Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 473
infields were a key asset. The other important asset was of course the house itself, and trees,
cattle and all other domestic animals. We showed the link between brothers of the same
'kitchen' (kuɗige), meaning in particular the sons of the father of the house born to him by his
first wife. They could pass on farmland through several generations, as long as the
intergenerational link to the same 'kitchen' was continuous, but we are not sure how typical
such a scenario once was. We also summarised the ritual responsibilities of the seventh born
as family and lineage thaghaya, an auspicious circumstance already frequently referred to in
previous chapters. Besides this, we pointed out that a seventh-born son and an eighth-born
child were opposites in terms of the promotion of fecundity. We also spoke about the birth of
twins, and the child born after twins, and that neither of these fell victim to infanticide if they
were eighth-born children because they represented successful reproduction.
We further established that the culture of infanticide was replaced by adoption by the British
in around 1925, but also pointed out that a rudimentary form of adoption most likely existed
before 1925, and infanticide was the kind of decision parents naturally did not want to face up
to. We were told that infanticide of the eighth-born child was not carried out by the parents
themselves for this reason. After its abolishment, the new practice of legal adoption continued
into modern times, and adoption was presumably still practised after national independence,
which shows that the bad luck represented by an eighth-born child was deeply rooted in
Dghweɗe oral historical culture.
We found that the Dghweɗe, the Zelidva, the Lamang of Hiɗkala, and the Gvoko shared the
same pattern with regard to the seventh born as main beneficiary when it came to inheritance,
while the Chikiɗe, the Guduf, the Glavda, and of course the Mafa favoured the firstborn in
that respect. On the other hand, we are not sure whether the pattern was the same when it
came to the role of the seventh born as earth priest, as it could only definitely be confirmed
for the Dghweɗe, but we know for example that the Mafa chose their earth priest from the
line of the descendants of the firstborn. On the other hand, the Mafa had a system of chiefly
clans across Mafa land, while the Dghweɗe for example did not. With regard to the
infanticide of the eighth-born child, we could only show a clear link between the Lamang of
Hiɗkala and the Dghweɗe.
The cruelty of infanticide of an eighth-born child shows how hard and unpredictable life must
have been in the semi-arid environment of the Gwoza hills, and that people were indeed
makers of their own survival in a very uncertain world where famine or other environmental
catastrophe could without warning destroy everything they had worked for. In the next
chapter we will present the historical tradition of the Dghweɗe around the birth of twins, and
the belief that they were reincarnations of previous twins, by describing the complex rituals
surrounding them. These rituals ensured that the birth of twins would bring good luck to their
parents and the local community. Although the birth of twins was seen as auspicious, it was
something that was also considered potentially very dangerous. This is why everything
needed to be done to keep twins happy, at least this is how it was explained to me by dada
Dukwa in August 2001.
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