Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 455
it, all embraced by a cosmic mountain chain. Zakariya Kwire claimed that a wall of gourds
used to store milk formed the cosmographic wall of this world. This world that was perceived
as a room was also the civilised world of mountain farmers. In order to look after their world
they had developed a ritual culture to guarantee its continuing existence, and our imaginary
model of the architecture of Durghwe takes account of how they maintained their world and
tried their best to keep it peaceful and sustainable for future generations. One of the
organisational principles of their belief system was to sacrifice to God and the ancestors as
representations of divinity, and renegotiating ritual succession along localised patrilineal
descent was an underlying key context in which this had to be achieved.
If we look at the cosmological elements of the architecture of Durghwe, we first notice that it
is a widely visible mountain top marking the most important arrival zone of many of the
ethnic groups of the Gwoza hills who shared a tradition of origin from Tur. We have
emphasised the most northern position of Durghwe, and raised the question of whether Barth
referred to its geographical position by placing Mt Legga, rather than Mt Magar, as the next
important massif after Mt Delatuba. In that sense, Durghwe not only marks the oral historical
importance of Ghwa'a concerning its role as an early arrival zone from the south, but it was
perhaps also important for reading early warning signs of climate change. In the context of
this possibility, Durghwe was seen as having mysterious powers due to its primordial history.
In the light of these powers, the fact that the senior rainmaker of Dghweɗe lived on the higher
slopes of Durghwe was perhaps no coincidence.
We also realise that Durghwe was not only seen cosmologically as being rooted deep in
primordial waters, but that Durghwe actually did store water in a big underground cavern.
That cavern was described as the hole at the centre of a huge grinding stone, and perhaps we
can view that cosmological grinding stone as a natural rock that regulated water for all
eventualities of climate change. The pillars of Durghwe which represented granaries not only
reached high into the sky but were equally rooted deep in the primordial groundwater at the
geological centre of the Ghwa'a massif. Mysterious streams of water emanating from inside
Durghwe reappear as water sources at unexpected places far away from the summit of
Durghwe. People knew about these things, and some of that knowledge even became
embedded in their ritual culture.
This inference makes its height and topographical visibility very important, as does its most
northern position and closeness to Kirawa, which was most likely even more significant
before the capital of Wandala moved to Mora. For those who believed that Durghwe was an
important regional shrine, it was presumably not the fact that the three pillars were visible
from afar, but more that they were perceived to be rooted in primordial water. That the water
was thought to be deep inside the earth, and that Durghwe distributed the water to the lower
levels as a function of its geological interior, can be translated in the symbolic imagery of its
cosmogony. Durghwe was also a place of retreat in emergency, and there was a readiness to
defend it as the most valuable cosmological asset. As long as the huge toad who sat inside the
grinding stone was croaking and made the water move along the hidden underground
passageways to feed the three mysterious bulls, which we think were believed to be owned by
the water spirit, the world was possibly considered to be in reasonably good order.
Figure 27 aims to portray the cosmogenic architecture of Durghwe as it was explained by our
two main protagonists. We think the illustration speaks for itself, with the 'granaries' of
Durghwe reaching deep into the hillside of Ghwa'a. We remember the outer cosmic mountain
chain from Figure 25, and that our Dghweɗe friends described their environment from a
terrace farmer's view, not the view that Barth took from the western plain. It was more an
intramountainous view marked by other mountain tops as the typical surface of the earth. We
illustrated such an intramountainous view when we introduced the reader to Chapter 1.1, and
showed the various cross-mountain panoramic views which included the surrounding plains
when looking down. The following illustration of Durghwe attempts to creatively capture part
of our Dghweɗe friends’ view of that world, when their belief system secured their destiny.
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