwire = stone; yewe = water, rain]
tgija
grass used by rainmaker [see Plate 19b, Plate 20b and Table 7b in Chapter
3.10 for more details of its use]
humtara
a variety of vavanza used to put in he-goats mouth which will burst, and it
will die instead of being slaughtered by knife [this way of sacrificing a hegoat was done before threshing or immediately after harvesting]
dag mbarɗe
medicine mixture to increase the yield [is similar to magulisa - see Chapter
3.10 for more details]
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