Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 368
The second step of fstaha involved a calabash containing three portions of cooked guinea
corn placed one on top of the other. Zal fstaha took the top portion in his two hands and broke
it into two parts over the head of the performer. He gave one part to the performer's family
and shared the second part with the performer and the other participants of the ritual. The two
remaining portions were shared out between the other spectators and neighbours. A lot of
food and beer was then shared out between the people gathered in the performer's house. This
was the celebration of fstaha. As already mentioned, fstaha for the performers of the second
stage ngwa kwalanglanga took place at each performer's house, whereas for the third stage,
the ngwa yiye, the beer ceremony was enacted for each of the performers at the rainmaker's
house.
After the ngwa yiye left the rainmaker's house, they divided into two groups and went to two
different rocks in Ghwa'a, depending on which rock was closer to their house. They all had to
jump from one of those rocks. It was important to land firmly and not loose balance because
this would mean loss of life that year for that person. After that, the yiye went around their
neighbourhood to let everyone know that they had just completed ngwa yiye, the third stage
of dzum zugune. At home, much beer and food was prepared for family and neighbours. They
now had to wait until the next guinea corn year to finally complete the process.
The fourth and final stage of dzum zugune was called bak zalika. When the performers of the
first stage ngwa hamtiwe had completed it after four days of dancing, the performers of the
second stage had to run downhill and return uphill to the lineage priest's house, having
changed their dresses down the hill to transform from ngwa garda into ngwa kalanglanga.
The ngwa yiye too, having performed their part dressed in black cotton robes as ‘black cows’,
helped to plant the rainmaker's spear in the dunghole. When all these groups had performed
their fstaha and were now celebrating by sharing out beer and food, the performers of the last
and final stage, bak zalika, had gathered at a local place called Fkagh Bak Zalika.
There, the performers of bak zalika, who had already transformed through all the other stages
over the last three guinea corn years, wore traditional war dress. This consisted of a helmet,
shield, and a bow and arrow or spear. Gathered at this place in Ghwa'a called Fkagh Bak
Zalika, they formed one big group, moving from one side of the place to the other, telling
everyone there that they had just completed dzum zugune. They held up their shields in
triumph, knowing that they no longer had to save guinea corn to prove themselves, and were
now free to consume from their granaries whenever they wanted.
Documentation of places and material culture linked to dzum zugune
Figure 22 shows the key stations of dzum zugune during the various stages over the suggested
seven years of its performance. We marked nine places, but also need to imagine all the
individual houses of the various candidates participating more or less simultaneously every
guinea corn year. We know that the first stage of dzum zugune started immediately after the
sacrifice to the deceased father (har ghwe), and Zakariya Kwire claimed that it was not
always finished before the bull festival (har daghile) and that the last two stages could be
done afterwards, presumably depending on the number of participants in one guinea corn
year.
We have no figures available, but if we infer that over fifty years ago there might well have
been several hundred households in Ghwa'a, we can only imagine what a celebration this was,
even if only half of the married men performed it, depending on which stage they were at the
time and how many novices had brought their jahurimbe beer bowls to Fkagh Dzga (1) to be
counted every alternate year. On top of that, we need to imagine the wives supporting their
husbands at the various stages, and all the married and unmarried females watching the young
males (married and unmarried) who were anticipating starting ngwa hamtiwe while dancing at
the place known as Sarara (9).
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