A Drummer's Testament

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Chapter II-15:  Modern History and the Chieftaincy Crisis

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Independence and the role of educated Dagbamba in the crisis; government interference in chieftaincy; the usurpation of Naa Mahamadu and its effects; the origins and escalation of the dispute under Naa Mahamam Bila and Mionlana Andani; fallacy of the claim of rotation; soldiers' government; the difficulty of repair


Supplementary material


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Contents outline and links by paragraph

Introduction

Independence

Role of educated Dagbamba in removal of Naa Mahamadu

Chieftaincy is custom; cannot be compared to government

Repair should be from inside Dagbon and not from outsiders

Examples of how chieftaincy in Dagbon has spoiled

The background of the chieftaincy crisis

Origin of the chieftaincy crisis during the time of Naa Mahamam Bila

The effort to remove Naa Abilabila

The lack of validity or precedence for the claim of rotation

Continuing government interference:  Mionlana Andani and Naa Mahamadu

Naa Mahamadu's character

In custom, Yaa-Naa could be defeated and killed in war but not removed

Recapitulation and the difficulty of repair

How soldiers' governments spoiled Ghana

Conclusion:  the need for patience in difficult times


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Proverbs and Sayings

“Had-I-known”:  it is always last.

If you are coming and you fall down, don't look at the place you fall; you should look and see what caused you to fall.

When a person comes to know that people are cheating him, he will not get what he wants again.

If you say that the one cheating you should not benefit, then you too will not benefit.

Custom is not something you can stand at one place and hold. 

What spoiled Dagbon was the eye-opening.

Too much eye-opening is foolishness.

As for our big men, if their armpits are smelling, they cannot close it.

They have taken the white man's way of living and added their bad character to it, and they have taken it to spoil Dagbon.

Chieftaincy is older than government.

If you farm your farm and you call a blind man to come and sow it, and he sows it the way he sows it, are you not the one who has gone to bring your own fault?

If your enemy should hear about your bad thing, it is your houseperson who has said it.

When a dog is going to lie down, it will be going around and around before it lies down.

If you are going to repair the world, and it refuses, you should repair your own sleeping place.

In the olden days, the old people used to put their hands in their pockets.  If a child did some talk, they would say, “There is something in this pocket:  it will catch you.”  And the child would keep quiet.

If you are selling something, and you don't take something to cover it, will it have respect?  It will not have respect.

Will you repair somebody's house and not be alive?

How the chiefs are nowadays, we call them “I have not yet collected.”

If they take meat from the mouth of a lion and give it to a hyena to eat at the same place, do you think the hyena will feel free to eat the meat?

If a tree spoils from under it roots, you don't have to ask of its branches.

How can a stranger catch a child of the land?

We drummers:  what is forbidden to Namɔɣu is also forbidden to us.

Have you ever seen somebody, and they cut off the head and he's not dead?

Inside the family, if you take bad and put it inside, it is waiting for you.  And it's not waiting for you alone:  it's waiting for you and all your people.

If you want to cause trouble, you should go out of your house and cause trouble, because if you go outside and cause trouble and come home, your housepeople will support you.  But if you cause trouble in your house and you go outside, no one will support you.  If you come back to the house, where are you going to enter?  You should do good in your house.

If you don't know something and you are telling lies, and you meet someone who knows, he is going to push you down.

In Dagbon when they tell you that something is forbidden, you have to fear it:  you don't see it with your eyes, but you only see the result.

If somebody is not sleeping, and you come to wake him up, you will try to wake him and get tired.

If somebody doesn't want the truth, and you tell him the truth, he won't listen to you.

There are many talks that people talk, and when you see it, you should throw it far away.

If a chief cannot say a word to a commoner, is there chieftaincy?

As for us drummers, the time they will say that there is no chieftaincy again, that is the time that we too will say that we have no work to do again.

If you see an elephant, nobody is going to tell you that it is an elephant standing there.

If somebody doesn't like you and you do some good work, he will say it's not good.

A monkey is a monkey.

You should not blame the times of your generation.

If the times are bad, and you are inside those times, you don't have to be blaming it.

If the times come like that, and you are facing problems, then you only have to pray to God.

If some talks have strength more than you, you too have to get some more patience than it.

Strength is like water.

As for strength, nothing can defeat it, apart from patience and the will of God.

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