Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 534
Vavanz skwe
(see also vavanz maghzhime
below which is part of the
ritual treatment called skwe)
There are other vavanza that are skwe
but they are not called vavanz skwe. It
causes sickness typical of meningitis.
The Ɗagha peacemaker
lineage owns it and also
applies it.
Vavanz maghzhime
(maghshime is the name of
the pot where the vavanz skwe
enters and is considered as the
main source of the ritual
treatment called skwe)
If Gaɗagha puts vavanz skwe into this
pot and buries it in your field, no one
can take this field away. Vavanz
maghzhime can also be secretly
planted in your field if you did not
pay dowry so you lose this field. The
skwe might transform into a snake, or
if you step where the pot is buried
you cannot move at all unless the
owner of the pot frees you.
The Ɗagha peacemaker
lineage owns this ritual
treatment.
Vavanz bungwe (leopard)
A Ɗagha might take a stick and
shape it like a leopard with a tail and
a head and paint leopard spots on it
using charcoal. He then rubs the
vavanza on it and throws the stick in
between the rocks. Next the Ɗagha
puts another stick in his mouth and
ties it with a rope made of mbatakure
(called tunta in Hausa, but no
translation is known). As a result the
leopard will not kill anybody. After a
Ɗagha has satisfied such a request for
someone, the leopard will enter a
targeted house and take a goat.
Is owned by the Ɗagha
peacemaker lineage.
From the list of ritual vavanza presented in Table 12b we recognise that they all are owned by
the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage, except the first which served to treat fractured bones and open
wounds caused by bone fractures. Although it was not owned by any of the specialist lineages
it was still very rare, but we do not know whether this had to do with the rarity of the special
medicinal reputation or whether it was due to the botanical rarity of the particular Cissus
quadrangularis variety. Most of the other vavanza listed were owned by Ɗagha peacemakers.
While some were used on the basis of individual demand, others were for the public purpose
of maintaining peace in the community. We remember from Chapter 3.7 that Ɗagha
peacemakers would place a certain type of vavanza along the downhill road in order to stop
people settling in the adjacent plains. This was no longer a concern for any peacemaker when
I was visiting Dghweɗe between 1994 and 2010.
I have already explained that during my time the Gaske rainmakers were still in greater public
demand than the Ɗagha peacemakers, but some of the ritual applications of the latter might
have changed to satisfy new needs. We think that regulating rain and the growth of crops was
a more persistent need than regulating communal conflict, considering that traditional conflict
had become less common as a result of social change. For example, vavanz kwayaga mixed
with the excrement of an unwanted group of people to make them want to leave the village
might no longer have been an appropriate application. On the other hand, the same vavanz
kwayaga, if mixed with the sand or soil in a place where an unwanted individual was known
to walk, might still have been secretly applied. However, we think that the role of the Ɗagha
peacemakers was primarily a communal one, and as such the need for them had certainly
dwindled, while rainmakers continued to be in relatively high demand particularly during
increasing periods of aridity.
It is also unlikely that vavanz bungwe, used to manipulate leopards, was still a vavanza in
high demand during my time, while it might have been important during late pre-colonial
times. This particular ritual vavanza was an identity-giving Cissus quadrangularis variety
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