Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 410
know, and have only been able to make the assumption that the start of the bull festival was
perhaps also conditional on part of a bigger picture of past ritual sequencing traditions.
We also tried to compare dzum zugune in the subregional context of the Gwoza hills, and
again realised our potential shortage of data. We realised however that not only did the tsufga
ritual of the Glavda have distinct similarities, but also that perhaps the Gvoko and the Chikiɗe
performed something like it. We had to admit that we do not know whether the Guduf
performed it, but at the same time it was suggested by our very limited data that neither the
Lamang nor the Zelidva did so. Luckily we have Eli Gula's (1996) work about adult initiation
among the Glavda (tsufga), and were able to establish that despite tsufga being quite different
in terms of presentation, it served the similar purpose of becoming an independent family
man. Even though the Gvoko only performed their pughu ritual, it was still about the
individual achievement of a man having produced a surplus of crops which he was able to
ritually share with his neighbours. Among the Gvoko and the Glavda the achievement was
represented by a stool upon which the performer sat. In the Glavda case this was ritually even
more elaborate, because the stool was carried by the assistants of the performers, to be ready
for use whenever needed. A ritual stool (vde) also played a crucial role as part of the initiation
ritual (fstaha) in Ghwa'a, but there it was not for the performer, but for those who twice
ritually refused the beer and food offered to them. They sat on the stool and witnessed how
the ngwa kwalanglanga performer and his zal fstaha drank together from the same calabash
the third time around, celebrating the completion of the second stage of dzum zugune.
Although dzum zugune has long disappeared, we were able to point out, in our section on
traditional and modern crisis management in particular, that the aspect of storing crops as an
emergency reserve survived until recently. We like to infer that this aspect was older than
dzum zugune itself, and perhaps even led to the development of dzum zugune in the first
place. In our discussion about the difference between subsistence and market economy, we
saw that the subsistence factor survived for longer in the hills than in the resettlement area of
the adjacent plain. It appears an unjust irony of destiny that Boko Haram could take
advantage of this while hiding in the mountains and exploiting the last Dghweɗe
Traditionalists, those who were not only too old to flee but presumably also far too attached to
their familiar mountain environment, despite it being under occupation.
In the next chapter we will explore the traditional idea of existential personhood, as it was
relayed to me by some of my Dghweɗe friends, mainly in the mid- to late-1990s. We have
already had a taste of the strong sense of individual competitiveness while trying to
understand the personality traits underlying the cultural practice of dzum zugune. Considering
that the societal structure of Dghweɗe had already significantly transformed during my time,
we should not expect too much insight from the attempt, but the chapter will also serve as a
transitory chapter in our Dghweɗe oral history retold, since most of the following chapters are
less concerned with social and material culture, and more with trying to obtain a better
understanding of the worldview and ideas which might have driven individuals to take such
ritual action as the Dghweɗe took as part of a cultural practice of the most recent pre-colonial
and colonial past.
408
