A Drummer's Testament

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PDF chapter versions:  most recent updates

Portal webpages in HTML format are continually updated with supplementary material, as annotated in the Uploads and Revisions link.  HTML and PDF chapter files are updated simultaneously.  So that readers who have downloaded chapters in PDF format may know that they are reading the most up-to-date versions, the list below shows the most recent upload dates of posted PDF chapter revisions.

John Chernoff’s Introduction

1    Preamble:  Trees 2024-02-27
2    Dagbon:  Close from a Distance 2019-06-28
3    Relative Systems 2023-06-30
4    The Anthropological Heritage 2024-02-06
5    Dagbon:  Closing the Distance 2015-04-27
6    The Ethnographic Seed 2022-07-28
7    The Translation 2023-06-30
8    The Creative 2023-10-01
9    Testament:  Mumuni's Eulogy 2023-04-23
10  The Treasure 2021-01-05
11  The Receptive 2021-01-02

Volume I:  The Work of Drumming

1    The Benefits of Friendship 2013-05-19
2    The Dagbamba Way of Living 2023-05-19
3    The Sense of Dagbamba 2023-53-19
4    Respect and Living Together 2023-05-19
5    The Way of a Stranger 2023-05-19
6    Greetings 2023-07-05
7    Messengers 2015-09-30
8    The Debt of the Stomach 2020-01-08
9    Patience, Truth, and the Talks 2015-10-01
10  The Work of Drumming 2023-09-20
11  The Respect of Drumming 2020-11-20
12  Other Musicians of Dagbon 2019-02-04
13  How Drums Are Made 2015-10-01
14  How a Drum Is Beaten 2015-10-01
15  Proverbs and Praise-Names 2015-10-02
16  The Praise-Name Dances 2019-02-04
17  How a Person Should Dance 2015-10-02
18  Baamaaya and Group Dances 2019-02-04
19  Takai and Tora 2019-02-04
20  Funerals 2021-03-28
21  Muslims' and Chiefs' Funerals 2023-08-09
22  How Children Learn Drumming 2016-11-07
23  Traveling and Learning 2019-01-22
24  Drum Chieftaincies 2020-11-20
25  How Drummers Share Money 2023-08-09

Volume II:  Old Talks

1    Forbidden Talks 2022-10-16
2    How Drummers Search for History 2020-11-23
3    The Origins of Dagbon 2023-10-04
4    The Founding of Dagbon 2021-06-30
5    The Yaa-Naa and Yendi Elders 2021-07-12
6    Chieftaincy in Dagbon 2022-03-28
7    How Princes Get Chieftaincy 2020-08-25
8    How Chiefs Judge Cases 2018-01-26
9    The Drum History 2023-01-06
10  Naa Luro and the First Gonja War 2020-11-24
11  Naa Zanjina and Islam 2022-02-25
12  The Second Gonja War 2021-04-30
13  The Cola and Slave Trades 2021-06-09
14  Pre-colonial and Colonial Eras 2022-10-31
15  The Modern Era 2022-11-15
16  The Fire Festival 2023-05-20
17  The Damba Festival 2022-09-16
18  Kpini, Ramadan, and Chimsi 2020-09-16
19  The Dagbamba Belief in God 2015-10-30
20  Islam in Dagbon 2018-03-13
21  The Pilgrimage to Mecca 2015-10-02
22  Soothsayers 2019-02-11
23  The Priests of the Land 2018-01-13
24  Gods and Shrines 2015-10-02
25  Medicine 2018-03-05
26  Drummers' Medicines 2019-02-11
27  Diseases and Medicine 2018-04-16
28  Madness 2018-12-12

Volume III:  In Our Living

1    Farming in Dagbon 2022-11-03
2    How Dagbamba Farm Yams 2015-08-26
3    The Work of Guinea Corn 2015-08-26
4    Rice Farming 2017-02-27
5    Groundnuts, Shea Nuts, Kpalgu 2022-12-20
6    Markets in Dagbon 2018-03-13
7    Modern Work and Development 2017-02-27
8    Family and Lineage 2020-03-08
9    How a Family Separates 2023-08-09
10  What Makes a Family Strong 2017-10-26
11  The Benefits of Children 2015-10-26
12  How a Child Is Born 2023-08-09
13  Special Children 2015-10-26
14  How Children Live 2015-10-26
15  How Villages Girls Grow Up 2015-10-26
16  How Village Boys Grow Up 2015-10-26
17  How Dagbamba Marry 2023-07-22
18  Bachelors 2017-06-21
19  Marrying Many Wives 2015-01-16
20  Household Economics 2015-01-16
21  Marriage and Love 2015-01-26
22  Women's Work 2017-06-22
23  Sex and Rivalry 2015-01-27
24  How Dagbamba Divorce 2015-01-27
25  Widows 2023-07-22
26  The Life of Old People 2015-02-04
27  Alhaji Ibrahim's Conclusion 2023-07-22