Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 44
Dghweɗe legends which claim a mountainous origin of the Wandala of Kirawa will be
compared with legendary tales from the Wandala Chronicles. We also present Dghweɗe oral
historical traditions to illustrate how the Wandala and the Dghweɗe most likely had a
tributary relationship, at least during late pre-colonial times. A possibly earlier pre-colonial
relationship between the Gwoza hills and the Wandala will be explored by referring to Leo
Africanus as another early source. In 1529 he described the topographical dichotomy between
mountains and plains, typical for the region south of Lake Chad. Leo also mentions the
exchange of horses against slaves. In the context of that we explore the possible setting of
early trade relations, also by attempting to portray the Gwoza hills as a superior early place of
safety in comparison to the adjacent plains, where slave-hunting on horseback was common.
We subsequently present Dghweɗe oral historical traditions of most likely late pre-colonial
memory by showing how the eastern plains in particular were seen by our local protagonists
from Ghwa'a as the most dangerous place to farm.
The above late pre-colonial context is important when we introduce the reader in Chapter
Two of Part Two to the unsettling times of the colonial years. We start by explaining what
impact the First World War and with it the Treaty of Versailles had, not only on the wider
region but specifically on the Dghweɗe massif. We acknowledge how the southern part of
Dghweɗe, which we got to know as Korana Basa, came during this earlier colonial period
under the influence of the Fulbe district heads of Madagali, while the northern part of
Dghweɗe which we know as Ghwa'a continued to maintain links to the Wandala of Mora
(now in Cameroon). This geopolitical divide had already started to exist before the arrival of
the Germans in 1902, and we underpin this view with our oral accounts from Ghwa'a by
presenting them as part of collective memories about late pre-colonial boundaries.
We mentioned the arrest of Hamman Yaji and the killing of lawan Buba as the two examples
of local history told from below, where we compare the relevant colonial records with the oral
memories of our Dghweɗe protagonists. In the first scenario, we show how the relative safety
which still existed during the later pre-colonial period was violated by Hamman Yaji of
Madagali who was raiding the hills for slaves, corn and cattle. He did not attack from the east
but from the western side of the Gwoza Hills, and there was no tributary relationship in place
either. We will present the Dghweɗe version of his arrest in 1927 as an example of Dghweɗe
history from the grassroots. We will do the same in the example of the killing of lawan Buba
in Ghwa'a in 1953, a case for which we have much written and oral evidence to make a
convincing historical point.
The killing of lawan Buba is also a good example to show how determined the Dghweɗe were
to keep their independence as terrace farmers of the Gwoza hills, and to illustrate how during
late colonial rule the new local elite had by then established itself in Gwoza town. This new
elite had developed Gwoza during the previous two decades into a new centre on the western
foothills, replacing Ashigashiya as the old centre near Kirawa in the eastern part of the Gwoza
LGA. We discuss the whole problem of the failure of the 1950 resettlement scheme after
explaining the newly emerging conflict between hills and adjacent plain populations, and how
'pagan re-organisation' failed here as an issue of 'self-governance'. Even though the British
administration tried to give the hill population a say about their political destiny in the hills,
the newly forming local elites in Gwoza had another agenda.
The Gwoza hills remained an Unsettled District more or less from the beginning to the end of
British rule, which resulted in Christian missionaries gaining access to the hills only very
latterly. We close the second chapter of Part Two by presenting the route to independence in
the context of two plebiscites of 1960/61. They ended the official Mandateship period and
finally divided the Gwoza hills and neighbouring French Cameroon, with the river Kirawa
still forming today the international boundary. The division finally casts the cultural
similarities between the two sites into a permanent state of separation. This was in the interest
of the newly emerging local elites in Gwoza, who had been promised independence from
Adamawa with Yola as the centre. Unfortunately, this turned out to be very bad news for the
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