A Drummer's Testament
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Staple foods: uses of guinea corn (sorghum), millet, corn, beans; pito (local beer); ritual use, drinking habits
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Contents outline and links by paragraph
Introduction
- 1. guinea corn's importance compared to yams
The work of guinea corn: saɣim
- 2. how to prepare saɣim with guinea corn flour
- 3. serving the saɣim into bowls
- 4. how to prepare the soup or stew with okro, fish, and seasonings
- 5. how they serve the household
Other work of guinea corn
- 6. kpaakulo: fried fermented flour paste; can also use corn, beans, millet
- 7. kpaakulo from Ashantis; formerly called chabala
- 8. porridge
- 9. making kpɛya by malting
- 10. porridge with teeth
- 11. boiled guinea corn for morning food
Maha
- 12. maha for Muslim alms
- 13. how to prepare maha
- 14. alms for funerals or for Fridays
- 15. alms for other reasons, advised by maalam or soothsayer
Pito
- 16. used to brew pito; women brew it
- 17. use ground kpɛya to brew it; send to other parts of Ghana
- 18. boiled kpeya in big pots; takes three days to brew pito
- 19. sieve the boiled kpɛya and ferment it to become pito
The pito house
- 20. pito is for people who drink it and sell it
- 21. receive pito to taste; then buy and drink from calabashes
Drunkards
- 22. the behavior of drunkards
- 23. drinking leads to insults and quarrels
- 24. some drunkards don't want trouble; how they walk zigzag
- 25. some drunkards go from house to house for pito to taste
- 26. how villagers drink on market days; the behavior of drunkards
- 27. Tolon has many drinkers
- 28. villagers are the ones who drink more; meet and bluff their friends at pito house
- 29. how they bluff one another their children and their farming for food
Pito at funerals
- 30. villagers also attend funerals to get pito
- 31. how the elder of the funeral organizes the preparation of pito
- 32. how pito is served at the funeral house; very important for funerals
Millet pito
- 33. millet is used for sacrifice to Tilo house shrine
- 34. Tilo pito is brewed from millet
- 35. millet pito is not consumed much apart from repairing Tilo
Pito in Dagbon and elsewhere
- 36. guinea corn is the main pito; if no guinea corn, can use corn but few will drink it
- 37. more pito cooking in Dagbon because more farming of guinea corn
Millet
- 38. millet for saɣim and kpaakulo
- 39. how fula is prepared and eaten; not only Dagbamba food
- 40. can use rice for fula, but not as good as millet; adding sweet potatoes
- 41. Dagbamba probably got fula from the Hausas; important for Muslims and Hausas
- 42. how yama and yaaŋkanda are prepared for farmers
Corn
- 43. for saɣim and porridge and porridge with teeth; roasted; secondary to guinea corn
Beans
- 44. after yams, guinea corn, millet; bambara beans, cowpeas, other beans
- 45. stored in large containers; important food when yams not yet harvested or have no yams
- 46. how to prepare gabli; grind beans and boil
- 47. tubaani; beans ground and wrapped in leaves and boiled
- 48. kooshe; prepared the same as kpaakulo; also just cook beans; also sell them
Conclusion
- 49. transition to the talk about rice
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Proverbs and Sayings
She is going to clean the soup.
“We are brewing pito today.”
“Today we are going to finish boiling the pito.”
“The drink has cried.”
You cannot drink pito and be satisfied.
“My in-law, you should get dalama.”
When someone drinks and insults you, it is that he already wants to insult you; and the one who drinks and quarrels, as for him, he already wanted quarrels.
He will get up and be going to his house. And there will be about ten roads to his house.
“This is the funeral money I am greeting you with.”
All of the different types of pito, we call them pito. There is strength and strength in all, and they are different.
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Dagbani words and other search terms
- Guinea corn terms
- chabala
- kadugra (kaduɣra)
- koko
- kpaakulo
- kpeya kukogli (kpɛya kukɔɣli)
- kukogli (kukɔɣli)
- kukognyina (kukɔɣnyina)
- maha
- mahalaa
- massa
- sagdugu kukogli (saɣduɣu kukɔɣli)
- sagim (saɣim)
- tuwon zafi
- T-Zed
- Pito terms
- dabisi
- dakahili
- dalama
- dalohili (dalɔhili)
- kpeya (kpɛya)
- pito
- tee
- Other foods
- fula
- adua
- bambara beans
- cowpeas
- fufu
- gabli
- kanaafiri
- kenkey
- kooshe
- kpalgu
- naanzunyuunga (naanzunyuuŋa)
- plaintain
- tuubaani
- yaankanda (yaaŋkanda)
- yama
- yona
- Miscellaneous terms
- cedi, cedis
- cherga (chɛrga)
- coalpot
- Jebuni (Jɛbuni)
- kalnli
- kambong (kambɔŋ)
- kunchung (kunchuŋ)
- laa
- lokorgu (lɔkɔrgu)
- maalam
- neli (nɛli)
- pesewa, pesewas
- pong (pɔŋ)
- sagbenyuhirgu (saɣbɛnyuhirgu)
- sagvugli (saɣvuɣli)
- tankoro (taŋkoro)
- Tilo
- wari
- Towns and places
- Bawku
- Bolgatanga
- Dagbon
- Kumasi
- Nandom
- Navrongo
- Paga
- Pusiga
- Takoradi
- Tolon
- Tumu
- Wa
- Cultural groups
- Ashantis
- Dagbana, Dagbamba
- Frafras
- Konkomba
- Mossis