Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 420
disorder that had symptoms similar those caused by witchcraft of sorcery. However, being
kwiya as a result of natural causes was differentiated in pathological terms from a person who
was kwiya due to witchcraft or sorcery. We tend to conclude from this that the belief in
witchcraft and sorcery was an intrinsic part of existential personhood and in that way was
something to which everyone was potentially vulnerable, and that suffering from sorcery in
particular was not considered as mental illness in pathological terms. It was embedded in a
belief system in which supernatural events could not be detached from the cosmological
dimension of being an individual actor.
This underlying belief system of existential personhood can even be interpreted to extend
beyond humans, as we aim to explain in the next section. We will see how there was a belief
in particularly gifted individuals who could not only see but also do extraordinary things, and
that those special abilities could manifest themselves as transformational cabilities which not
only applied to specially gifted humans but also to organic and non-organic matter in the
familiar environment. Such a belief system is sometimes referred to as animism, and includes
transmogrification, definitions we are trying to avoid here, which is the reason why we refer
to it as 'the transformational aspect of existential personhood beyond human individuals'.
The transformational aspect of existential personhood beyond humans
The following three personality characteristics are the result of an interview I conducted with
John Zakariya in August 2001, in an attempt to better understand the Dghweɗe belief in the
special talents of people who had what we have described as supernatural abilities. We will
see that the first two, thayanga and tsakine, have no literal meaning, while the third, daggwaya, means 'something 6 which disappears magically or supernaturally'. The three listed
personality characteristics in our opinion underpin the Dghweɗe tradition of allocating
transformational qualities, not only to humans but also to types of organic and non-organic
matter which were part of the environment. This applied for example to the disappearance of
guinea corn or trees, and also to stones or rocks which might have transformed into something
else, such as a cow or water spirit. It seems that transformational aspects of personhood not
only applied to humans but also to material objects of local importance, a personality attribute
that was otherwise found among sorcerers who could also make themselves disappear.
Existential personhood has here become extended beyond humans, namely into the immediate
physical environment. We observe that it applies mainly to objects of value for the
subsistence economy, such as crops, trees, cows, stones and water. Water in particular seems
to be perceived as having strong supernatural qualities, which is no surprise considering how
important it was for biological increase and wellbeing.
We now present our list, and then continue to discuss the implications of the three terms in
the light of the Dghweɗe ideas around existential personhood so far developed:
6
•
thayanga (no literal meaning)
General meaning: People who can see things ordinary people cannot see. They can
tell you things that can happen in future e.g. that someone is going to die.
•
tsakine (no literal meaning)
General meaning: People who can do extraordinary things. They often claim to fight
a 'war' in the night in the celestial world (ghaluwa). Witches and sorcerers belong to
this class of people. Also, rainmakers (Gaske) and peacemakers (Ɗagha) might be
classified as tsakine, but the difference is that they have inherited that gift from their
forefathers. Another difference is that sorcerers try to do evil things. However, there
is no special word for 'evil' as a noun, but the Dghweɗe only say that they do bad
things (ski bazanana). For example, a child can behave badly or a thing can look ugly
or bad.
Chapter 3.22 explains how the prefix dag/dug/dg was used to classify living and non-living things.
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