Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 545
evidence for this argument is the absolute chronological dates obtained from the DGB sites,
and the high likelihood of their contemporaneity with the early history of the Wandala state
which was already unfolding between the northeastern foot of the Gwoza hills and the
Moskota hills during the 15th century. We think that such an early pre-colonial period also
existed before the formation of the Glavda, who according to our oral historical sources once
occupied the Moskota hills together with the Vreke clan. The Vreke later became
incorporated by the expanding Mafa, while the Glavda were driven out and withdrew into the
eastern plain of the Gwoza hills. The Godaliy tradition of the Mafa is in our opinion also of
late pre-colonial origin, and we identified it also as a Mafa legend from the DGB area,
pointing to the inhabitants of the Gwoza hills being the previous inhabitants of the DGB area.
All these south-to-north movements, in whatever way they took place in detail, in our opinion
represent the most recent layer of the collective memory of our wider subregion, and we
conclude that they were not only post-DGB but most likely also post-Kirawa traditions.
This also included the ethnolinguistic composition of most of the other groups, although we
are not able to tell the exact age of the Dghweɗe language, also referred to as Azaghvana. The
Dghweɗe language continued to be ritually spoken for a long time on the Zelidva spur, after
the language of Ghwasa, the original outsider from Ghwa'a, the early arrival zone from Tur,
was adopted there by Lamang speakers and before the Zelidva became the dominating ethnic
group who subsequently adopted the languages of the Wandala and the Glavda. There is
evidence of Lamang-related languages on the heights of Tur, for instance the language of the
Hide of Tur, while Tur itself has a founding ancestor with oral historical links to the Margi,
and we constructed a hypothetical north-to-south migratory route which could theoretically
have included the DGB area. We have evidence of such an early north-to-south migration in
the history of the Wandala of Kirawa, and it was the legendary king Agamakiya who initiated
that move from Ishga Kawe about 50km north of Kirawa. The Wandala Chronicles presented
King Agamakiya as the one who united the most reproductive but more junior branch with the
less numerous but more senior branch of the original dynastic Wandala, by allocating to the
latter custodianship over the land between Ishga Kawe and Kirawa. We also critically
reviewed the narrative of the noble stranger from the east as founding ancestor of the more
reproductive dynastic line represented by king Agamakiya, with the importance of outsiders
as founders in the Gwoza hills, and also reviewed in a similar context the role of KatalaWandala as a legendary adaptation of Wandala origin from the hills.
Another interesting piece of circumstantial evidence is the distribution of pots with small
apertures not only in the Gwoza hills and in the Glavda area, but also along the western
foothills among the Lamang-speaking groups and among the Wandala-speaking Zelidva. This
distribution of material culture we attempted to link to the DGB sites was wider than the
sophisticated stone architecture we documented, such as the smooth front stonewalling of a
house. Together with the lower and upper kitchens on either side of the foyer area this typical
architectural feature could only be found among the Dghweɗe, the Chikiɗe and the Guduf.
We discovered that the small apertures of ritual pots representing family ancestors were
necessary for keeping sorghum beer fresh, and we described their use and spatial journeys in
and around a Dghweɗe house as far as the grave of a deceased father. The spatial movement
of the ancestor pot during the cyclical sacrifice to the deceased father of a house (har ghwe)
had a strong reproductive aspect. This became clear through the ritual journey and specific
locations where that particular ancestor pot was temporarily stored. The ritual beer it
contained had to stay fresh for at least two days, and it spent a night above the doorway
connecting the room of the first wife and the room of the husband and father of the house. We
further showed that the wish for a boy as a firstborn child and also for a seventh-born son had
an ancestor-related reproductive aspect, by illustrating how a generation age mate (skmama)
of a deceased father acted as family priest to initiate a first wife into a future husband's
patriline. This practice might only have been of late pre-colonial origin, but the small aperture
serving to keep the ritual beer fresh suggests that the potsherds with similar small apertures
found on each of the DGB sites had once served a similar ritual function. Such pots with
small apertures being reserved for ritual purposes linked to the cultivation of sorghum could
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