Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 362
for prosperity. We also recognised how much both the harvest festival and the bull festival
were communal activities representing the success of the whole Dghweɗe community, and the
important ritual role the seventh born (thaghaya) played as the fortunate one, but we need to
remember that the eighth-born child could in the past fall victim to infanticide. This indicates
that the success via the seventh born was not at all guaranteed, which returns us to the risk of
bad luck. We infer that this can perhaps best be linked to the potential risk of food shortage,
which was always lurking in the background as a result of severe aridity and other disastrous
environmental events. This risk might not only have brought about conflict and competition
over local resources, but also a great need for unity and peace in better times, not only for
Dghweɗe, but perhaps even beyond, something the travelling bull festival and harvest festival
across interethnic boundaries might once have represented.
In the next chapter we will present the Dghweɗe adult initiation rituals dzum zugune, literally
meaning 'going male', for becoming an accomplished adult. It could only be performed by
married men and must therefore be distinguished from other initiation rites which only mark
the transition from adolescence to early manhood. We will discuss possible reasons why the
Gudule did not perform dzum zugune, despite them having been the custodians (thaghaya) of
starting the bull festival in Dghweɗe.
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