A Drummer's Testament
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The importance of knowing how one's parents and grandparents lived; recollections of precolonial and colonial life; types of work and the sense of Dagbamba
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Contents outline and links by paragraph
Knowledge of the past
- 1. Alhaji Ibrahim's age; he has seen many things he talks about from the olden days
- 2. example: when cowries were money
- 3. knowledge of past also comes from asking older people
- 4. example: Alhaji Ibrahim's father told him about hunger and how people ate taaŋkoro
Big differences from Alhaji Ibrahim's childhood
- 5. not everyone asks; those who don't ask may doubt stories about hunger
- 6. Gurunsi people traded children for food
- 7. animals used to catch people; children had to be careful outside house at night
Money and the cost of living
- 8. Alahji Ibrahim used cowries to buy food
- 9. introduction of coins; coin names from cowries: laɣ'pia, kobo, pihinu, etc.
- 10. the amount of food one pesewa could buy
- 11. the costs of things for Alhaji Ibrahim as a young man; the prices for animals
Foods and animals
- 12. where people sold food on roadsides; costs of living during colonial time
- 13. how Gurunsis carried chickens to Dagbon
- 14. the uses of guinea fowls in Alhaji Ibrahim's early days
- 15. the uses of goats for sacrifices to house shrines; compared to sheep
- 16. the uses of sheep among Muslims
- 17. how plentiful yams were
- 18. how butchers slaughtered a cow and why they would give meat to children
- 19. how butchers shared meat to the chief and elders
Benefits of knowing about one's tradition
- 20. many changes in Dagbon; children should know how their forefathers lived; a time will come when they will need to use traditional ways of doing things; examples: fertilizer, grinding stone
- 21. Alhaji Ibrahim's generation was in between the white-man's time and their forefather's time; differences in the generations
- 22. children should know about customs and about their forefathers' lives; current generation thinks it has more sense
- 23. not knowing custom leaves a child standing alone in the world
- 24. the talks: what future generations should know to call themselves Dagbamba; the talks are for those who will want them
Sense work and family lines
- 25. the sense Dagbamba have learned is more than other tribes in Ghana; drumming and calling of names
- 26. Dagbamba sense-work moves inside families: drummers, blacksmiths, barbers, butchers; also weavers, leather-workers
Blacksmiths
- 27. blacksmiths: people from outside the family sometimes can learn it
- 28. the work of blacksmiths; tools for farming, shaving and cutting; bracelets like baŋa and baŋgari
- 29. blacksmith's work for drummers and drum-makers: adzes, knives, chaɣla, feeŋa, luŋ-bansi
- 30. blacksmith's work for chiefs: weapons
- 31. blacksmiths have respect from everyone because of the sense they have to make things people use
Weavers and other work
- 32. weavers have sense; types of baskets and storage: gamli, pɔŋ, kpanjɔɣu, pibirgu; puɣnai, zana mats
- 33. sense of making different types of pots: luŋli, kɔbaŋa, duɣu, yuli, kɔduɣu
- 34. sense to make tandi for building blocks; putting roofs on rooms; weaving grasses onto roofs
Reflection on the work so far
- 35. sequencing and pacing the talks; how Alhaji Ibrahim prepares for the talks
- 36. transition to next talk: the importance and strength of giving respect to others as part of custom
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Proverbs and Sayings
What you are holding in your hands, you should not let it fall on the ground.
Too much eye-opening is foolishness.
If you want to talk to somebody, and the fellow turns his face away from you, do you think he is listening to what you are saying?
There is nothing at their front, nothing at their back, nothing at their sides: they are just alone.
You can't catch a live bee and put it into a hole.
After morning, you get evening.
If you want to do something tomorrow, it is good you start it today.
“We will eat and finish the food”: it will come from those who are eating.
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Dagbani words and other search terms
- Chiefs and elders
- Nakohi-Naa (Nakɔhi-Naa)
- Musical terms
- Baamaaya
- chagla (chaɣla)
- feenga (feeŋa)
- Jera (Jɛra)
- lung-bansi (luŋ-bansi)
- Names and people
- Sheni
- Kissmal
- Miscellaneous terms
- anzinfa
- banga (baŋa)
- bangari (baŋgari)
- boligo
- cedi
- cowrie
- daanya
- dugu (duɣu)
- fufu
- gamli
- gampilsi
- guinea fowl
- Holy Qur'an
- Jebuni (Jɛbuni)
- kaafa
- kobanga (kɔbaŋa)
- kobga (kɔbga)
- kobo
- kodugu (kɔduɣu)
- kpalgu
- kpanjogu (kpanjɔɣu)
- lag'pia (laɣ'pia)
- lorry
- lungli (luŋli)
- maalam
- neli (nɛli)
- pesewa, pesewas
- pibirgu
- pihinu
- pong (pɔŋ)
- pugnai (puɣnai)
- soli sagim (soli saɣim)
- taankoro (taaŋkoro)
- tandi
- threepence
- tuusahi
- Wumbee
- yuli
- zana
- Towns and places
- Bolgatanga
- Dagbon
- Ejura
- Kpabiya
- Kpatinga
- Kumasi
- Kumbungu
- Nanton
- Ouagadougou
- Salaga
- Sang
- Savelugu
- Techiman
- Ziong
- Cultural groups
- Dagbamba
- Dagbana
- Dagbani
- Gurunsi, Gurunsis
- Hausa
- Mossi