Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 339
All mixtures are used together according to need. They put them in a pot on a fire together with
oil, and fry it before grinding it again. And this how they apply it to the crops.
A ram is only sacrificed when lightning kills people. They will then slaughter the ram, mix the
blood with mahogany oil and use the leaves of the ngurangura tree [Diospyros mespiliformis; see
Table 7a in Chapter 3.10 for details] and put leaves into the blood and oil so that the lightning will
not kill them, otherwise it would kill people again. Against lightning, they also use huɓa fite (fite
= lightning). [There were different types of huɓa (Urginea maritima) but the general name is
huɓa; see Plate 20a in Chapter 3.10 for details]
Cockerel is slaughtered as sacrifice before using all kinds of vavanza and huɓa. He-goat is also
used for that. Cow is not sacrificed but only bull for bull festival.
The stones they use for rainmaking are inherited from their great great grandfathers. It was given
to them as a gift from God but nowadays they do not find them anymore. The reason is that their
sacrifices are no longer as powerful as before due to the coming of Islam and Christianity.
The rainstones their ancestors used are kept in Viringwa Ruta’s house. This is their original house
in Ghwa’a and this man who was also a rainmaker lives there now. If I would see these stones I
would be surprised, the rainmaker adds. The rainmakers from Gharaza go there to make rain with
these stones as well. Among these stones there is one stone they turn, to grind dag mbarɗa on it.
There is one object of iron consisting of a bent shape they tie together, called ta’iya ngare (ta’iya
is the bent shaped iron object and ngare = beans) and apart from beans it also contains vavanza
medicine (Cissus quadrangularis) inside.
Rainmakers hang their bundles through the hole of the gude (loft) to show it hanging there
exposed to the eye, and then take it back again. This means there will be lots of beans that year.
The rainmaker does this for example in Viringwa Ruta’s house when he goes there to do rituals. In
the past when the farm products grew bad they went to Ghwa’a to turn that stone to grind dag
mbarɗa, and also used the ta’iya ngare. But before they did that, the people of Ghwa’a brought
he-goats to sacrifice over these items. After the sacrifice was offered it would rain.
During the dry season, they keep the stones where they were.
In the past, they ate stones as food. Stones were soft. Then, when time went on, guinea corn was
brought by a dog and they started using it to cook food. Later stones became so hard that they
were uneatable.
Ndruwe Dzguma explained that the rainstones were inherited from their forefathers, and he
names Viringwa Ruta's house in Ghwa'a where the most ancient rainstones were kept and where
rainmakers would like to go and use them. He thought of them as being particularly effective.
He also told us that the rainmaker would hang his 'bundle' in the hole of Viringwa Dzguma's loft
(gude) to make them more powerful. Unfortunately we do not know whether it was Viringwa
Dzguma's upper loft or the lower loft of his first wife. Rainmakers also made parts of the
medicinal mixture of dag mbarɗe in Viringwa Dzguma's house, which was, according to
bulama Mbaldawa of Tatsa, a general name for the medicine for taking care of crops and
beans. Ndruwe Dzguma explained that one of the rainstones in Viringwa Ruta's house was
turned upside down and used to grind some of the ingredients for this. Ndruwe Dzguma
seemed to further suggest that rainmakers went to Viringwa Ruta's house to carry out
important rain rituals, and to produce a whole variety of medicines to improve the yield of
crops. We described, in our chapter about working the land, the medicine called magulisa
which contained charcoal and huɓa (Urginea maritima), a wild onion, which was used to
increase the yield of crops and animals. Huɓa with water was also given to the goats and
sheep before they were released after the harvest, to increase their reproductive capacity. We
also remember that Kumba Zadva, the founding ancestor of the Zelidiva, revived his children
with huɓa, which he had discovered following the advice of a female spirit agent linked to
water.
A ta’iya ngare was presumably an iron amulet filled with Cissus quadrangularis (vavanza)
and beans (ngare), which was mentioned by Ndruwe Dzguma as part of his rainmaker's
'bundle', and we infer that the same applied to the tgija grass. We therefore think that this
grass was also part of the rainmakers 'bundle' which was hung in the opening of the loft
337
