A Drummer's Testament:  chapter outlines and links

drummers <Home page>

Volume III:  IN OUR LIVING


Chapter titles listed below 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.


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Volume III:  Part 1:  Economic Life



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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

Farming in olden days and modern days

Farming and children shared from one's siblings

How children learn farming

Market-day farming

Group farming



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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

Farming other crops

The work of yams

How women help with harvesting crops



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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

The work of guinea corn:  saɣim

Other work of guinea corn

Maha

Pito

The pito house

Drunkards

Pito at funerals

Millet pito

Pito in Dagbon and elsewhere

Millet

Corn

Beans

Conclusion



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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

Getting a plot to farm

Loans, tractors, and labor in farming the plot

Sharing the yield and paying the debt

Problems of rice farming

Commercial farming and government inputs

Managing debt

The work of rice

Conclusion



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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

Groundnuts

The work of groundnuts

Shea nuts

Shea butter

Kpalgu

Raising animals

Fowls

Example:  how Alhaji Mumuni cares for animals

Cows

Conclusion



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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

How the daalana collected items in the market

How the chief receives the items

The markets and messaging

Festival markets

Markets in northern Ghana

The six-day schedule of markets

Markets in eastern Dagbon

Trading



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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

Drummers have more work

With education, fewer people farm

Farming for food better than commercial farming

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

Need to help traditional farmers

Water

Organizing village farmers for traditional farming

Summary

Conclusion



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Volume III Part 2:  Family




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Chapter III-8:  Family and Lineage

Terminology of the family in Dagbon; the differences of family, line or door, and tribe; the importance of knowing the family and the role of women and drummers; relationship of the lines of chiefs and commoners; how chieftaincy doors die

Family terminology

Terms of address extend the sense of family

Family, line, and tribe

Knowledge of the family

Example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's lines

Example:  family doors of Yendi chiefs can die or shift

Chiefs and commoners

Conclusion



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Chapter III-9:  How a Family Separates

How families separate through marriage of different lines, through mixing of chieftaincy and commoner lines, and through inter-tribal mingling

Introduction:  different ways a family separates

Marrying a different line

Example:  separation of Savelugu drummers and Karaga drummers

Chiefs and commoners

Marrying different tribes

Conclusion



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Chapter III-10:  What Has Strength in Dagbamba Families

Family and togetherness; benefits of a large family; how families extend; sharing children in the family; bonds of children from one mother

Staying together with people

The benefits of a big family

Sharing children helps the family

Strength of the mother in how children bond

Conclusion



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Volume I Part 3:  Children




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Chapter III-11:  The Benefits of Children

Why Dagbamba value children; role of children in the family; Dagbamba resistance to family planning; how children help their parents

Introduction

Having many children benefits the parents

Raising many children

How children help the family

The character of children

Training children

More types of benefits of children

Differences

Other benefits



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Chapter III-12:  How a Child Is Given Birth

Pregnancy and mid-wifery; bathing a newborn child; naming a child; the suuna ceremony; the child in the mother's family house; how a child grows in infancy; differences between Muslims and non-Muslims

Introduction

Pregnancy among typical Dagbamba

Childbirth

The newborn baby

Names and the naming day (suuna)

Barbers and their work

The mother goes to her parents' house with the baby

Restrictions on sex

How a child grows

How the wife returns to her husband's house

How Muslims give birth to and name their children

Conclusion



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Chapter III-13:  Special Problems of Children

Difficulties of children; children and bad spirits; twins, orphans, relation to mother's house

Introduction:  different types of children

A bad spirit:  alizini

Twins

The importance of the mother

Orphans

Conclusion



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Chapter III-14:  How Children Live When They Are Young

How children live with their parents; eating; friends and peer groups; games and dances of children; how children are trained; formal education:  Arabic and English schools; vocational training

What the parents teach a child

How children eat

How children mingle and play

Kpara ni Jansi, or Atikatika

Dances children dance

Games children play

School



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Chapter III-15:  How Girls Grow Up in the Villages

Girls' work in the villages:  grinding, sheanuts, harvesting; household training; festival markets; early courtship patterns

Introduction

Girls' early training

The work of shea nuts

Harvesting groundnuts

How the harvesting work helps families to raise the girls

How young girls attend the festival markets

How the village boys and girls befriend one another at the festival markets

Friendships and early gender relations

Training for marriage

Village girls and town girls

Women who train girls

Preparing for marriage

Conclusion



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Chapter III-16:  How Boys Grow Up in the Villages

Boys' work in the villages:  farming, gathering food for domestic animals; festival markets:  working for one another; relationship to father for support of courtship

Introduction

Work that young boys do

Catching termites and ants to feed hens and fowls

The children's work and suffering

How the fathers help to get wives for the boys



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Volume III Part 4:  Householding




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Chapter III-17:  How Dagbamba Marry

Ways of getting a wife; the age at which Dagbamba marry; responsibilities toward in-laws; how traditional Dagbamba marry; how Muslims marry; how chiefs marry; the life of chiefs' wives

Introduction

Dagbamba way:  greeting or respecting an older person

Examples:  how Alhaji helped his brothers to get wives

How Alhaji Ibrahim got his wives

Alhaji Ibrahim's respect

Typical Dagbamba:  when a girl is promised

The wedding and sending the wife to the husband's house

How Muslims marry

Tying the wedding

How chiefs get their wives

Advice to newlyweds

Engaged women who have sex before they go to their husbands

Chiefs' courts and civil courts in such cases

Kidnapping and eloping

Government courts versus chiefs' courts

Customary way of finding husbands for women:  better to look at the family of the man

Conclusion



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Chapter III-18:  The Life of Bachelors

Problems of being a bachelor; why Dagbamba don't respect bachelors; how bachelors live; women who don't have husbands

Introduction

Types of bachelors

Bachelors have no standing

How bachelors live

Bachelors who are on their own

Bachelors who are studying and postponing marriage

Women without husbands

Differences of women bachelors when adjusting to marriage

Conclusion



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Chapter III-19:  Why Dagbamba Marry Many Wives

Reasons why Dagbamba marry many wives; the hierarchy of wives; rooms and cooking; how the chiefs live with their wives

Introduction

Marrying many wives and Dagbamba custom

Olden days difficulties to get a wife

In modern times, having one wife is a problem

How chiefs get many wives

How wives get their rooms in a house

Cooking, roomchildren, and sex in the chief's house

Others who marry many wives



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Chapter III-20:  How Dagbamba Feed Their Families

How Dagbamba householders feed their wives and children; types of commoners; rotation of cooking among the wives; how chiefs' wives gather foodstuffs; financial contributions of husband and wives

Commoners

Those who are sick or poor

How commoners share corn and guinea corn to feed the household

Buying the other ingredients for cooking

How rich people hold their families

How chiefs feed their families

How children eat

How household members borrow from and help one another and how the women trade

Wives who are very young and other examples

Conclusion



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Chapter III-21:  How a Husband and Wife Love One Another

What a husband does for his wife; what a wife does for her husband

Introduction

Dagbamba husbands' main work is providing food

Buying cloth for the wife

Other good works by the husband

Good works Muslim husbands do

Funerals

The good works of a wife who loves her husband

Conclusion



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Chapter III-22:  The Work Women Do in a House and How They Help One Another

Types of work women do in the house; the character of Dagbamba women; how women hether

Introduction

Women's work

How the women live with one another

Bad women

The work in the house

Women do not talk about the people or the issues in their household

How women communicate in the house

The bad traits of women

Dagbamba stories about bad women

Sharing and not sharing secrets



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Chapter III-23:  Sex and Rivalry in a House

Sexual patterns in the household; jealousy among wives; the use of medicine against each other; how a husband should live with wives who quarrel

Introduction

Sex outside marriage

Sex inside the household

Scheduling sex in the polygamous household

Jealousy

Rivalry

Examples of rivalry and jealousy

Women who are happy

Conclusion



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Chapter III-24:  How a Husband and Wife Separate

How Dagbamba divorce; causes of divorce; examples of three divorces

Introduction

Importance of knowing a woman before marriage

Lack of children

How the separation proceeds; wife returns to her family

Quarrels among wives:  jealousy

Quarrels among wives:  childbirth

Quarreling in a house

The response to jealousy

Why a woman leaves a man

How Alhaji Ibrahim divorced three of his wives

Gurumpaɣa

Ʒɛnabu

Alima



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Volume III Part 5:  Old Age




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Chapter III-25:  Widows

Customs regarding the remarriage of widows; chiefs' widows: public bathing and beating; passing through the broken wall

Widows are different from other unmarried women

How widows marry again

Chiefs' widows are beaten

Bathing the widows and how they pass through the broken wall

Conclusion



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Chapter III-26:  The Life of Old People

Old age and respect; status of old people; responsibilities of old age; the family head; how old people live; types of old age; lives of three old people compared and contrasted

The respect and works of old age

The old age of women

Taking care of old people

Old age and drumming

Alhassan Lumbila's old age

Alhaji Adam's old age

Sheni's old age

Comparing Alhaji Adam and Alhassan Lumbila

Conclusion



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Volume III Part 6:  Conclusion

Chapter III-27:  Alhaji Ibrahim's Reflections on the Work

The history of Alhaji Ibrahim's relationship with John; problems of the work; why Alhaji Ibrahim did the work; how he feels about it; final instructions to John

Introduction

John's initial training in drumming

Development of the relationship

Development of the lectures

Alhaji Ibrahim's intentions and motives

The benefits of the work