A
Drummer's Testament
(Draft chapter formatted
for web browsing posted January 13, 2014)
Draft chapter in PDF format posted January 13, 2014: <PDF>
The Benefits of Children
Why Dagbamba value children; role of children in
the family; Dagbamba resistance to family planning; how children help their
parents
Paragraph outline
Proverbs and sayings
Dagbani words and other search terms
Supplementary
material
Image Gallery: Dagbamba children
Contents
outline by paragraph
<top of page>
Introduction
1. talk of children connected to talk of
family
2. talk of children connected to householding and eldership
3.
the scope of the topic
Having many children benefits the
parents
4. more benefit from many children; at least some will
help the family
5. children help in farming or buying food
6. family
planning kills the family
Raising many children
7. have to care for all of them; don’t know which will be good
8.
buying clothes; both husband and wife help
How children help
the family
9. as older ones grow up, they will help with
farming and feeding the younger ones
10. children can help in the market or
trading
11. children who farm or trade can help the father get wives for
them
12. example: how Alhassan helped when he married his wife
The character of children
13. a good child respects
himself
14. a child’s character is from God
Training
children
15. train children with work: farming and trading
16. mothers train daughters to respect husbands and in-laws
17. a child or
grandchild will take up custom work, like drumming or butchering
More types of benefits of children
18. respect;
someone with many children gets respect like a chief or a wealthy person
19. children help parent perform festivals
20. children can build a house
for parents to live in
21. children can dig a well for the family
22.
unexpected good works that children do for their parents: car, horse, cows,
pilgrimage
Differences
23. some girls only help
mother and not father; some help both
24. boys do more to help the parents
Other benefits
25. God helps and protects the
world because of the innocence of children
26. children bring luck: good
luck and bad luck
Proverbs and Sayings
<top of page>
The sweetness of marriage is a child.
One person does not have a wife.
God will make a chief well, and a chief will make a commoner well.
It is God Who makes a person useless, and it is God Who makes a person
good.
A useless child becomes a useless old man.
If somebody’s wife cooks food and gives you and you eat, you
will not be totally satisfied.
If you are a boy and you are not cool, whatever happens, by the time they
get a wife for you, you will become cool.
Maalams say that if not because of small children and the animals in
the bush, God would not have given us, the people on earth, rainwater
to drink.
Key words for ASCII
searches <top of page>
Musical
terms
Samban' lunga (Samban’ luŋa)
Names
and people
Alhassan (Ibrahim)
Abdulai (Ibrahim)
Ibrahim (Alhaji Ibrahim)
Alhaji Adam (Mangulanga)
Dr. Busia (Kofi Busia)
Towns and places
Ejura
Lamashegu
Dagbon
Cultural groups
Dagbamba
Dagbana
Miscellaneous terms
cedi, cedis
chieftaincy
maalam, maalams
messaged
pesewa,
pesewas