A Drummer's Testament
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Respect and how Dagbamba show respect on the part of: those who live in the same area, their families, their in-laws; examples: patience, temperance, not “showing oneself,” gathering and eating with others, respect for strangers
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Contents outline and links by paragraph
Introduction
- 1. Dagbamba character and way of living; complement to drumming talks; importance of respect in Dagbon
Respect
- 2. relation of respect to continuity of custom
- 3. give respect to people with position, older people; give respect to outside same as to your family
- 4. respect to in-laws; both husband and wife
- 5. essence of respect based on women; must give respect to get a wife and get children
- 6. respect starts from respect to get a woman; true for all cultures; respect of women is inside all types of respect, including respect for strangers
Respect for people you live with
- 7. story about family, friendship, and mingling; seniority or eldership of friendship to family and of mingling to friendship
- 8. giving respect and living together with people: bitter and sweet, quarreling and talking together again; importance of old people to show patience
- 9. friendship can spoil and end; Dagbamba don't let quarrels go far
- 10. Dagbamba share the problems of people they stay together with in an area, whoever they are
- 11. the strength of living together in an area; sitting together can bring family
Respect and eating together
- 12. how Dagbamba gather and eat; blame a person who eats alone as someone who doesn't want to share
- 13. gathering and eating is strong in Dagbamba custom; how people group themselves to eat in a house or in within a nearby area
- 14. gathering and eating together creates trust among people
- 15. kpatabɔ; how children go from house to house to eat; how their fathers would gather outside the eldest's house
- 16. if someone has no friends to eat with, he will call a grandchildren or even a small child to eat with him; doesn't want to eat alone
- 17. women in the house also divide themselves into groups and eat together
- 18. how a chief eats; eats alone but only eats a little then shares with those who are with him
- 19. how someone eating medicine will gather and eat with others but will separate the food with the medicine
Respect and bluffing, or “showing oneself“
- 20. Dagbamba do not like people who bluff others; princes who show too much price don't get chieftaincy
- 21. people who show themselves often from families of slaves
- 22. drummers use drums to show people's family standing
- 23. respect to learning; Dagbamba don't bluff about having or seeking knowledge
Respect for strangers and visitors
- 24. giving respect to all types of strangers
- 25. how Dagbamba receive a stranger
- 26. the happiness of receiving a stranger
- 27. Dagbamba are distinguished among tribes of Ghana for the extent they respect strangers
- 28. comparison of Dagbon and the South
- 29. trying to get whatever the stranger wants
- 30. finding out what the stranger wants; taking the stranger to those who will help
- 31. differences of a stranger you don't know
How villagers receive strangers
- 32. villagers keep fowls to feed a stranger
- 33. if stranger will not stay in the village, the villager will give the fowl to the stranger to take away
- 34. how the village children catch the guinea fowls from the napɔɣu
- 35. how the villager gives the guinea fowl to the stranger
- 36. how the women in the house and how the neighbors will share part of the stranger's food
- 37. importance of sharing the meat properly
- 38. takubsi: a gift to the child who takes the food to the stranger; its blessings
- 39. greeting the stranger with water; how Dagbamba without fowls keep dried fish in case a stranger comes
The blessings of strangers
- 40. strangers bring good luck; money or wife
- 41. special blessings if a birth in the house when a stranger visits; a baby girl may be promised to the stranger or stranger's child
- 42. why people pray to receive strangers; stranger will speak well of them when he goes home; stranger will also receive them well
- 43. how the blessings will extend to one's children if they travel
- 44. relation of talk of strangers to talk of mingling and living together; both good and bad
Transition to further talk of strangers
- 45. transition to talk of how a stranger should behave in Dagbon
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Proverbs and Sayings
The teeth and the tongue quarrel.
Shyness is a human being.
You cannot say all.
A lizard hides and his head is showing out to the public.
A lizard hides and only the head shows.
If you do something bad, it is waiting for you; and if you do good, it is waiting for you.
It is good you visit a dry well.
If you beat a dog, you are waiting for its owner.
A stranger is like the tongue.
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Dagbani words and other search terms
- Chiefs and elders
- Yaa-Naa
- Names and people
- Mustapha (Muhammad)
- Miscellaneous terms
- biemlana (bɛmlana)
- chieftaincy
- cherga (chɛrga)
- compound
- Dagbani
- dogim (doɣim)
- fufu
- housepeople
- kpatabo (kpatabɔ)
- sana
- simli
- takubsi
- Towns and places
- Dagbon
- Karaga
- Savelugu
- Yendi
- Cultural groups
- Ashanti
- Dagbamba
- Dagbana
- Gurunsi
- Hausa
- Konkomba
- Mamprusi
- Mossi
- Yoruba