Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 41
often mention the name of protagonists together with accompanying elders. We can safely
imagine that quite a few of them are in this picture too.
More familiar faces are in Plates 4e to 4h, with Taɗa Nzige who died a couple of years ago
while parts of the Gwoza hills were under Boko Haram occupation. Also, bulama Ngatha died
some time between 2006 and 2009, shortly before Boko Haram. We also draw the reader's
attention to the fly flaps made out of fan palm fiber, which many of the men carry (Plates 4c
and 4d).
Plate 4e: Senior rainmaker Taɗa Nzige to the left of John
Plate 4f: Taɗa Nzige
Plate 4g: Bulama Ngatha of Hudimche to the left
Plate 4h: John Zakariya
Plates 4i-4n below show photographs of Dghweɗe protagonists from Ghwa'a. We see
Zakariya Kwire, John's father, who became a Christian very late in life and was a mine of
ethnographic information. We often interviewed him together with his friend dada Ɗga who
was still a Traditionalist. Dada Dukwa was my main protagonist on the birth of twins, being
himself a father of twins. He was also still a Traditionalist, and so was Ghamba Vunga, who
was at the same time the leading earth priest of Ghwa'a.
We are very grateful to Abubakar and Kalakwa, and learn in the chapter about the
architecture of the Dghweɗe how fragmented the material remains of traditional houses
already were during my time in 2005. That had nothing to do with Boko Haram but was a
result of socio-cultural transformation since colonial times. We visited two more houses, that
of Buba Nza'awara of Dzga in Ghwa'a and bulama Ngatha's house. We show a picture of
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