Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 489
Chapter 3.20
Past ways of marrying in Dghweɗe
Introduction
In this chapter we want to emphasise the social alliances developed by Dghweɗe families for
marital exchanges between their sons and daughters. Such marriage alliances resulted from
the exogamy rules historically practised as described in Chapter 3.6. Finding a wife was not
straightforward, as we already know from the Dghweɗe tales about some of their legendary
apical ancestors. We also heard much about lineal descent through remote ancestors, being
the membership condition of what we referred to as clan and lineage groups. As a result of
this we were able to establish that lineage exogamy was the rule for larger descent groups,
while smaller ones mostly practised clan exogamy. In Chapter 3.5 we showed how outsider
Mughuze-Ruwa became the founding ancestor of what would become the largest clan group
in Dghweɗe, through his inappropriate marriage to a daughter of a smaller autochthonous clan
group Hembe who had accepted Mughuze into one of their families as a houseboy.
The first child that Mughuze had with his Hembe wife Dugh Viye (who was later referred to
as 'Bughwithe') was a son who served him as bridewealth, because Mughuze was still
destitute of means at that time, but this son later became the founding ancestor of Gathaghure
(see Figure 8). We will learn that the name Dugh Viye is a synonym for 'marriage by capture',
and we will also learn that there was a way of marrying which was something like 'marriage
by capture in disguise'. The problem of Hembe's father-in-law had been that he had too many
daughters, and Mughuze had secretly made Dugh Viye pregnant. However, this story
indicates rather a 'marriage without notice of the parents', another technical way of marrying
we will learn more about below. An arranged marriage by promise would have been the most
appropriate Dghweɗe way since it allowed for a peaceful exchange of daughters between
exogamous local groups, while the likelihood of a true 'marriage by capture' increased when
there was a shortage of girls. It is a sensitive area to write about because of the recent deadly
experience of Boko Haram abducting local females, but we will be able to show that this is a
completely different concept.
The Dghweɗe traditionally practised a polygynous marriage system, and we learned in
previous chapters that females became members of the patriliny of their husbands when they
married. Daughters could not be founders, but as first wives they could give birth to a
seventh-born son as future heir, which was the most desirable child a mother could wish for
and could go so far as making her famous. The legend of 'Bughwithe', the first wife of
Mughuze, tells such a story. She was accused by her co-wives of being a witch, yet due to his
reproductive success her seventh-born son Vaghagaya became the most successful founding
ancestor of southern Dghweɗe. Dghweɗe oral history tells that 'Bughwithe' even became a
synonym for the localities of the Vaghagaya lineage expansion. We remember that
Vaghagaya started his career in what would later become Korana, where the Vaghagaya
lineage shrine could still be found. Bughwithe's entitlement stemmed from being the first wife
of Mughuze and having Vaghagaya born to her 'kitchen' (kuɗige), but before this Bughwithe
had to overcome the witchcraft accusations of her co-wives. The mythological tale is that she
took baby Vaghagaya and fled, but she was halted in the midst of a mysterious fog by the
weight of a magic stone that Vaghagaya held, which made her return and claim her rightful
place as Mughuze's first wife.
Whether the witchcraft accusations of Bughwithe’s co-wives was connected with the fact that
she had just given birth to a seventh son and they saw her as a competition must remain
speculation. We do know that one of her sons by the name of Kwili'a also doubted her as a
result of the witchcraft accusations, and on her return she cursed him and said that he would
not grow in number. If we check Figure 12c again in Chapter 3.4 we can see that Kwili'a did
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