Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 63
and there was no border post. Motorbikes or four-wheel bush taxis could drive on a dirt road
from Barawa to Koza directly across the mountains without having to go all the way around
the northern end of the Moskota hills. Since the mid-1980s I had been working in the Mafa
area of Gouzda, which is to the immediate east of Koza, and I knew from experience that the
infrastructure in the hills was more developed. This was particularly the case concerning
roads in the hills. The Gwoza hills, except for the one going up the Gvoko massif, had no
roads. Also, many Dghweɗe from the eastern side of the hills attended Barawa market, and
one could see them climbing back up to Ghwa'a carrying goods on their heads.
Christianity and Islam
Though it was not backed up statistically, I was often told there were a higher number of
Christians living in the eastern plains, while the number of Muslims seemed to be higher in
the western plains. Many Christians even claimed there to be an overall majority of Christians
in the Gwoza LGA as a whole, but this might not have been true, especially as there was a
visible increase of conversion to Islam between 2005 and 2010, especially among the younger
generations in the hills. However this was not the case everywhere, and particular not in
Ngoshe Sama which for years had the highest number of Christians among the mountain
communities. The traditionally-strong Christian presence meant that Gvoko was the most
developed hill community, though in 2001 the village head of Gvoko was still a Muslim. This
shows that the politics within the Gwoza LGA were controlled mainly by Muslims. To my
knowledge there has never been a Christian chairman of the Gwoza LG, but there was a
Christian deputy chairman from Gvoko a few years ago.
The historically induced political inequality between Christians and Muslims often created
problems, especially in the eastern plains of the Gwoza hills. For example, Ngoshe (Glavda),
Gava (Guduf), Amuda, Chikiɗe (Chikiɗe and Chinene), Barawa (Dghweɗe), and Kughum
(Mafa) were all village communities in the eastern plains which had a majority of Christians,
and yet most of the village heads were Muslims. Attempts to split the GLG into two by
making the eastern district of it a separate LG had failed, even though the plan to achieve this
had been around since 1994. The reason was not only rooted in political inequality as a result
of religious affiliation, but was also due to other geographical and historical factors.
It seems that Christianity had taken deeper root in the eastern plains in the first place because
it was geographically more remote and further away from Gwoza town than the traditional
Muslim-dominated headquarters. The influence of the Basel Mission in Gava goes back to the
late 1950s, especially among the Glavda. The Glavda traditionally occupy large portions of
the northern part of the Kirawa plain with Ngoshe as their centre. The influence of the Basel
Mission led to the foundation of schools and a hospital in Ngoshe. During my time the old
Basel mission station in Gava served as a place for literacy courses, in particular Hausa. The
courses were open to Christians and Muslims alike.
The Dghweɗe were confronted with Christianity quite soon after independence in 1960/61
(the process of Christianity is presented in greater detail at the end of Part Two, see Chapter
2.2), and with the two plebiscites leading up to national independence. The New Testament
was translated into the Dghweɗe language in the second half of the 1970s, however while I
was working there the Hausa bible was mainly used. The translation of the New Testament
into Lamang was never completed because Hausa had taken over as lingua franca. Missionary
and medical work both began quite early in the western plains. The Gwoza hospital was
founded in 1958 with the help of the Sudan United Mission, and the mission school of
Limankara had its first COCIN teacher in 1963, while Gwoza town remained the power base
for the Muslim elite of the Gwoza LGA.
Not only were the most influential positions within the Local Government’s headquarters
occupied by Muslims, often of Lamang, Zelidva, or Guduf descent, but also the emir of
Gwoza and his district heads were all Muslims. In 1994, when I did my initial ethnographic
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