Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 561
Chapter 3.10 about working the land and Chapter 3.12 about rituals of
the house.
D
Dada
Father; you refer to your father as dada but you can also refer to any
older male as dada; the term dada is also used to refer to someone's
deceased father represented by a stone erected at the foot of his house
shrine (thala). A senior brother responsible for the sacrifice of his
junior brother's ancestor stone is also referred to as dada. Even a
generation mate (skmama) of a deceased grandfather or greatgrandfather can be referred to as dada (Chapter 3.6).
Dag ɗala
Ritual sauce (made of animal fats); could play a role in the context of
many rituals; ɗala was a reference to useful leaves which could be
used for making sauce; dag/dg ɗala could also be a reference for
leftover sauce; it was also a general reference to liquid as opposed to
solid food (see Chapter 3.22 about the classification of things).
Dag mbarɗa
Clan medicine used by the Gaske rainmaker to protect crops against
insects; see oral account by rainmaker Ndruwe Dzguma (Chapter
3.12).
Dag gwaya
Something that disappears magically (dag = something; gwaya =
disappear); sorcerers can make themselves disappear magically; guinea
corn or a tree might also magically disappear (Chapter 3.22).
Ɗagha Kadzgwara
Ɗagha healer and diviner lineage in Dghweɗe with links to Hambagda
via Kwalika as the most north-westerly settlement unit of Dghweɗe;
see Chapter 3.4 for more details.
Ɗagha-ha
Ɗagha peacemaker lineage (plural of Ɗagha) descending from Wasa,
an ancestral co-descendant of Dghweɗe; Wasa was also the name for a
firstborn twin and the Dghweɗe seem to like oral narratives of
ancestral pairing of this kind (see Chapter 3.7 about specialist groups).
Darke
Indigo-coloured textile made of strips of cotton sewn together; was
worn by the ngwa yiye as 'thah lusa' ('black cows') during the third
stage of dzum zugune, representing and defending fully developed
fecundity at its best; see photograph in Plate 57i (Chapter 3.14).
Dawakara
Kanuri or Hausa: Assistant bulama (assistant ward head)
Dawana
A brass bracelet which plays a magical role in the legend of Zedima;
Zedima uses a dawana to force the Wandala chief of Kirawa out of
Ghwa'a by causing an apocalyptic drought; see 'the roots of the sun and
the moon legend' (Chapter 2.1) and Plate 49b (Chapter 3.14).
Dg/dəg or dug/dag
Prefix to refer to living and non-living things (dg/dəg =
something/thing); consult Chapter 3.22 for details about the Dghweɗe
classification system.
Dgahtha or lmana
General terms for farm animals; dgahtha most likely means 'living
things like cattle'; we do not have a literal translation for lmana (see
Chapter 3.22 for more details).
DGB
DGB is an abbreviation of the Mafa expression diy geɗ biy for at least
16 archaeological stone ruins found on the northern slopes of Mount
Oupay (south of Dghweɗe); we use the radiocarbon dates to link the
end of the DGB period with the beginning of the subregional
expansion of the Mafa into the DGB area, and link that with the late
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