Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 392
We already know that 'Btha' was thaghaya (seventh born), which meant he was the elder who
was the lineage priest responsible for sacrificing a bull at Durghwe, and we will discuss the
cosmographic imagery of Durghwe as an important mountain and rain shrine in Chapter 3.17.
We also know that the Gaske and the Ɗagha were the specialist lineages responsible for
rainmaking and peacemaking respectively. Before discussing some of the other points
mentioned by Taɗa Nzige, such as the significance of the colour black (lusa) as a symbol for
the green of vegetation, we reproduce in Figure 24 the Thakara lineage tree, and mark in bold
the patrilineages of the elders who attended the performance of the senior rainmaker planting
the spear (nzav ruma) in the ritual dunghole. This and some other performances had to take
place before the ngwa yiye could complete their public fstaha initiation ritual.
The fact that Fkagh ga Maruwa, the central
place of dzum zugune celebrations, was
very close to the rainmaker's house,
Thakara
suggests that the lineage elders used their
__________________|______
dedicated seats not only for observing the
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ritual
of planting the spear but also for
Ngaladewe Washile Btha Nighine
other stages of dzum zugune. This means
__________|___________________
the elders might well have sat on these
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Gajiwe Dzata Leshe Fakuwe Ndawaya
rock seats when they drank beer from
jahurimbe and started the throwing of corn
and tigernut flour as soon as they received confirmation that the ngwa garda had reached
Yawa. They would have known by then that they had transformed into ngwa kwalanglanga
long before reaching Fkagh ga Maruwa, having passed through Ɓag Haya where the wives of
the performers had done the same. We wonder whether the custodian (thaghaya) of Ghwa'a
did not need to be at home when the ngwa kwalanglanga danced at his house, but according
to Taɗa Nzige his place was the central stone seat outside the rainmaker's house.
Figure 24: Lineage tree of Thakara of Ghwa'a
If we compare it with Figure 22, we can see that Fkgh ga Maruwa in Plate 60c was very near
to the seats where the elders sat at the foot of the senior rainmaker's house (Plate 60b):
Taɗa Nzige's account gives us new
insights but also highlights the very
fragmentary
nature
of
our
reconstruction of dzum zugune. What
seems to be clear is that the elders
were on their rock seats when the
senior rainmaker performed nzav
ruma at the ritual dunghole, and
most likely also during the
subsequent fstaha celebrations of the
ngwa yiye. The ngwa yiye had
arrived as 'black cows' in their dark
indigo cotton robes, in our opinion
representing the fertility of the land.
We tend to think that this was perhaps a reference to manure, not only in its technical role as
an agricultural agent, but also as a cosmological symbol that promoted fecundity by
religiously interacting with (blessing) the environment.
Plate 60c: Fkagh ga Maruwa
There are several other ethnographic hints already mentioned which support this view, such
as the black he-goat sacrificed after the spear was planted in the ritual dunghole, or the
charcoal used as an ingredient for magulisa (Plate 20a) to increase the yield. We will see later
in Chapter 3.23 that charcoal was not only used by the rainmaker, but also by various others
who had specialist ownership of types of ritual treatment (skwe) and their ritual handling
(man skwe), which were mostly inherited along the patriline, as was the ritual handling of
charcoal. What immediately springs to mind is that charcoal was an important product linked
to terrace farming, and that cows and iron smelting were in the past socio-economically
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