A Drummer's Testament:  chapter outlines and links

Volume III:  IN OUR LIVING

Part 1:  ECONOMIC LIFE

• 1.    Farming in Dagbon
• 2.    How Dagbamba Sow Their Yam Farms
• 3.    The Work of Guinea Corn
• 4.    Rice Farming
• 5.    Groundnuts, Shea Butter, Kpalgu, and Animals
• 6.    Markets in Dagbon
• 7.    Modern Work and Agricultural Development

Chapter titles above go to chapter outlines on this page.
Chapter title links in the outline sections below go to chapter portals.
Outline section links go to web chapter sections.

Volume III Part 1:  Economic Life

Chapter III-1:  Farming in Dagbon

The origins of farming in Dagbon; farming and the family; the sweetness of farming work; market-day farming and group farming

Introduction

• 1.    transition to talks about Dagbamba life

Farming in olden days and modern days

• 2.    Dagbamba were farming when Dagbon started
• 3.    not farming much; raiding and fighting; did not take land
• 4.    few people were in the region, farming only a little bit
• 5.    Dagbamba were farming more than other tribes; buying Gurunsis with food
• 6.    Dagbmaba did not fight Gurunsis; Gurunsis had nothing to take
• 7.    not farming much; hunger; ate hibiscus, taŋkoro root; dealing with taŋkoro poison
• 8.    by Naa Luro's time were farming more
• 9.    Alhaji Ibrahim farms; different type of earning from drumming; farming like a lottery
• 10.  traditional farming:  yams, guinea corn, beans, corn, millet; modern farming:  rice, groundnuts
• 11.  traditional farming by hand is difficult and tiring
• 12.  in original tradition, drummers, maalams, barbers did not farm
• 13.  chiefs did not farm; chief's villages farmed for the chief
• 14.  most Dagbamba now farm

Farming and children shared from one's siblings

• 15.  send children to live with and farm for brother or mother
• 16.  children of your brother or sister come to farm for you; marry and extend house:  “young men's side“
• 17.  some Dagbamba don't care well for brothers' children; they leave the house
• 18.  importance of respecting brothers' and sisters' children
• 19.  example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's sons Alhassan and Abukari; how Alhassan has benefited
• 20.  not respecting a brother's son can bring trouble to the father

How children learn farming

• 21.  follow father to the farm; by three or four can dig for crickets, learn weeding
• 22.  by six or seven:  carry hens to farm, weed, fetch water
• 23.  children can work nicely; feed them; after harvest, buy something for them
• 24.  farming has not teaching; from the heart; only show yam mounds; when children grow, they take over the farm for their father

Market-day farming

• 25.  come together to farm
• 26.  set specific market days to go to each other's farms; increases productivity
• 27.  going to one another's farm; can take to father's farm; helps the family, too
• 28.  market-day farming is white heart work; from friendship; farmers work hard
• 29.  do not share the harvest; no debt

Group farming

• 30.  brought by white men; Dagbamba have refused it; too much cheating and quarrels around work and sharing
• 31.  now the government forces it; banks make loans to group farmers, not individual; not always successful
• 32.  farmers say they are a group to get loans, but farm individually; many issues
• 33.  market-day farming is better than group farming; don't share harvest but more benefit

Chapter III-2:  How Dagbamba Sow Their Farms

How Dagbamba farm yams; other crops: corn, sorghum, millet, beans; crop rotation and agricultural technology; farming rituals and sacrifices; uses of yams

Farming yams

• 1.    farming is focused on yams; mixed with other crops
• 2.    clearing the land:  nyutam, vaɣli, zalli
• 3.    cook food after clearing the land; bury food on the farm
• 4.    making ridges for yam mounds; vuɣlaa, nakpaa
• 5.    preparing yam seeds
• 6.    season or time for planting and harvesting yams
• 7.    techniques of planting yams
• 8.    types of yams; their characteristics and differing yields
• 9.    farm different types because of different harvests; don't mix types in a mound
• 10.  covering the mounds with nyubuɣri; protecting the mounds
• 11.  nyusari; stake the growing yams; weeding and caring for the yams

Farming other crops

• 12.  second crops, make farm in the batandali; getting people to help
• 13.  farming the batandali; making a corn farm
• 14.  adding guinea corn and beans or cowpeas
• 15.  sowing bambara beans and millet among the yam mounds
• 16.  farming corn in the guinea corn farm; types of corn; guinea corn only one year
• 17.  can farm a plot for three years usually; occasionally five or more; then fallow
• 18.  sow red beans (sanʒi) in the corn farm; early harvest
• 19.  when weeding yam farm, also sow sesame in a separate place

The work of yams

• 20.  typical Dagbamba use new yams for sacrifice to Jɛbuni house shrine
• 21.  gather people to harvest the yams
• 22.  the day of eating yams:  gather the family; pound new yams for fufu
• 23.  slaughter goats and fowls; share the food to neighbors
• 24.  the work of yams:  mashed yams
• 25.  the work of yams:  boiled yams with stew
• 26.  the work of yams:  roasted yams, fried yams
• 27.  the work of yams:  other ways to cook and eat yams

How women help with harvesting crops

• 28.  harvesting the other crops; women help with harvesting work
• 29.  harvesting corn; remove the kernels in the house compound
• 30.  harvesting guinea corn; also women; push down the stalks and cut; gather and carry home
• 31.  harvesting millet is difficult; how women prepare an area, beat the millet, and sieve it
• 32.  sharing the harvest with the house women for their own use
• 33.  how women sometimes help with sowing and weeding; girlfriends and wives
• 34.  some women do not help with the harvesting; sometimes causes quarrels

Chapter III-3:  The Work of Guinea Corn and Other Crops

Staple foods:  uses of guinea corn (sorghum), millet, corn, beans; pito (local beer); ritual use, drinking habits

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

Chapter III-4:  Rice Farming

Rice:  origins of rice farming; uses of rice; problems of intensive agriculture; credit facilities and debt patterns; emergent stratification patterns; wage labor in the villages

The introduction of rice farming

• 1.    introduction:  government wants rice farming
• 2.    rice previously not regarded; rarely farmed
• 3.    encouraged by Nkrumah as commercial farming

Getting a plot to farm

• 4.    seeing the chief and elders of a village to get land
• 5.    how to greet the chief
• 6.    Wulana leads the farmer to choose the land
• 7.    greetings for commercial farming versus food farming

Loans, tractors, and labor in farming the plot

• 8.    hiring a tractor; plowing, harrowing, sowing rice
• 9.    getting a bank loan; bribes
• 10.  bank pays out loan money incrementally:  seeds, tractors, sowing, fertilizer
• 11.  planting other crops in case the rice does not do well
• 12.  difficulty of rice:  lack of rain; laborers to weed grass
• 13.  hiring by-day labor
• 14.  cutting the rice:  hire laborers; some friends will help without pay
• 15.  beating the rice:  hire laborers to beat, sieve, and bag the rice

Sharing the yield and paying the debt

• 16.  pay with money and add some rice as a gift; contrast with combine harvester
• 17.  give rice for using the land:  chief, elders, tindana
• 18.  report to the bank; show lower yield
• 19.  some people bribe the bank; can even get tractor
• 20.  if the farm does not yield, bank will make adjustment

Problems of rice farming

• 21.  problem of rice farming:  tractors do not complete their work
• 22.  problem of rice farming:  tractors are not timely
• 23.  rice farmers can farm and fail
• 24.  many problems from not having a tractor
• 25.  after sowing, need fertilizer which is not always available
• 26.  if the inputs are adequate, the rice will yield; fertilizer
• 27.  rice farming has no benefit for many farmers; lack of rain

Commercial farming and government inputs

• 28.  tractors can farm and also be hired out to other farmers
• 29.  Nkrumah's programs; subsidies of tractors and inputs
• 30.  those who benefited from the early assistance are rich; small farmers have fallen

Managing debt

• 31.  how rice has increased in cost; living with debt
• 32.  managing the debt
• 33.  commercial banks versus government banks
• 34.  difficulties of paying off debt
• 35.  a good harvest can remove a farmer from his debt

The work of rice

• 36.  the work of rice:  ways of cooking it
• 37.  grind the rice and make saɣim
• 38.  rice balls
• 39.  rice porridge; boiled rice with stew
• 40.  duɣrijilli:  rice cooked together with the ingredients of the stew; like jollof

Conclusion

• 41.  transition to the talk of groundnuts, kpalgu, and shea nuts

Chapter III-5:  Groundnuts, Shea Nuts, Kpalgu, and Animals

How Dagbamba farm groundnuts; the preparation and uses of shea butter and kpalgu (local seasoning); raising animals

Introduction

• 1.    this chapter joins several talks

Groundnuts

• 2.    groundnut farming an old thing; not much until vegetable oil mills
• 3.    can sow in batandali or mounds, or in its own place
• 4.    harvesting the groundnuts

The work of groundnuts

• 5.    eating boiled groundnuts
• 6.    roasted groundnuts
• 7.    mix into kpalgu
• 8.    grind and add to soup
• 9.    kulikuli; from Hausas; separating the oil
• 10.  how Mossi and Hausa traders showed Dagbamba kulikuli in Alhaji Ibrahim's youth
• 11.  government agriculture people introduced better groundnuts
• 12.  much profit from groundnuts
• 13.  farming groundnuts to sell to vegetable oil mills

Shea nuts

• 14.  original cooking oil; also for lanterns
• 15.  from shea tree; have to go to bush
• 16.  how the shea nuts ripen on the tree
• 17.  how women go in groups to gather shea nuts
• 18.  separating the fresh from the overripe shea nuts
• 19.  boiling the shea nuts; spreading them to dry
• 20.  continuing collection, boiling drying through the season
• 21.  dangers of collecting shea nuts; snakes, spirits
• 22.  can sell nuts or make shea butter

Shea butter

• 23.  pounding and breaking the shea nuts
• 24.  cooking and grinding the nuts to separate the oil
• 25.  women gather top help one another; stirring the nuts and adding water to separate shea butter
• 26.  use remains (kpambirgu) to paint walls
• 27.  finishing preparing the shea butter
• 28.  selling the shea butter in the market
• 29.  carrying shea butter to sell in Asante in olden days
• 30.  how Mossi traders traded shea butter to the South
• 31.  how shea butter is used in medicine

Kpalgu

• 32.  the work of kpalgu in cooking
• 33.  how the seed pods mature on the tree
• 34.  ownership of the seed pods by chiefs
• 35.  removing the seeds; uses of the pods (dasandi)
• 36.  preparing and drying the seeds
• 37.  boiling the seeds; uses of the boiling water (zilimbɔŋ)
• 38.  further preparation of the seeds; pound, boil, let rot
• 39.  preparation of the kpalgu

Raising animals

• 40.  animals raised not just for eating; for purposes; cover the anus
• 41.  cow and horse are most important to villagers
• 42.  holding many animals shows a person who “eats and is satisfied”
• 43.  cows used to perform funerals
• 44.  people use profit from farming to get animals
• 45.  others buy animals to keep for times of need

Fowls

• 46.  keeping chickens inside the house
• 47.  feeding the chickens with termites
• 48.  caring for guinea fowls is similar to chickens
• 49.  taking young fowls to the farm to eat insects
• 50.  how the fowls become attached to their owner

Example:  how Alhaji Mumuni cares for animals

• 51.  how Alhaji Mumuni takes care of fowls in his area
• 52.  how he raises goats
• 53.  feeding goats
• 54.  feeding sheep
• 55.  how animals roam and eat; when they must be tied
• 56.  how children care for sheep; where sheep sleep

Cows

• 57.  taking cows to bush to eat; return at night
• 58.  formerly children took care of cows; now Fulani are main cowherds
• 59.  how the Fulani profit from cow's milk
• 60.  in olden days, milk was easily available in villages
• 61.  milk has become profitable; mistrust of Fulanis
• 62.  Fulanis benefit from milk and from manure for farming
• 63.  cows need care because can spoil someone's farm
• 64.  issues of cows giving birth to males and females
• 65.  example:  how Alhaji Ibrahim acquired a cow
• 66.  how Alhaji Ibrahim's cow gave birth
• 67.  the Fulani cowherd's advice to Alhaji Ibrahim
• 68.  how the cows were lost

Conclusion

• 69.  transition to talk of markets

Chapter III-6:  Markets in Dagbon

The traditional market system; the daalana; chiefs and markets; schedule of markets; benefits of markets; festival markets; the contemporary market system

Introduction

• 1.    markets have many benefits

How the daalana collected items in the market

• 2.    chiefs control the market:  daasaha and daalana collect things for chief
• 3.    this talk from time before white men, no tax; daalana carried a bag
• 4.    the daalana would collect items from different sellers in the market; guinea corn, fish
• 5.    for some items, use small calabash for measurement; salt
• 6.    collecting seasonings:  nili
• 7.    types of peppers
• 8.    types of seasonings:  kpalgu, kantɔŋ, ncho
• 9.    types of beans
• 10.  kebabs, pito
• 11.  cloth sellers; receiving cowries
• 12.  cowries were money before white men came
• 13.  kooshe, fried yams; other prepared foods

How the chief receives the items

• 14.  the daalana takes the items to the chief; respect for the chief for holding the town and the market
• 15.  the chief makes sacrifices to repair the market; help from tindana and elders
• 16.  the chief helps to maintain the markets; clearing grass
• 17.  the daalana's does not force to collect things
• 18.  the food items collected are for the chief's wives and housechildren to eat, not the chief

The markets and messaging

• 19.  send messages via someone's townspeople at a market
• 20.  different towns' people sit in their particular place in the market
• 21.  people are happy at markets; see people; can buy and sell things

Festival markets

• 22.  at some markets especially following Praying and Chimsi Festivals
• 23.  the three market days
• 24.  how the villagers show themselves at festival markets
• 25.  not much selling, except in preparation
• 26.  example:  how villagers dance and celebrate at Voggo festival market
• 27.  the festival market are very important to people
• 28.  going around to attend different festival markets

Markets in northern Ghana

• 29.  not only Dagbamba have markets; also other towns like Bolgatanga and Bawku
• 30.  markets have been there since olden days; people walked even to far markets
• 31.  some markets grow in importance while other small markets die

The six-day schedule of markets

• 32.  Tamale is the biggest market; people travel from many towns and places
• 33.  Tolon (Katiŋ daa) was formerly the big market; how villagers drink at the market
• 34.  Savelugu (Katinŋa daa)
• 35.  three markets:  Voggo, Tampion, and Yendi (Champuu)
• 36.  Gushegu and Nyankpala
• 37.  Kumbungu

Markets in eastern Dagbon

• 38.  all types of people in Dagbon like the markets; Konkombas also enjoy the markets
• 39.  Yendi market a big market in eastern Dagbon; many Konkombas
• 40.  other markets in eastern Dagbon beyond Yendi
• 41.  Gushegu market; far away; larger-scale trading
• 42.  Karaga market; similar to Gushegu but not as big because same day as Tamale market

Trading

• 43.  buying from one market to sell at another
• 44.  bringing animals to market; restrictions on types of fowls
• 45.  trading food for animals from Gurunsis
• 46.  how Gurunsis would travel to Dagbamba markets for food
• 47.  formerly men and women sold different things; now mixed
• 48.  example:  calabashes men would farm but women would sell
• 49.  food:  formerly men would farm but women would sell; now sell at the farm
• 50.  farming tools and salt formerly from Krachi; traveling to trade was for men
• 51.  now all buyings and sellings are generally mixed between men and women
• 52.  only men still sell animals, not women
• 53.  women do not sell medicines
• 54.  blacksmiths, barbers, and weavers sell their things; only men
• 55.  women sell pito, soap, thread; now both women and men sell cloth

Chapter III-7:  Modern Work and Agricultural Development

Modern trends in work patterns; the Dagbamba resistance to education and “white man's work”; guide to development of the region; water and dam maintenance; commercial and traditional agriculture; sources of local labor, sources of local decision-making; bullock farming and group farming

Travel and modern work

• 1.    formerly Dagbamba farmed and did not travel
• 2.    in modern times, people travel easily
• 3.    white men brought different types of work
• 4.    young man could work for wages; different from farm earnings
• 5.    example:  road work; chiefs got money and gave to workers

Drummers have more work

• 6.    drummers work more often, get more money
• 7.    drumming work formerly less frequent; how it has changed
• 8.    what they earned formerly; money used to go farther
• 9.    money economy inflation; get more but spend more

With education, fewer people farm

• 10.  formerly Dagbamba did not send children to school; didn't trust white men
• 11.  Dagbamba now see benefits of white men's ways; children want schooling; no time to farm
• 12.  both ways are good because of population; census count is low

Farming for food better than commercial farming

• 13.  farming cannot feed the whole modern population
• 14.  olden days farming was better for Dagbon because farmed for food, not to sell
• 15.  government helps commercial farmers, not traditional farmers for food
• 16.  villagers still farm yams; cannot farm yams with tractors
• 17.  Dagbamba were farming before tractors were brought to Ghana
• 18.  development agencies should help small traditional farmers

Negative effects of modern farming:  grinding machines, fertilizer, tractors, corruption

• 19.  effect in Dagbon of grinding machines
• 20.  effect of tractors and fertilizer
• 21.  formerly used animal feces for fertilizer
• 22.  fertilizer not available or not sold at correct price
• 23.  corruption cannot be stopped
• 24.  corruption was not there in olden days; now it is everywhere
• 25.  animal feces is better than fertilizer
• 26.  tractor farming makes people feel weak and lazy
• 27.  returning to olden days fertilizer and techniques; burning
• 28.  other fertilizer from rubbish

Need to help traditional farmers

• 29.  get local leaders from among the small village farmers
• 30.  help those who cannot hire tractors
• 31.  need Peace Corps or CIDA or USAID to help instead of government people
• 32.  government people need bribes

Water

• 33.  for water, need wells, boreholes, dams; cannot trust government to do the work
• 34.  separate the water for cows so that the water for the town is good
• 35.  people will help with the digging because will not be cheated by government
• 36.  get foreign aid workers to be watching the work
• 37.  after a few years the villagers will not agree to cheating

Organizing village farmers for traditional farming

• 38.  helping villagers with farming; axes, hoes, cutlass
• 39.  the villages are different; the leader is not necessarily the chief
• 40.  in some towns the chief has one mouth with the townspeople; Nanton an example
• 41.  villages and towns have farmers' leader or young men's leader; gather people
• 42.  getting the leader from the town; communicate about the project in advance
• 43.  give minimal money for agricultural inputs
• 44.  if no funds available, do market-day farming; not group farming
• 45.  credit problems with banks, which support large-scale farmers
• 46.  farmers will use traditional ways of farming
• 47.  do bullock farming where possible; another way to avoid tractor problems

Summary

• 48.  the small farmers are not following the group farming practices but need inputs
• 49.  the goal of farming help should be consistent with traditional food farming

Conclusion

• 50.  transition to family and household topics