Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 370
and tigernut flour, then they continued to Fkagh Gwatidhe and then to Fkagh ga Maruwa (2),
which marked the completion of stage two.
The house of the senior rainmaker (7) was where the ngwa yiye participants of the third stage
performed, which included the rainmaker planting a spear into the ritual dunghole near his
house. They also did their fstaha (initiation ceremony) there. At over 1000m it was quite high
up. Finally there was Fkagh Bak Zalika (8), where the final stage of dzum zugune took place
at about 1100m. Here the performers put on their war costumes, and in triumph celebrated the
completion of a presumably seven-year journey to becoming accomplished adults.
We also mentioned the place known as Sarara (9), near the border of modern Korana Basa (or
'Gharguze' of the late pre-colonial past). There the young and hopeful, those who were ready
to start dzum zugune as soon as possible, would have gathered. They gathered again at Fkagh
ga Maruwa, where the ngwa hamtiwe as the new participants had already danced and the
second and third stage performers had gathered. This made Fkagh ga Maruwa one of the most
important public places, but not only in the context of dzum zugune. During my time this
place had turned into a local marketplace (see Plate 60c) with a shop where one could
recharge mobile phones with a generator.
We have not mapped any houses of the performers, which were of course other places where
many of the rituals relating to dzum zugune would have taken place, as was the case with the
fstaha (initiation) ceremony of the ngwa kwalanglanga. We mentioned that perhaps more
than a couple of hundred local men might have done dzum zugune during a guinea corn year.
We need to imagine that those houses were inside the boundaries of traditional Ghwa'a, as
roughly marked in Figure 22. If we consult Table 3, we see that in 1925 captain Lewis lists
540 houses or more for Ghwa'a, indicating the same number of house owners. We have not
marked the two rocks from where the ngwa yiye jumped. We are not sure whether there were
only two such rocks, but as with some other preliminary inferences we made in the 1996 field
summary, we will further discuss such grey areas in the next subsection.
Illustration of dress and body adornment plus other items used for dzum zugune
We now present objects of material culture, traditional dresses and body adornments, and
lances and other objects made of iron, wood or clay, used ritually and in warfare. Quite a few
of the items worn as body adornments are of recycled aluminium, and since it was already
smelted and forged by the Nupe of Bida in 1913 or earlier, if we follow Norma Wolff
(1986:40-44), we can infer that somehow it might have found its way into the Gwoza hills by
the 1940s. After I had a sufficient understanding of dzum zugune, I asked around in the
neighbourhood to find out who still had these objects, and they were brought to me over
several days. I photographed them and asked Stella to make sketches, and interviewed
Zakariya Kwire and other people present, about what they were called and what their function
had been. I subsequently returned them to their owners. We have categorised and numbered
the illustrations the following way:
•
•
•
•
Plate 47a - 51b (items worn by males and females)
Plate 52a - 55b (items only worn by females)
Plate 56a - 58e (items only worn by males)
Plate 59a - 59l (other objects used for dzum zugune)
They are structured according to use by gender, and listed as worn on the head, neck, hands,
arms, chest, waist, lower back, legs and ankles. There is a separate section for items not worn
on the body which played a specific role during dzum zugune. Many were also worn by the
public, considering it was such a big event. They are presented as they were documented in
the field, with annotations on use, and key items will be discussed later, connecting them to
the four stages of dzum zugune. As there are many, we only include items that have specific
relevance to dzum zugune in the glossary at the end of the book, a principle already applied in
several previous chapters.
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