Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 535
belonging to the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage and was part of their legendary past (see Chapter
3.7). In terms of its ritual application it seems to have been used by a Ɗagha peacemaker to
control the spirit of the leopard for the purpose of creating fear. We wonder whether the need
for complementary vavanza, as with vavanz margarha to create fear in others and vavanz
gashifa to make someone fearless, was intensified by the background labour-intensive
farming system. There was much seasonal interaction regarding agricultural work among
groups of local neighbours, and we think that the great number of combined varieties of
vavanza owned by the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage might well reflect this.
Keeping the above hypothesis in mind, we can now examine all the other ritual vavanza from
a similar analytical perspective, in order to test our interpretation that the extensive use of
Cissus quadrangularis was indeed an expression of high ritual density with the purpose of
regulating social conflict. Viewing it from this aspect, the ritual use of vavanza might not
have been so much about increasing the yield of crops, but could have served more as a
means of expansion and exclusion of others in an environment of often limited resources. For
example, vavanz skwe and vavanz maghzhime were used together as a skwe owned by the
Ɗagha peacemakers. In the context of this, maghzhime is a reference to the vessel serving as
ritual carrier of the skwe, and if this vessel was secretly buried in someone's terrace field they
could lose that field if a dowry was unpaid.
Several of the ritually owned vavanza were to do with attracting a wife for successful
reproduction and patrilineal family expansion. The loss of a field as a result of not being able
to pay a dowry would have been a severe punishment for using vavanz pat dughwe to charm a
female into marriage without considering the consequences. This of course is only
speculation, but perhaps not an unreasonable one, equivalent to a promised girl not fulfilling
the promise of an arranged marriage being punished by the illness we described in connection
with the ritual application of vavanz gulve.
We explained earlier that vavanz gulve was not owned by the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage but
by the Ngaladewe lineage of Tatsa, and we remember that it was considered a skwe in the
sense of a ritual treatment that could cause harm. In the final section of this final chapter of
the book we will discuss the concept of man skwe in greater detail.
The concept of man skwe and its potential ritual implications
We have referred to the Dghweɗe expression man skwe (man = handling; skwe = ritual
treatment) on several occasions throughout Part Three, being uncertain of its exact meaning.
It was first used by our Gaske rainmaker friend Ndruwe Dzuguma of Gharaza when he listed
the sequential order of rituals in the calendar, starting with har ghwe (sacrifice to a deceased
father) followed by har daghile (the bull festival) then man skwe and finally har khalale
(slaughtering for the lineage ancestor). Ndruwe Dzuguma referred to man skwe as a mixture
of guinea corn flour and water that was ritually poured over the ancestor stones, but we
already knew that rainmakers used the same mixture for rainmaking by pouring it over the
rainstones (Plate 14), and we suggested that rainmakers owned this skwe (see Chapter 3.8).
We do not think that the rainmaker's reference to man skwe as a mixture of sorghum flour and
water poured over the ancestor stones meant that man skwe was always performed with
sorghum flour mixed in water, but that man skwe was generally a ritual concerned with
preventing bad luck or evil overtaking a family. The regularity of man skwe was therefore
crucial for a father of the house in keeping his family safe, and libating sorghum flour mixed
with water over the three ancestor stones was considered one of the essential ways of doing
this. This gave the concept of man skwe a strong religious meaning, and this is what we
conclude rainmaker Ndruwe Dzuguma meant when he listed it as part of the calendrical ritual
order.
While John and I were documenting the ritual use of Cissus quadrangularis we also came
across the concept of man skwe, and he confirmed the above by pointing out that it meant
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