Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 579
between luwa (the earth of this world with its settlements) and ghaluwa
(the upper or celestial world above the firmament); see Figure 25 for
an illustration of a model of the Dghweɗe view of cosmographic mirror
worlds; rainmakers were the traditional meteorologists who observed
vale with its winds and cloud formations and they could also travel
above ghaluwa to fight with other rainmakers for rainfall in their
respective mountain localities; rainmakers could also travel deep inside
the primordial earth of the next world (luwa mbarte) to collect 'the
roots of the sun' for the control of rainfall.
Vara
Animal manure; dung; see Chapter 3.10 about working the terraced
land; animal manure was the most important ingredient for keeping the
terraced land fertile; this was done over generations and the infields
near the house were particularly treated in this way; it had already
changed during my time as chemical fertiliser had taken over,
increasingly leading to a reduction in sustainability; the development
was apparent in the changes of the bi-annual ritual cycle (Chapter 3.8).
Vardinga
Iron from used hoes; it was used for tribute payment to the pre-colonial
Wandala together with taghwa (ground tigernuts) and ɓalghaya
(traditional mountain yams); see oral account in Chapter 2.1.
Vavanz mandatha
Floating type of Cissus quadrangularis used for divination; was also
used for healing (mandatha = to calm things); see Chapter 3.21.
Vavanz skwe
Vavanza (Cissus quadrangularis) used for skwe (ritual treatment); see
Table 12b about its ritual application by the Ɗagha peacemaker lineage
who owned vavanz skwe; see vavanz maghzhime (ibid) which was the
pot the Ɗagha peacemaker used to apply vavanz skwe (Chapter 3.23).
Vavanza
Cissus quadrangularis; in Chapter 3.23 we describe the high density
and ownership of ritual vavanza in Ghwa'a; the Ɗagha peacemaker
lineage owned the most powerful ritual vavanza, but non-Ɗagha could
also own a ritual vavanza (see Table 12a with list of photos and Table
12c without photographs); the neighbouring Mafa referred to the
Dghweɗe as 'Godaliy' which we identify as an ethnic synonym
showing the high ritual density of Cissus quadrangularis among the
groups of the Gwoza hills (Chapter 3.3).
Vde
Infield or house field (see Figure 17 about the general Dghweɗe farm
layout); the seventh-born son (thaghaya) inherited the house and the
infields as the best-manured fields (Chapter 3.18); the reason the
infields were the most fertile was their short distance from the
farmstead where most of the dung was produced (Chapter 3.10).
Vde
Traditional stool (Plate 59e); played a role during the fstaha initiation
of the ngwa kwalanglanga as the completing part of the second stage
of dzum zugune (Chapter 3.14).
Vəɗa/vɗa
Slave; blacksmithing; forging; see oral memory accounts about late
pre-colonial relationship with the Wandala; the fact that the word vəɗa
means slave and also forging is of oral historical significance regarding
the relationship with Kirawa which was a centre of iron trade in the
late 16th century; see Table of Contemporaneity in Chapter 2.1 for precolonial key sources in relation to the Gwoza hills area.
Viye
Rainy season; was linked to the agriculturally active part of the year
which lasted eight lunar months for a sorghum year and seven lunar
months for a millet year (Chapter 3.8); Table 5b shows the Dghweɗe
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