Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 480
lineage groups. That the sour milk magically disappeared from the two ritual potsherds might
have been proof of the spiritual aspect of twins being representations of communal
reproduction.
Dada Dukwa continued to talk about the ritual implications in the case of the death of a twin,
and mentioned that if one twin died, the other continued to feed his deceased brother with
guinea corn flour cooked in water (ɓlungwe) placed on a dedicated potsherd. We did not
double-check as to whether daily frequency was correct, which meant that a deceased twin
brother would have received a small portion of ɓlungwe from his living twin at every meal.
That would indeed have been a ritual dedication.
For a funeral, not only of twins but also on the death of their parents, a ritual was performed
in which a large calabash was filled with water and then a smaller upturned calabash was
placed within it to lock the water inside (see Figure 29a below). The smaller calabash was
known as ngage referring to the locking device, but we can only speculate as to the exact
meaning of the ritual ngag ghwala. We know that water and freshness was not only important
in the context of twins, but also in relation to fertility and reproduction, but whether the ritual
was linked to the belief that twins would be born again to other parents, we do not really
know. We know for example that khalale was the word for water spirit and also lineage
shrine, which suggests an ancestral link between water and locality. During the ngag ghwala
ritual, the local parents of twins tapping three times on the 'locking device' (ngage) and then
once on their foreheads could be seen as a symbolic demonstration of successful communal
reproduction. There was also a gender aspect to the ngag ghwala ritual in which mixed twins
would need two sets of 'locking devices' (ngage), while twins of only one gender would only
need one. Again, we can only speculate as to the symbolism of the two separate male and
female 'locking devices'.
Figure 29a: 'Locking device' (ngage)
Figure 29c: Aperture of girl's twin pot
Figure 29b: twins marked on forehead
Key to 29a: The small calabash to be tapped on
is (a), while the large calabash filled with water
is (b), and the corn stalks used for tapping are
(c).
Key to 29b: We see the single marks on the
foreheads of the twins, made with sorghum
flour.
Key to 29c: (a) reportedly represents a clitoris.
Again guinea corn stalks were used for the ritual tapping, and we remember that these had
played a role during the birth of twins, with three for a twin boy and two for twin girl.
Whether the three taps on the small calabash serving as a locking device for the water inside
the large calabash can be interpreted as the wish for a twin boy to be reborn is uncertain. The
single tap on the forehead reminds us of the buh dungwe ritual in which the foreheads of the
twins were marked with guinea corn flour (see Figure 29b), but we still do not know whether
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