Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 93
are also able to link to our colonial sources, but now we are going to concentrate on retelling
only the oral history of Wandala slave raiding in Dghweɗe.
Before we quote our main oral source from Ghwa'a, it is necessary to point out that the word
for slave in Dghweɗe was vəɗa, which also means blacksmithing or forging, at least this is
what Chika Khutsa from Kwalika told us (see Plate 4d). We will see that iron products played
quite a large role in tribute arrangements with the Wandala.
Our main local sources on pre-colonial slave raiding in the hills, and its link to the various
modes of the payment of tribute to the Wandala, were Zakariya Kwire, Ɗga Parɗa from
Ghwa'a, and Baba Musa from Barawa. All three were in their 80s when they spoke to me
about it. They informed me that:
When the Wandala were still slave raiding in Ghwa'a and Kunde, they were more orientated
towards the east because there was no international boundary or any colonial power.
At this time the Dghweɗe people negotiated with the Wandala that they would pay tribute to the
Wandala of Kirawa. After they had agreed on this, the raiding of people and property stopped.
Later on, the Dghweɗe decided to stop paying tribute, and the Wandala started raiding again. This
made the Dghweɗe people put watchmen to observe movements in the adjacent eastern plain. The
names of two of the watchmen were Bayawa Thanuwa and Bdakwana. As soon as they saw that
the Wandala were approaching by horse from Kirawa, they warned the people to quickly climb the
hills. Within a very short time, the Wandala would arrive and catch people.
On the other side [of the Kirawa river], it was visible how the Matakam [Mafa of the Moskota
hills] started shooting with bow and arrow against the approaching Wandala. The Wandala were
using spears and killed many of them, while others were carried away as slaves, but the Dghweɗe
had already taken refuge due to the watchman system.
The word the Dghweɗe used for tribute payment to avoid slave raiding was hamada, which is also
the word for tax. The main items paid were vardinga [iron from used hoes], taghwa [ground tiger
nuts], and ɓalghaya [mountain yams].
Our Dghweɗe friends said that these things were collected by two men and then brought to
the Wandala by a third man:
Ghute and Tangwaya collected them, while Zaka Sawire carried them to Mazagwa [Mozogo], and
after that the raiding stopped again.
They also told me about an incident which happened to the Chikiɗe:
The Chikiɗe once took cows and goats to the Matakam [here the Mafa of Moskota], to exchange
some of their fellow people who had been captured by them to be sold into slavery. While trying
to cross the [eastern] plain, they were attacked by the Wandala and taken into slavery themselves.
The Wandala also took their cows and goats. Quite a few people were killed during this incident,
while others managed to escape back into the [Ckikiɗe] hills.
Our friends added:
Although the Wandala, in general, did catch women, men, and children, they did not normally kill.
The killings described above were because the Chikiɗe had refused to go back. This then led to a
fight, in which Chikiɗe, as well as some Wandala and their horses, were killed.
This example shows an intertribal conflict caused by slave raiding, and that the Chikiɗe were
not prepared to allow the Wandala to control their way of retrieving captured people from the
Mafa. It also shows that the main physical conflict area might not have been the Gwoza hills
themselves but the adjacent eastern plain.
They explained further, that:
It was not only the Wandala and Matakam [Mafa] who were raiding the Dghweɗe, but also the
Glavda. If the Glavda captured someone, they just took that person and sold them straight on to
the Wandala. As for the Matakam, the Dghweɗe could still go and get people back by paying three
cows, nine goats, and one zinga-zinge [zhengzhe in Mafa, which is an iron throwing knife], but
sometimes they arrived too late and their people were already sold. The Matakam also kept people
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