Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 367
After the planting of the spear in the dunghole, the participants of the stage ngwa yiye joined
together with the senior rainmaker in a public initiation ceremony called fstaha. The senior
rainmaker was the one who started the traditional year of the Dghweɗe, by planting a guinea
corn seed along with a piece of manure, weeks before the first rain was expected.
In the meantime, the performers of the first step of the second stage ngwa garda had changed
their dresses at the place down the hill. With the help of their zal fstaha, they had wrapped
themselves around the hips in several layers of skins belonging to elder women. Next, two
strips of white cow skin were tied diagonally over the chest and shoulders to replace the
leather and cowrie sashes worn previously. A third strip of white cow skin was tied on top of
the skins around the waist. They also attached belts of bells and rattles made from brass
around their waists and ankles. A war helmet was worn, with fine metal strips hanging down
over the sides of the face.
The ngwa garda had now changed to ngwa kwalanglanga to start the journey back uphill
again, to complete the second step of the second stage. This time it was not a race but rather a
dance, in that they walked up to certain places and danced there before moving on. The most
important stopping place on the way up was the house of the lineage priest thaghaya
(meaning seventh born/custodian) of Ghwa'a. Traditionally his task was to perform the most
important local rituals before other heads of families could perform their own.
The performers danced at his house for some time and then went on to a place called Ɓag
Haya, halfway to Fkagh ga Maruwa. There their wives showered them with guinea corn flour
and the flour of tiger nuts. At the same time the women sang and praised their performing
husbands. After leaving Ɓag Haya, the performers of ngwa kwalanglanga went back to Fkagh
Gwatadhe, the place where they had started the race as ngwa garda, and continued from there
to Fkagh ga Maruwa.
The ones who had performed ngwa yiye, the third stage, had come to Fkagha ga Maruwa also
and they watched the ngwa kwalanglanga as they arrived. Everybody then joined in the
dancing at this local place in Ghwa'a. Next, the participants of ngwa kwalanglanga emerged
from the group and ran towards a small hill nearby and surrounded it, and then returned to
Fkagh ga Maruwa, where they now performed on their own the actual dance of ngwa
kwalanglanga.
Young men who had not yet started dzum zugune at all, appeared in traditional dresses and
started to dance at another local place in Ghwa'a, called Sarara, near the border of Vaghagaya,
the southern part of traditional Dghweɗe. On the following day these same young men would
come to Fkagh ga Maruwa to dance there as well.
The ngwa kwalanglanga would then go to perform the final step of the second stage called
fstaha. I mentioned earlier that the performers of the third stage, ngwa yiye, had done their
fstaha at the rainmaker's house. The fstaha was the beer ceremony performed after the ritual
planting of the spear into the dunghole. The fstaha ceremonies for both stages were similar,
but while the fstaha of the ngwa yiye took place at the rainmaker's house, the fstaha for the
ngwa kwalanglanga took place within their homes.
For the fstaha ceremony of ngwa kwalanglanga, a person sat down on a traditional stool
(vde). Another held a small beer pot called suteke. The pot jahurimbe, from the entry
ceremony of dzum zugune (ngwa hamtiwe), was also part of this ceremony. Zal fstaha (the
initiated assistant) took a calabash filled with beer which he swirled three times around
suteke. This was held for him by a young unmarried girl. Zal fstaha offered this beer to the
person sitting on the stool, who refused by indicating with his hands. Zal fstaha swirled the
beer around the pot to offer to a second person. This person also refused. After moving the
calabash around the beer pot for the third time, zal fstaha drank the beer from the calabash at
the same time as the performer, both their heads together. After that, no one rejected the offer
and all enjoyed the beer together.
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