A Drummer's Testament:  chapter outlines and links

Volume III:  IN OUR LIVING

• Part 1:  ECONOMIC LIFE
• Part 2:  FAMILY
• Part 3:  CHILDREN
• Part 4:  HOUSEHOLDING
• Part 5:  OLD AGE
• Part 6:  CONCLUSION

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.

Volume III:  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

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

Volume III Part 2:  Family

• 8.    Family and Lineage
• 9.    How a Family Separates
• 10.  What Has Strength in Dagbamba Families

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

• 1.    parts of a family and how they are called
• 2.    the father's side and mother's side
• 3.    children address father's brothers as “father,” mother's sisters as “mother”
• 4.    aunts and uncles
• 5.    grandparents
• 6.    brothers and sisters
• 7.    grandchildren

Terms of address extend the sense of family

• 8.    family terms show closeness:  many mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters
• 9.    does not affect inheritance
• 10.  don't show the differences between different sides; address them similarly
• 11.  in-laws do the same in addressing husband's or wife's family

Family, line, and tribe

• 12.  family like a tree with branches; from Adam and Hawa; separates and extends
• 13.  dɔɣim and dunoli:  immediate relatives and line
• 14.  dunoli, zuliya, and daŋ:  line and descent group
• 15.  example:  location of the dunoli with family head
• 16.  women and drummers know more about the family

Knowledge of the family

• 17.  education has spoiled the family; now no knowledge of the family
• 18.  need to ask and learn about the family
• 19.  formerly children spent more time with family elders
• 20.  drummers and women show the family, especially at funeral houses

Example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's lines

• 21.  drummers show the family and the origins of the line
• 22.  example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's mother's line from Naa Siɣli
• 23.  example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's father's line from Naa Garba
• 24.  example:  both lines from Naa Luro
• 25.  drummers have knowledge of people's families

Example:  family doors of Yendi chiefs can die or shift

• 26.  family like a tree:  some branches grow and other branches die
• 27.  Naa Garba's line
• 28.  Naa Andani Jɛŋgbarga's line
• 29.  Naa Abdulai and Naa Andani
• 30.  chieftaincy dispute from the time of Naa Abilabila
• 31.  the strength of Naa Abdulai's line in chieftaincy

Chiefs and commoners

• 32.  door to chieftaincy can die; all commoners come from former chiefs
• 33.  a chief is addressed as “my grandfather”
• 34.  if a child is missing, drummer's announce that chief's grandchild is missing

Conclusion

• 35.  talks of family will continue

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

• 1.    family separation from marriage and children
• 2.    originally one family:  Adam and Hawa
• 3.    a family separates in three ways

Marrying a different line

• 4.    example:  drummer's daughter marries blacksmith
• 5.    example:  soothsayer's daughter marries maalam
• 6.    example:  barber marries drummer's daughter
• 7.    example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's sister married a butcher; how the line is separating
• 8.    Alhaji Ibrahim has given a daughter to a drummer; expands the line
• 9.    marrying outside the family line kills the line
• 10.  maintaining the connection of your daughter's children to their grandfather's house
• 11.  marrying inside the line is not compulsory; a choice; mingling and friendship are senior to family
• 12.  marrying inside the family; marrying cousins; common among typical Dagbamba
• 13.  examples:  Naa Zanjina's wife Laamihi; Naa Siɣli's wife Aminara
• 14.  marrying inside the family keeps the family alive; funeral example
• 15.  the family's door is its work; the separation comes with the childrens' children
• 16.  the different doors have standing in tradition:  butchers, blacksmiths, barbers, drummers
• 17.  butchers' line from Naa Dimani; they have their chiefs
• 18.  blacksmiths, barbers, and butchers are one family; some outside people now enter their work
• 19.  children do their father's work; different work can separate the family
• 20.  giving daughter to someone who does the same work holds the family together

Example:  separation of Savelugu drummers and Karaga drummers

• 21.  example of how a line can separate or mix
• 22.  Karaga Lun-Naa Baakuri from house of Palo; married daughter of chief; two lines
• 23.  learning the story; Karaga drummer praised Palo-Naa Kosaɣim among grandfathers
• 24.  how the door separated with Karaga Lun-Naa Blemah
• 25.  all drummers from Bizuŋ; Abudu and Andani house drummers respect that
• 26.  different towns' drummers are one family with different doors; from Bizuŋ and Lunʒɛɣu
• 27.  separation from marrying different women; drummers are one family with different doors

Chiefs and commoners

• 28.  child of a chief is a prince; marrying a chief leads to separation from family
• 29.  child prince stays with mother's side, but no respect or allegiance to the mother's family
• 30.  mother's side does not help a prince get chieftaincy; princes go to father's side
• 31.  some chiefs share their children with their brothers or elders
• 32.  chief's family does not extend as much as commoner's family

Marrying different tribes

• 33.  some mixing with other tribes, but the children are separated
• 34.  mixing with a tribe like Mossi is different from mixing with Gurunsi; spoils family
• 35.  Gurunsis were slaves; children won't participate in customs; quarrels in the house; bluffing
• 36.  modern times more mixing; spoiling families; still an issue in Dagbon
• 37.  all right to marry other tribe's maalams (Hausas, Zambarimas); children remained in Dagbon
• 38.  marrying other tribes was refused
• 39.  even useless Dagbana is better; the grandchildren remain in the family
• 40.  Dagbamba respect a large and extended family

Conclusion

• 41.  transition to next chapter about what strengthens families

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

• 1.    an extended family has strength
• 2.    family strength in trust; people coming together; strength of friendship
• 3.    give daughter to marry a friend; friend's children become family
• 4.    trust, patience, coming together, sharing good and bad
• 5.    good to do things as a group; importance of funerals
• 6.    take children to funeral houses to know the family
• 7.    some families increase; other decrease
• 8.    should not inherit anything from someone who did not want the family
• 9.    should not attend the funeral of someone who did not want the family

The benefits of a big family

• 10.  respect for a big family; include every relative
• 11.  example:  funeral elder collects the children of the dead person
• 12.  Dagbamba way of living:  don't separate people from the family
• 13.  Dagbamba way of living:  gather relatives; don't refuse them

Sharing children helps the family

• 14.  give your children to be raised by your siblings
• 15.  sharing children extends the family
• 16.  voluntary; drummers do it to help child learn; child won't be spoiled
• 17.  responsibility to a child who is given to you to raise; trust; no gossip
• 18.  if child is not being trained well, take the child back
• 19.  not training the child well breaks the family
• 20.  share daughters to sisters
• 21.  importance of the training to help the child
• 22.  Alhaji Ibrahim raising many children from his brothers
• 23.  a child may not know who is the real father
• 24.  a child may see the love between junior and senior father and understand his relationship
• 25.  example:  son Alhassan refused to farm; how Alhaji Ibrahim challenged him and helped him

Strength of the mother in how children bond

• 26.  Alhaji Ibrahim's brothers raised one another's children; respect among them
• 27.  children of one mother and one father have strongest bond
• 28.  the strength comes from the mother; different mothers may not have one mouth
• 29.  example:  Naa Andani and Naa Alhassan did not have the same mother
• 30.  second strongest is having mothers from one mother and one father
• 31.  children of different mothers may or may not bond; weakest among princes
• 32.  different mothers versus one mother:  important aspect of family life in Dagbon
• 33.  Alhaji Ibrahim's house has many people living together; brothers from the same mother

Conclusion

• 34.  summary of importance of extending the family; transition to the talks about children

Volume I Part 3:  Children

• 11.  The Benefits of Children
• 12.  How a Child is Given Birth
• 13.  Special Problems of Children
• 14.  How Children Live When They Are Young
• 15.  How Girls Grow Up in the Villages
• 16.  How Boys Grow Up in the Villages

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

• 1.    talk of children connected to talk of family
• 2.    talk of children connected to householding and eldership
• 3.    the scope of the topic

Having many children benefits the parents

• 4.    more benefit from many children; at least some will help the family
• 5.    children help in farming or buying food
• 6.    family planning kills the family

Raising many children

• 7.    have to care for all of them; don't know which will be good
• 8.    buying clothes; both husband and wife help

How children help the family

• 9.    as older ones grow up, they will help with farming and feeding the younger ones
• 10.  children can help in the market or trading
• 11.  children who farm or trade can help the father get wives for them
• 12.  example:  how Alhassan helped when he married his wife

The character of children

• 13.  a good child respects himself
• 14.  a child's character is from God

Training children

• 15.  train children with work:  farming and trading
• 16.  mothers train daughters to respect husbands and in-laws
• 17.  a child or grandchild will take up custom work, like drumming or butchering

More types of benefits of children

• 18.  respect; someone with many children gets respect like a chief or a wealthy person
• 19.  children help parent perform festivals
• 20.  children can build a house for parents to live in
• 21.  children can dig a well for the family
• 22.  unexpected good works that children do for their parents:  car, horse, cows, pilgrimage

Differences

• 23.  some girls only help mother and not father; some help both
• 24.  boys do more to help the parents

Other benefits

• 25.  God helps and protects the world because of the innocence of children
• 26.  children bring luck:  good luck and bad luck

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

• 1.    childbirth and infancy is a long talk

Pregnancy among typical Dagbamba

• 2.    length of pregnancy
• 3.    pregnancy is not something to be openly discussed
• 4.    for first pregnancies, maalams' medicines and talismans; informing the in-laws; “putting the calabash” custom
• 5.    husband's sister relationship to child; completing the pregnancy

Childbirth

• 6.    calling the midwife; delivery
• 7.    childbirth is women's work; maalams' medicines to ease delivery
• 8.    some women do not have difficulty, even give birth without midwife; example
• 9.    men do not become involved or witness childbirth

The newborn baby

• 10.  cutting the cord and treating the navel; burying the afterbirth; cooking naanzubee soup
• 11.  bathing the child with kulkula
• 12.  new mothers:  preparing the new mother's breast milk while another woman nurses the baby
• 13.  the first week before the naming, the mother's family sends foodstuffs for cooking; the naming day

Names and the naming day (suuna)

• 14.  typical Dagbamba consult soothsayers; newborn child's name is “stranger”
• 15.  soothsayers show the grandparent the child “inherits”; takes that name
• 16.  getting the name from the mother's side is unusual
• 17.  examples of Dagbamba names for boys and girls
• 18.  how parents will address the child as the grandparent
• 19.  the name can also come from what the parent wants
• 20.  Suuna:  the naming ceremony:  soothsayer shows the sacrifice; shaving the head; circumcize the boys; prepare food for family and visitors; sometimes drummers beat for dancing

Barbers and their work

• 21.  how barbers circumcize babies and treat the sore; their payment
• 22.  how barbers cut scars and marks on people
• 23.  types of marks; some show the town
• 24.  types of marks; some show the family or the circumstances of the person
• 25.  types of marks; if the family's children have been dying
• 26.  types of marks; "for life" or just because the person wants the mark

The mother goes to her parents' house with the baby

• 27.  the wife's parents "beg" for the child; carry the baby to their house
• 28.  the room where the baby sleeps
• 29.  bathing the child by older woman; shaping the head and features

Restrictions on sex

• 32.  medicine to protect the unfaithful wife
• 33.  different from an unfaithful woman who conceives from a man outside the house
• 34.  if a new wife comes to the house with an outside pregnancy; what husbands do
• 35.  "crossing over the child's head":  having outside sex while at the parents' house can kill the child
• 36.  no sex while at parents' house, even with husband; no new pregnancy until the child walks; quarrels
• 37.  white people and Arabs do not restrict sex after childbirth; babies who are not breastfed
• 38.  if a newborn dies, the wife also goes to parents' house for some months; no sex during that time, otherwise miscarriages and death

How a child grows

• 39.  teaching the child to sit, to crawl, and to walk
• 40.  how the child gets teeth
• 41.  children who cry or become sick; soothsayers show what they want:  rings or bangles (nintua, bangari)

How the wife returns to her husband's house

• 42.  when child walks, husband sends foodstuffs to in-laws; cow forelegs; husband begs; they delay
• 43.  no actual time or schedule, unless the child walks

How Muslims give birth to and name their children

• 44.  differences between those who read and those who pray; no talisman or other customs; use midwife; maalam prays into newborn's ear
• 45.  all children given name, even those who die
• 46.  no soothsayers for naming; use Holy Qur'an for day names; those who pray consult maalam for name choices
• 47.  those who pray can choose grandparent's name from the Holy Qur'an
• 48.  also give name to someone who decides to become Muslim
• 49.  examples of Muslim names for boys and girls; preparing for the suuna
• 50.  suuna:  prayer, naming, shaving, circumcision for boys, food
• 51.  wife goes to parent's house until child walks; no particular customs like typical Dagbamba
• 52.  when wife returns, some men wait for wife to menstruate before sleeping with her

Conclusion

• 53.  other childhood topics to come

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

• 1.    children can affect the parents' lives; wealth and poverty

A bad spirit:  alizini

• 2.    child can be an alizini, or bad spirit
• 3.    alizini is not normal; changes itself, threatens parents
• 4.    soothsayers or someone with medicine will recognize the alizini
• 5.    an alizini can come to a child; babies not left alone in a room
• 6.    example:  the alizini child of Sumaani
• 7.    example:  medicine man took the child; no funeral, no mourning
• 8.    alizini can be like a snake; need for medicine

Twins

• 9.    bring different luck to parents; many people fear twins
• 10.  differences:  for typical Dagbamba, twins bring issues:  constant soothsaying, slaughter goats; Muslims do not do anything special
• 11.  twins from family lines
• 12.  soothsaying for twins' names; twins as “people of the god”; check to see if twins will go to mother's family house
• 13.  soothsaying to find what the twins want:  nintugari, begging in the market
• 14.  buying and maintaining goats for the twins
• 15.  many issue for typical Dagbamba, but not for Muslims
• 16.  special difficulties if one of the twins dies; don't say the twin is dead
• 17.  special difficulties if twins are male and female
• 18.  parents sometimes use medicine to kill twins
• 19.  if child dies, image of a pot that has spilled water but not broken

The importance of the mother

• 20.  problems of taking care of children all fall on the parents
• 21.  mother's love is more than father's love
• 22.  strength and importance of mother's side; also with other tribes
• 23.  mother suffers more for a child; strengthens the bond
• 24.  in Dagbon people don't ask or talk about someone's mother's house
• 25.  similar strength of the uncle, especially the mother's brother with same parents

Orphans

• 26.  if a newborn's mother dies, soothsayers know which side will care for baby; respect for orphans
• 27.  after a funeral, funeral elder shares the children on the father's side
• 28.  small children stay with mothers; if remarry the step-father will take good care of the orphaned children as blessing; some people gather and take care of orphans
• 29.  when the children grow, they return to father's side house

Conclusion

• 30.  continuation to next topics

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

• 1.    child has to be shown the people in the family
• 2.    child has to be fed
• 3.    child has to be taught right and wrong
• 4.    can beat, but not too much; other ways to control:  talk or look at the child
• 5.    shouting sometimes, not other times

How children eat

• 6.    money to buy food outside; sometime give and other times not
• 7.    children follow food and where they can eat
• 8.    how children eat and share food
• 9.    sharing food teaches children friendship

How children mingle and play

• 10.  children roam and learn how to live together
• 11.  can observe children playing to know their character or future; nicknames
• 12.  can observe children to see their weaknesses and strength
• 13.  children quarrel and play; adults should not become involved

Kpara ni Jansi, or Atikatika

• 14.  children can have influence; Kpara ni Jansi, Atikatika
• 15.  some people say that Atikatika spoiled Dagbon
• 16.  nothing happens without a reason; Kpara ni Jansi came at the same time Dagbon spoiled
• 17.  meaning of Kpara ni Jansi
• 18.  Kpara ni Jansi started in Tamale and spread in Dagbon; chiefs stopped it many places

Dances children dance

• 19.  formerly children dance Baamaaya, Takai, Tɔra, and other dances
• 20.  Gumbɛ from Kotokolis; later became Simpa; originally used wooden dalgu, then frame-drums called taamaale, and now metal dalbihi; girls dance it
• 21.  before that, Amajiro and Lua were the popular dances of children
• 22.  go to nearby towns to play and watch; return home late and climb the wall of the house to enter
• 22.  Anakulyɛra, a recent dance; use the beating of Amajiro
• 23.  children bring new dances that become old dances; children start many things

Games children play

• 24.  many games; they resemble children's games of other towns
• 25.  Biɛɣyaaneea / Biɛɣyaamooya; like hide and seek
• 26.  Tuutirɛ; like sock tag
• 27.  Saamiya murga
• 28.  Sibri sibri
• 29.  Kuraya kuraya; like hot potato
• 30.  A daa lan daai ma; Vooli (tug of war); Salangbari; Nooparsima yaɣli
• 31.  games and songs for particular times:  Ŋum mali chɛrga
• 32.  all these games are good; only Kpari ni Jansi is useless

School

• 33.  four to five years, Muslim school to learn Holy Qu'ran; not everyone
• 34.  children show the type of school they want; some learn English; some learn trades
• 35.  school children are sensible and also foolish
• 36.  sense or foolishness depends on how God made the child to be; schooling hardens children
• 37.  those who learn trades become used to having money; at risk to become thieves
• 38.  better to send children to school; send different children to different types of school
• 39.  Alhaji Ibrahim did not go to school for reading and writing, but has knowledge of Dagbon because was raised in a village; next topics about village children

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

• 1.    village children get sense from respecting elders and doing work

Girls' early training

• 2.    grinding, sweeping, fetching water

The work of shea nuts

• 3.    seasonal gathering; go in groups or by houses; early morning
• 4.    difficulties:  rain, snakes
• 5.    stay late; eat when return home; grinding and making food
• 6.    not white man's work:  the girls can go at different times
• 7.    collect firewood; boil the shea nuts and spread them
• 8.    shelling the shea nuts; how many they get

Harvesting groundnuts

• 9.    groups pick groundnuts for farmers and receive a share
• 10.  how they measure the groundnuts and get their share
• 11.  cheating in the groundnut picking and sharing
• 12.  cheating as a part of farming
• 13.  cheating also a part of harvesting rice, corn, and other crops; different from group farming

How the harvesting work helps families to raise the girls

• 14.  mothers and aunts use the money from shea nuts and groundnuts to but clothes and take care of the girls

How young girls attend the festival markets

• 15.  markets during festival months; important focus for the young girls, from nine to ten years old
• 16.  how they carry their dresses to the market
• 17.  going around the market; how they dress and prepare themselves
• 18.  they go around in groups, with a leader

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

• 19.  how village boys ask to know which towns the girls are from
• 20.  the village boys get their town's girls to ask about the girls they like
• 21.  boy sends his town's girl to greet with porridge and cola
• 22.  the girl with a sister or friend will visit the boy; the father and brothers will prepare food; small money when they leave
• 23.  how the friends help one another during Ramadan; cooking and gifts

Friendships and early gender relations

• 24.  these early friendships help them learn how to treat one another; how the befriending has change in towns and modern times
• 25.  the friendship does not interfere with the promised betrothal of a girl; how the situation can get complicated
• 26.  how very young children play at husband and wife; tankpɔ' luɣsa:  early sex play
• 27.  actual sex can damage a girl; treatment for a young girl whose virginity is lost; matter can go to chief
• 28.  tankpɔ' luɣsa not a custom; just something children do

Training for marriage

• 29.  girls get advice on how to live with a husband
• 30.  the work she will be expected to do, and more advice
• 31.  the training is informal conversation while doing chores; no time because of constant work
• 32.  women do not sit and talk even in compound; working together to prepare food
• 33.  brief time for talking is after eating; women teach work, not old talks

Village girls and town girls

• 34.  village girls follow their mothers or aunts in work; townspeople buy what they need
• 35.  village girls know different types of household work:  farming, cooking, grinding
• 36.  in towns, everything is already prepared; no work to teach the girls

Women who train girls

• 37.  training starts young; women who train girls well get more children to raise
• 38.  if a girl is not well trained, sometimes it is the girl's fault
• 39.  some women abuse the girls with too much work; girls run away
• 40.  people don't give daughters to a relative who will mistreat them
• 41.  too much suffering will harm a child; protect from too much heavy work
• 42.  some children suffer and do well
• 43.  girls work harder than boys

Preparing for marriage

• 44.  after menstruation, a girl is considered mature and can marry
• 45.  a girl can grow and not be married; no man has looked for her; not a fault
• 46.  sometimes the father has not found a husband for a matured girl
• 47.  bad spirits can make a girl fear men; medicine to treat
• 48.  girl in her father's house can be betrothed to a man who dies; resembled widow
• 49.  treated like a widow, with soothsaying stones

Conclusion

• 50.  summary: this is how girls live until they are married

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

• 1.    this topic joins to other previous topics

Work that young boys do

• 2.    farming from four years old; look after animals; weaving
• 3.    “monkey-waiters”:  use wooden drum to drive monkeys away from farm; now not common
• 4.    carrying hens and fowls to the farm

Catching termites and ants to feed hens and fowls

• 5.    types of termites and ants
• 6.    how the boys catch tambiɛɣu
• 7.    how the boys catch yoba
• 8.    how the boys catch wurikoo

The children's work and suffering

• 9.    besides farming, collect firewood and grass to sell; how they help one another
• 10.  if mistreated, children run away to other relatives; some work in town
• 11.  boys do work with strength, but less work than girls; cannot say who suffers more
• 12.  after eating at night, the boys sit with their fathers or with one another and tell stories

How the fathers help to get wives for the boys

• 13.  the boys farm and work for their fathers until matured; fathers will help find wives for them
• 14.  the good name of the father helps the boy to get a wife
• 15.  if the boys do not work for their father, they will have difficulty to get a wife on their own
• 16.  getting a wife is very difficult for village boys, even for grown young men
• 17.  Muslim belief that father should get wife for son is not always standing; role of money
• 18.  formerly not the case, but now even villages use money and not character when getting a wife
• 19.  if a child does not help the father, the father will not help the child
• 20.  a child who helps the parents will have respect to get a wife even if the parents are dead

Volume III Part 4:  Householding

• 17.  How Dagbamba Marry
• 18.  The Life of Bachelors
• 19.  Why Dagbamba Marry Many Wives
• 20.  How Dagbamba Feed Their Families
• 21.  How a Husband and Wife Love One Another
• 22.  The Work Women Do in a House and How They Help One Another
• 23.  Sex and Rivalry in a House
• 24.  How a Husband and Wife Separate

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

• 1.    different ways to get a wife for Muslims and typical Dagbamba; drummers get wives easily

Dagbamba way:  greeting or respecting an older person

• 2.    young man can begin greeting an old person and helping him
• 3.    old person will tell the boy's father that he will give him a wife
• 4.    young man can be greeting an old woman with firewood or foodstuffs
• 5.    old woman will tell the boy's father that she will give him a wife
• 6.    the father and his brothers will send people to greet the old woman
• 7.    to get a wife, have to respect and greet the people who have the woman

Examples:  how Alhaji helped his brothers to get wives

• 8.    how young Alhaji Ibrahim greeted an old woman his father used to help
• 9.    when the woman died, her daughter gave a girl to Alhaji Ibrahim, who gave her to his brother
• 10.  Alhaji Ibrahim also got a wife for his brother  Sumaani

How Alhaji Ibrahim got his wives

• 11.  how Alhaji Ibrahim befriended Marta with friendship money
• 12.  befriending Ayishetu; Marta and Gurumpaɣa ask Alhaji Ibrahim to see their families
• 13.  Alhaji Ibrahim consulted elders for advice; advised only to marry two and not three
• 14.  Alhaji Ibrahim was working and was capable
• 15.  how Alhaji Ibrahim married Marta first; given to him through Mangulana's father
• 16.  Alhaji Ibrahim married Gurumpaɣa next
• 17.  Ayishetu agrees for Alhaji Ibrahim to give her to Sumaani as a wife; their children
• 18.  Alhaji Ibrahim's wives gave birth

Alhaji Ibrahim's respect

• 19.  drummers do not suffer to get a wife; drummers have a good name
• 20.  how Alhassan used Alhaji Ibrahim's name to get a wife
• 21.  how Alhaji Ibrahim helps people greet the family of a girl; example of man from Bimbila

Typical Dagbamba:  when a girl is promised

• 22.  greet the family with calabash of cola and money; maalams pray
• 23.  if the girl is still young, will remain with her parents; how they send to the husband's family
• 24.  greetings and cola between the two families; how they talk
• 25.  maalam called for prayers; the girl is promised; the husband's family returns home
• 26.  girl in parents' house, the husband will send greetings, guinea fowls and yams during festival months
• 27.  if someone in the wife's house dies, the husband will perform the funeral

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

• 28.  when girl reaches menstruation, they will set a day; Wednesday or Saturday
• 29.  send the girl to the husband; led by a small girl and a young boy who carries a stick
• 30.  new wife to room of a senior woman; slaughter a hen for the boy who brought the girl
• 31.  next day, they send the boy and girl home with cola and money to share to the witnesses
• 32.  husband must kill a hen to welcome her; she cooks and that night sleeps with the husband

How Muslims marry

• 33.  different from typical Dagbamba; drumming at the amaliya's house
• 34.  pay sadaachi and gather items for the leefɛ:  send food; kanwa porridge
• 35.  sadaachi amount can vary; sometimes flexibility with the leefɛ
• 36.  women throw zabla night before the wedding

Tying the wedding

• 37.  Sunday weddings are common, especially in towns; sometimes Thursday
• 38.  husband's representatives and maalams at wife's house; sadaachi paid
• 39.  cola for drummers; women dance at wedding house
• 40.  bride stays inside house; in night, she is bathed and led to the husband's house
• 41.  next day cook food; the ones who brought the wife go home with gifts

How chiefs get their wives

• 42.  chiefs get many wives; did not pay; wives as gifts; bad girl can be given to a chief
• 43.  formerly chiefs could catch women as wives; would not catch a drummer's wife or daughter
• 44.  no longer catch women; search for wives like other people

Advice to newlyweds

• 45.  advice to a daughter to respect the husband and his family
• 46.  new husband should work to provide for the wife; no roaming or chasing women

Engaged women who have sex before they go to their husbands

• 47.  typical Dagbamba used to send cola to wife's family to show was a virgin or not
• 48.  formerly could be a case; if girl refused to show her lover, could be made a chief's wife
• 49.  the case could result in debt for the person who had sex with the promised girl
• 50.  most men would not complain; the girl can refuse him if he collects money as compensation
• 51.  sometimes they would replace the girl who refused with her sister

Chiefs' courts and civil courts in such cases

• 52.  at chief's house, whipping a girl who refused to name her lovers
• 53.  those she named would face charges at the chief's court; debt imposed
• 54.  after such a case, the marriage could stand or could be broken

Kidnapping and eloping

• 55.  sometimes people kidnap a girl; a case for the chief; still happens in villages
• 56.  in modern times, government courts overrule chief's courts; spoils the custom
• 57.  sometimes the boy begs the court or the chief, and the elopement stands
• 58.  Alhaji Ibrahim sometimes begs the fathers of stolen girls

Government courts versus chiefs' courts

• 59.  government courts follow money and lies; spoiled custom
• 60.  girls sometimes send their own case to the government courts; court rules for girl
• 61.  civil courts say girls should choose husbands; the chiefs' courts are not to judge cases
• 62.  chiefs not longer judge; civil courts can make incorrect decisions from bribes; spoil custom
• 63.  Dagbamba chieftaincy has no strength; those with money cheat, and chiefs cannot act

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

• 64.  in Dagbamba custom, men who gave respect would get wives
• 65.  in Islam, fathers give daughters away but don't force the girls; villagers hold older customs
• 66.  if daughter refused, typical Dagbamba removed her from the family
• 67.  now the parents ask the girl; many girls prefer the parents to find their husbands
• 68.  the girl chooses a man, the parents can agree with or refuse her choice
• 69.  the parents look at the family; refuse slave families, houses without food, even rich people
• 70.  girls' choosing spoils custom; the father knows the family of the man better than the girl
• 71.  custom has strength, but white men and government spoiled the custom
• 72.  girls who choose often change their minds
• 73.  formerly girls did not complain; modern girls now choose; more confusion
• 74.  cannot compare custom to white man's ways; better to choose the husband's family
• 75.  typical Dagbamba used to remove girls from the family or even curse them

Conclusion

• 76.  transition to the talk of bachelors and women without husbands

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

• 1.    bachelor's talks not like a child or a married person
• 2.    bachelor like a prince without chieftaincy; does not know about householding

Types of bachelors

• 3.    someone whose wife has left him is not a true bachelor
• 4.    sickness can prevent someone from getting a wife
• 5.    if wife leaves a sick person, not like a bachelor

Bachelors have no standing

• 6.    bachelors are not consulted because have not held people
• 7.    bachelors do not form groups
• 8.    bachelors can do good work or have money, but do not get respect
• 9.    a bachelor dies alone

How bachelors live

• 10.  bachelor eats anything and sleeps anywhere; doesn't look at others
• 11.  stays in his father's house; depends on the women in the house to wash and cook
• 12.  some bachelors wash their own things
• 13.  how a bachelors gets food and eats
• 14.  bachelors who give respect get respect and get a good name; can get a wife
• 15.  such bachelors give gifts inside the house and
• 16.  bachelors make a town hot; roaming like dogs
• 17.  some bachelors find good women
• 18.  bachelors girlfriends can cook for them; can get a wife from them

Bachelors who are on their own

• 19.  some bachelors don't want a wife; useless
• 20.  bachelors without parents can attach themselves to a married person
• 21.  useless bachelors do not get wives
• 22.  bachelors who only befriend bachelors do not get wives; no name in public
• 23.  bachelors can have money but won't get a wife
• 24.  divorced man can search for money before marrying again, but bachelors lie
• 25.  man should talk the truth to a woman he is courting; she will see through lies
• 26.  a woman will respect the man who tells the truth
• 27.  if a young man is not good, having a wife will cool him down

Bachelors who are studying and postponing marriage

• 28.  bachelors who are studying have no fault; will marry later
• 29.  also bachelors who study Arabic; will marry later
• 30.  bachelors who also travel and learn work are the same
• 31.  many differences among bachelors

Women without husbands

• 32.  difference among women without husbands; include divorcees and widows
• 33.  a girl in her family house has no fault
• 34.  girls go around if parent do not provide for them
• 35.  grown women who are taking care of themselves:  their lives vary

Differences of women bachelors when adjusting to marriage

• 36.  a girl who has never married has to be treated with patience and sense or will run home
• 37.  inexperience can break up a marriage of a bachelor woman and bachelor man
• 38.  a young woman bachelor does not know work well; requires patience
• 39.  if she runs away, other women will not accept the bachelor woman's complaint
• 40.  experience will help a man or a woman stay together
• 41.  a woman who has married before will give respect; will make other wives look bad
• 42.  woman bachelor can spoil relationship with other wife and also her own marriage
• 43.  a woman bachelor has to be treated differently, with patience
• 44.  a divorced woman also needs to be treated with strength

Conclusion

• 45.  conclusion and recapitulation

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

• 1.    beginning the section on householding

Marrying many wives and Dagbamba custom

• 2.    marrying many wives started with the chiefs, then those who could hold people, then maalams
• 3.    polygamy is Dagbamba custom; different from white man's custom
• 4.    need more than one wife if wife travels or gives birth and goes to family house
• 5.    receive strangers
• 6.    having many wives shows respect and personhood
• 7.    a person without wives and children is abused as useless

Olden days difficulties to get a wife

• 8.    previously people only had one wife; no food
• 9.    strong people could collect women; whipping at the chief's court
• 10.  many people became old before they could get a wife
• 11.  this talk from Alhaji Ibrahim's father; even greeting elders before they had daughters
• 12.  chiefs got wives by force; also, women were fewer in number
• 13.  not sure why the women were not many in olden days; maybe war or starvation
• 14.  maybe the shortage of women was not because of anything

In modern times, having one wife is a problem

• 15.  women are more available; if one wife travels, husband is tempted to commit adultery
• 16.  adultery brings bad things
• 17.  if one wife, can be deceived; no perspective; husband will not know about the marriage
• 18.  one wife with one husband are happy together, until another wife comes
• 19.  most men with one wife want more wives
• 20.  a strong woman can prevent the husband from getting another wife
• 21.  how Christian marriage with a ring kills a family; inheritance
• 22.  in Christian marriage, the family is not extended
• 23.  one wife means worries:  poor person, useless person, villagers
• 24.  women are many in the towns, fewer in the villages; difficult for villagers to marry
• 25.  villagers with one wife suffer when the wife gives birth

How chiefs get many wives

• 26.  princes get wives before chieftaincy because of their respect and means
• 27.  titles of chiefs' wives:  Paani and Paampaɣa are first two; last wife is Komlana
• 28.  women marry chiefs for money, status, and to have children who are princes
• 29.  chiefs also get bad women from families; also catch women; sisters' daughters
• 30.  chief also gets wives from his elders when he arrives in a town

How wives get their rooms in a house

• 31.  how the chief groups his wives into rooms; senior wives and roomchildren
• 32.  wives get their own rooms by giving birth; also get cooking days
• 33.  Muslims are different; the wife gets a room to hold the leefɛ
• 34.  Muslim amaliya starts cooking immediately; young one might be trained by husband's mother; some people wait forty days
• 35.  with typical Dagbamba, the wife must give birth before she gets her cooking; commoners and chiefs

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

• 36.  as the chief gets more wives, he may group many of them in the rooms
• 37.  the roomchild works for the senior wife until she gets her cooking
• 38.  chief sleeps with the wife who cooks
• 39.  two days for each wife to cook; roomchildren do not have cooking and don't sleep with chief
• 40.  how the chief sleeps with the roomchildren
• 41.  if the roomchild gets pregnant, the child is not senior to other children
• 42.  the Paani will determine when to tell the chief about the child
• 43.  if a woman without cooking leaves a child in the chief's house, the child will not become a chief
• 44.  how chiefs' wives commit adultery; can lie about a man and give him trouble
• 45.  gradually the roomchildren will get their rooms, their cooking, and their own roomchildren

Others who marry many wives

• 46.  people with money get many wives; have to be able to feed everyone in the house
• 47.  maalams can marry up to four wives; the waljira is senior
• 48.  commoners can marry to the extent they can feed the household

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

• 1.    chapter will discuss commoners, not chiefs or maalams or rich people
• 2.    a commoner:  not a prince; not wealthy; without a voice; sick

Those who are sick or poor

• 3.    a sick person will not marry; a blind person sometimes marries
• 4.    impotent person can marry to provide for housepeople
• 5.    some sick people feed their family through alms
• 6.    sick person's household roams to find food; wife may leave him
• 7.    very poor people; from God; sometimes the children prosper
• 8.    other people will feed such commoners and their households

How commoners share corn and guinea corn to feed the household

• 9.    calabash measure corn or guinea corn to each wife for a month's cooking
• 10.  some typical Dagbamba watch while wife fetches grain from the room
• 11.  farmers who have a lot of food can hold wives; soup ingredients there too
• 12.  the food lasts because the wives each cook two days before the cooking rotates
• 13.  not necessarily a farmer who has enough food for the household
• 14.  market traders buy food; differences:  marry wives to the extent of wealth

Buying the other ingredients for cooking

• 15.  difficult to give examples about money and spending because of inflation
• 16.  the wife with cooking gets money for soup ingredients; wives add own money
• 17.  sometimes the money is not enough; mother provides for young children too
• 18.  rich man's children more likely to steal than poor man's children
• 19.  poor man's children do not steal
• 20.  good man will give extra money which wives will use for the children
• 21.  have to feed everyone in the house; if do not, will lose respect
• 22.  some men only give corn and nothing for ingredients; the women suffer

How rich people hold their families

• 23.  good way of living:  person who uses money to feed many people
• 24.  bad way of living:  person who does not share money
• 25.  children of selfish person are those who become thieves
• 26.  useless person asks wives about the costs of things in the market
• 27.  rich person is someone with people; not someone with money

How chiefs feed their families

• 28.  chiefs give grain, buy meat; does not give for soup ingredients
• 29.  chiefs' wives take things from people's farms; make their own kpalgu
• 30.  salt given to chief by the market chief
• 31.  only some chiefs' wives still enter farms
• 32.  chiefs near larger towns do not do it; give money for ingredients

How children eat

• 33.  chiefs' wives two-day cooking schedule; leftovers in morning; carry food to farm
• 34.  farmers' children:  old food or porridge; roasted yams at farm, also food from house
• 35.  townperson:  gives children money to buy food; if no money, children find for themselves

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

• 36.  difficult to feed everyone; constantly managing money and adjusting
• 37.  cooking money only for the wife who cooks; can borrow from the wife
• 38.  women get money from trading; husband will help finance the trading

Wives who are very young and other examples

• 39.  young wives do not trade until grow older and know the household
• 40.  older wives will train the young wife; husband gives her money
• 41.  young wife learns the people in the house and how they eat
• 42.  a young man's wife is trained by the senior women in the house or father's wives
• 43.  householder gives money to wives of young men in the house
• 44.  Christians eat by themselves in the house; don't share cooking
• 45.  a few Muslim wives stay and trade in the house; husband goes to market; not common

Conclusion

• 46.  transition to talk about other work than cooking and eating

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

• 1.    differences between typical Dagbamba and Muslims

Dagbamba husbands' main work is providing food

• 2.    money or food for cooking; the most important thing is to establish trust

Buying cloth for the wife

• 3.    buying clothes and shoes
• 4.    how a rich person and a chief buy cloth
• 5.    how maalams, commoners, and farmers give cloth; often given during Ramadan
• 6.    cloth for Ramadan; can give money; woman adds her money to choose her cloth
• 7.    how giving the money instead of buying cloth shows the husband's respect
• 8.    chief's wives have no choice
• 9.    how commoners beg their wives to accept the gift they can afford

Other good works by the husband

• 10.  respect for in-laws; greeting the wife's housepeople
• 11.  buying of gifts, animals
• 12.  show concern for wife's feelings; does not chase outside women
• 13.  sharing things and work; protecting the wife from bad things
• 14.  exception:  typical Dagbamba husbands do not do washing, but for man to cook and to pound fufu are inside custom
• 15.  love the children of the wife
• 16.  villagers show trust in their wives to hold his best things
• 17.  if there is no love, then trouble, blame, quarreling, selfishness; different from this talk

Good works Muslim husbands do

• 18.  start good works before marriage; gifts; get all the things for when they marry
• 19.  arrival of the wife at the house:  the unveiling; slaughter animals to prepare food
• 20.  preparing and furnishing the wife's room
• 21.  help the wife to learn to read; greet his in-laws; protect wife from suffering

Funerals

• 22.  Muslim husband will assist the wife's family if there is a funeral
• 23.  Dagbamba funerals have more expenses for in-laws; cloth, scarf, sheep, money, food, music
• 24.  a good wife and mother will attract help for the funeral from the whole family of the husband
• 25.  Dagbamba try harder for a woman who has no children; example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's senior wife

The good works of a wife who loves her husband

• 26.  women's help feeding guests at a funeral protects the man from shame
• 27.  women are the foundation of funerals; get blessings from God
• 28.  women get blessings and respect; man should not put her into difficulty
• 29.  have to respect woman as a wife; no adultery; should not beat a woman
• 30.  the woman takes care of the house:  cooking, sweeping, washing, going for water and firewood
• 31.  good to people in the house; does not gossip or quarrel outside; gifts; speaks well of people
• 32.  a wife can show her love with sex
• 33.  help the husband; even goes to help on the farm; buys things for the husband
• 34.  protect her husband from trouble or shame; give her own money to perform funerals
• 35.  good works and help for the husband's parents; wife's love resembles a husband's love

Conclusion

• 36.  conclusion and transition

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

• 1.    other work apart from cooking and trading in old days and among typical Dagbamba

Women's work

• 2.    cooking:  grinding grain with grinding stone (nɛli and nɛkaŋa)
• 3.    cooking:  pounding in a mortar (toli)
• 4.    plastering the walls of the house; gather with other neighborhood women; how they feed them
• 5.    plastering:  mixing the plaster (tari); how they use their hands to spread it
• 6.    plastering and pounding the floors with flat stick (sampani); gather other women to help
• 7.    sealing the walls:  use water prepared from pods of kpalgu tree (dasandi)
• 8.    in the towns, plastering is done by masons; grinding mills have replaced grinding stones
• 9.    modern shortages:  need to return to the customary tools and work
• 10.  spinning:  removing the seeds from cotton with guntɔbu
• 11.  spinning:  spinning the cotton inside guntarga with kalo and jɛni
• 12.  spinning:  selling the cotton or keeping it for funeral

How the women live with one another

• 13.  many women like to live in a house with other wives
• 14.  many women who are single wives do not understand the experience of cooperation and help
• 15.  they help one another to make shea butter or to trade
• 16.  help one another with problems like funerals; accompany to the funeral house
• 17.  help with weddings; gifts for the bride; also gifts when a child is born
• 18.  protect one another from shame; contribute money to a group fund; wear some cloth in a group
• 19.  example:  Alhaji Ibrahim's amaliya in two groups; how they contribute
• 20.  example:  how the group contributed when the wife's daughter married
• 21.  example:  how the group of forty women will sew similar cloths for a wedding

Bad women

• 22.  some women are selfish and not helpful; some women bluff others with what they have
• 23.  because of bluffing, many women do not want to borrow from one another
• 24.  contrast with the generosity of some women who always help people on their own
• 25.  many types of bad women:  selfish, bluffing, borrowing money, gossiping, adultery
• 26.  need for husband and wife to listen and understand; bad women don't listen to husband or cowives

The work in the house

• 27.  when women help one another with the work, they are happy in the house; they like where they are
• 28.  the women know the benefit of their work
• 29.  women's sense:  they remember everything and will remind the husband when they quarrel
• 30.  despite women's sense, God has given men control; women accept their position

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

• 31.  men look at women's work to know their hearts; women do not talk about their house
• 32.  example:  how women refused to talk about the people in their house
• 33.  women follow the talk of their husbands
• 34.  many differences; cannot generalize; men and women have many ways to live together
• 35.  Alhaji Ibrahim will try to separate the talks; John should ask questions to help clarify

How women communicate in the house

• 36.  how women gather in a house to make one mouth to talk to their husband
• 37.  singing proverbs to communicate, especially shy women; can make complaint or cause trouble
• 38.  a woman is like the heart; can bring good or bad talks

The bad traits of women

• 39.  women do not forget; they remember what the husband has said in the past
• 40.  someone who does not forget has bad sense
• 41.  women have more sense than men, but their sense can do bad things
• 42.  some women can kill their husbands; use medicines in food

Dagbamba stories about bad women

• 43.  old Dagbamba tell a story about an egg; how the husband tested the wife
• 44.  the story comes from what they have seen; some women can do bad things
• 45.  typical Dagbamba do not tell their wives house much money they have

Sharing and not sharing secrets

• 46.  a husband and wife know each other's secrets; a woman will not show all her secrets
• 47.  example:  woman will not ask a man for sex
• 48.  a man cannot know all the talks of women; they do hard work but they are jealous

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

• 1.    sex can strengthen or cause trouble in marriage
• 2.    differences emerge among women in polygamous household
• 3.    sex causes jealousy among wives

Sex outside marriage

• 4.    sex before marriage is not common; couples don't know their sexual compatibility
• 5.    divorced women who are remarrying:  some refuse and some accept
• 6.    sex with girlfriends only rarely leads to marriage
• 7.    even pregnancy does not necessarily lead to marriage; the man or woman or her family can refuse
• 8.    differences among women regarding sex can lead or not lead to marriage
• 9.    differences in sexual behavior of young women
• 10.  differences between friendship money and paying for sex

Sex inside the household

• 11.  sex strengthens the bond between husband and wife
• 12.  the woman's sexual preferences determine the nature of the sexual relationship
• 13.  sexual strength and appetites are from character; not learned
• 14.  some men chase outside women; differences in sexual pleasure from different partners
• 15.  differences causes problems; difficult to give equal attention; women see the differences

Scheduling sex in the polygamous household

• 16.  women sleep with husband on their cooking day; men get tired trying to please all
• 17.  jealousy among women when the other wives are having sex
• 18.  how women know if the husband has been having sex with the others; from washing
• 19.  a neglected woman will respond:  proverbs, return to her family house; how the man responds
• 20.  if the woman does good works in the house, will stay; otherwise will divorce

Jealousy

• 21.  jealousy among women; they know the husband's relations with their cowives
• 22.  no remedy for jealousy; jealous woman is looking for vindication
• 23.  sex can strengthen or weaken marriage; need for balance and moderation

Rivalry

• 24.  rivalry among cowives; four wives or two wives separate themselves; especially cooking days
• 25.  menstruation days also bring out rivalry; sex not forbidden but not common during menstruation
• 26.  having many wives is difficult; not all women are jealous, but many are
• 27.  three wives is most difficult; shifting rivalries of two against one
• 28.  husband cannot separate the quarrel; sometimes will put the three wives into separate houses
• 29.  some three wives get along; or the rivals all quarrel with their husband instead of each other

Examples of rivalry and jealousy

• 30.  rivals can use medicine against one another or against the husband
• 31.  rivalry extends to stepchildren; medicine and abuse against the children
• 32.  rivalry over gifts; have to give to each wife individually and equally
• 33.  wives are possessive about other responsibilities on their cooking days
• 34.  the wives resent and work against a favored wife; gossip outside the house
• 35.  jealous woman has no shame; will work against the person who will help her in the house
• 36.  the jealousy is general among women; examples of bluffing each other

Women who are happy

• 37.  women who are the only wife are happy; examples
• 38.  a woman who is for herself; trading and in her own house; no man trouble

Conclusion

• 39.  cannot know everything about a woman; secretive; more complicated than men
• 40.  women take quarrels to a higher extent; overstate and lie about issues
• 41.  can only trust women to an extent; too much jealousy; hold onto bad feelings; good and bad

Chapter III-24:  How a Husband and Wife Separate

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

Introduction

• 1.    Alhaji Ibrahim can speak from experience

Importance of knowing a woman before marriage

• 2.    men do not think before marrying a woman; does what he wants
• 3.    man should try to know the character of a woman
• 4.    important to know the parents; how Dagbamba find their wives

Lack of children

• 5.    stress and gossip if a couple is childless; from woman's friends, not parents
• 6.    frustration leads to quarrels; separation begins

How the separation proceeds; wife returns to her family

• 7.    woman to her father's family, husband will follow; she returns but further quarrels
• 8.    woman to her uncle; husband will follow; the separation is decided
• 9.    several month before collecting the wife's things; then the separation becomes final
• 10.  children remain with father if they are walking; infants will return to father when they walk

Quarrels among wives:  jealousy

• 11.  when a new wife arrives, senior wife may become jealous and leave
• 12.  senior wife may abuse new wife; no blame if the new wife leaves
• 13.  husband needs to be strong and refuse to choose; threaten to divorce all of them

Quarrels among wives:  childbirth

• 14.  if a new wife gives birth, a childless wife may leave
• 15.  if senior wife with girl children and new wife with boys, senior wife may make medicine
• 16.  especially with chiefs and rich people; other wives will not like a wife who has boys
• 17.  some women with girls will leave on their own when new wife has boys
• 18.  the senior wife can put medicine in food to kill the boys or kill the new wife
• 19.  medicine can ruin a person's life, so the new wife may leave the house
• 20.  the senior wife's strength will overcome the love of the new wife and the husband
• 21.  the husband may send boys away to be raised, or he may divorce the senior wife
• 22.  wives cannot refuse each others' food; they will fear to use medicine; other ways to repair it
• 23.  exception:  wife may like the one with boys, thinking she will also get that luck

Quarreling in a house

• 24.  too much quarreling, man will divorce all the wives; he has “bought his life”
• 25.  a house with constant quarreling is vulnerable to medicine and witchcraft
• 26.  story of a witch giving medicine; find people who “don't want themselves”
• 27.  someone who quarrels “does not want” himself or herself

The response to jealousy

• 28.  new wife comes, refusal and bad examples from senior wife; husband has to complain
• 29.  sometimes the wives will use sense to live together better
• 30.  after husband talks, each wife will decide if she will leave the house or live with the other
• 31.  when wife leaves, husband should not mind whatever story she tells her family

Why a woman leaves a man

• 32.  the man can be at fault; a useless man can drive a woman away
• 33.  a woman can also leave on her own choice; counting the faults of the husband
• 34.  husband doesn't care if the wife is sick
• 35.  husband does not greet the woman's family
• 36.  husband does not perform funerals in woman's family
• 37.  husband does not buy clothes for the wife
• 38.  husband tries to account for how the wife buys food
• 39.  husband becomes impotent; or woman does not want to sleep with man
• 40.  husband has bad habits the wife didn't know; husband beats the wife
• 41.  husband has lied to court the woman
• 42.  cowives will abuse the woman
• 43.  husband's mother doesn't like the wife and will abuse her; doesn't want to share
• 44.  some families are descended from slaves
• 45.  some women will leave if they find that the husband is from a slave family
• 46.  a family arranges a marriage, and one of the couple does not like the other

How Alhaji Ibrahim divorced three of his wives

Gurumpaɣa

• 47.  in mother's house after giving birth; became pregnant by another man
• 48.  pregnancy from another man is dangerous to an unweaned child
• 49.  Alhaji Ibrahim sent people to the mother's house, but Gurumpaɣa did not return to him
• 50.  Gurumpaɣa refused to return; the conversation about the pregnancy
• 51.  Alhaji Ibrahim went himself; they refused to identify the other man
• 52.  Alhaji Ibrahim brought a case against his in-laws in the chief's court
• 53.  suing in-laws is unusual and against custom, especially if there has been birth
• 54.  Alhaji Ibrahim explained about the pregnancy; the court summoned Gurumpaɣa and her mother
• 55.  the court asked Gurumpaɣa's mother about the pregnancy, and she refused to say
• 56.  Gurumpaɣa explained her relationship to the other man; he was joined to the suit
• 57.   how the court charged the mother and the other man
• 58.  the judgment and fines; Alhaji Ibrahim accepts the judgment of the court
• 59.  Alhaji Ibrahim sent people to end the marriage; later he collected his children from Gurumpaɣa, but not the other man's child
• 60.  in Dagbon, a father can give his pregnant daughter to a chief; such children have spoiled chieftaincy

Ʒɛnabu

• 61.  continually quarreled with Alhaji Ibrahim's other wife, Fati

Alima

• 62.  did not group herself with the other wives
• 63.  did not tell Alhaji Ibrahim about her uncle's sickness and death
• 64.  ignored the other wives at the funeral
• 65.  Alhaji Ibrahim wrote a letter to Alima's family to come for her
• 66.  her family collected her things; no one knew why
• 67.  did not visit her former cowife in hospital who was taking care of her children
• 68.  did not attend the cowife's funeral; people understood
• 69.  why to confront or not confront someone who does bad to you; conclusion

Volume III Part 5:  Old Age

• 25.  Widows
• 26.  The Life of Old People

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

• 1.    widows present issues; some people see them as bad luck; others search for them
• 2.    people fear widows; many people will not marry a widow
• 3.    if a woman is widowed twice, only someone with medicine will marry her
• 4.    some people search for widows; different reasons

How widows marry again

• 5.    widow's dress:  white cloth and scarf; at family house, many men together trying to find her
• 6.    to search for a widow, stay with friend to send money to widow's elder; need soothsaying stone
• 7.    soothsaying stone is ten-pesewa coin; how the soothsayer and family head hold walking stick over all the stones
• 8.    when they choose one stone, family head goes and tells the widow
• 9.    the suitor's householder sometimes collects the widow at night
• 10.  other suitors may use vua or paɣali to steal the widow
• 11.  sometimes fight with chosen husband; widow's family intervenes
• 12.  arguments and trickery to send the widow without trouble
• 13.  the other suitors collect their money back from the widow's housepeople
• 14.  the new husband and the widow will eat karga before sleeping together
• 15.  customs regarding sleeping with the widow; white cola; if widow gives birth to a boy

Chiefs' widows are beaten

• 16.  dead chief's housechildren beat the widows; not the chief's actual children; mistreated by the chief's wives
• 17.  can be protected from beating if have children in the house or family in the town
• 18.  widows stay in houses near the chief's house until the funeral

Bathing the widows and how they pass through the broken wall

• 19.  on the funeral day, Mba Naa comes from Yendi to bathe the widows
• 20.  the bathing attracts many spectators
• 21.  how they bathe the widows and dress them
• 22.  faithful wives take spears and pass through the broken wall to the grave; drummers beat Baŋgumaŋa
• 23.  those who don't pass the broken wall are whipped by Mba Naa; some pay bribes to pass
• 24.  how drummers praise widows who pass the wall; family will slaughter an animal
• 25.  jealousy and medicine against such widows
• 26.  how the widows greet in the town the morning after the funeral and then go to their family houses

Conclusion

• 27.  widows talk is different from other women

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

• 1.    old age come from God; many talks; respect for old person, rich person, chief, maalam
• 2.    comparison to chief, to rich person, to maalam with intelligence
• 3.    old age is not simply age or white hair; it is how one holds oneself
• 4.    old person holds himself; tried to repair things, whether succeed or fail
• 5.    old people consult and repair quarrels or problems that spoil people's way of living
• 6.    in a quarrel, give the right to the elder person
• 7.    an old person holds people; acts as if blind and dumb and deaf, acts with patience
• 8.    an old person without people is not old; cannot hold his children; not a family head
• 9.    an old person is family head; old age is in the heart and will come into the open
• 10.  all family events and work require the presence of an elder; sacrifices
• 11.  old person also holds the area around a house; helps anyone in the area
• 12.  an old person's presence reduces consequences at the chief's court
• 13.  people put the old person's name in front without informing him, and he accepts
• 14.  people do not argue with an old person who lies
• 15.  old age comes to someone who feeds and takes care of his housepeople
• 16.  an old person holds people in a house; housepeople farm and help him; give him leadership

The old age of women

• 17.  an old woman will get the same respect; has taken care of the children in the house
• 18.  respect an old woman who is a mother; fear of the mother's house; can swear a curse
• 19.  people who are feared in a household:  mother, mother's brother, father
• 20.  old woman without children also gets respect from housepeople
• 21.  an old woman with bad character does not get respect
• 22.  men have eldership more than women
• 23.  a woman whose old age would make her the family head will give the eldership to a man
• 24.  people will accuse the woman family head of witchcraft
• 25.  women know the family talks and teach the children; they get respect in old age; example:  Alhaji Iddi and his mother

Taking care of old people

• 26.  Dagbamba take care of their elders; food, clothing, gifts; God repays the good
• 27.  a good old person without children:  people take good care; it appears he has children
• 28.  if people let an old person suffer, their things will spoil
• 29.  if children neglect their old person, their mother or father can curse them
• 30.  old person's talks stand and do work in a family; continuing presence

Old age and drumming

• 31.  transition to examples of old age among some drumming elders
• 32.  a drummer is an old person; knows the talks of yesterday; addressed as “grandfather”
• 33.  Alhaji Ibrahim is an old person in drumming because of his leadership; did not choose it
• 34.  Alhaji Ibrahim has shared money among drummers for thirty years, even in other towns
• 35.  an old person can talk of yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Alhassan Lumbila's old age

• 36.  example:  the character of Alhassan Lumbila; how children followed him to the farm
• 37.  Alhassan's relation to Mangulana and Sheni; Alhassan's seniority in drumming
• 38.  Alhassan's wives and children
• 39.  the incident of Gukpe-Naa Iddi, Toombihi, and Alhassan Lumbila
• 40.  Alhassan received money from anyone who beat drumming in Tamale; his respect

Alhaji Adam's old age

• 41.  Alhaji Adam has the same personality as Alhassan Lumbila; does not get annoyed
• 42.  the age of Alhaji Adam; the oldest drummer but does not have Alhassan's old age
• 43.  Alhassan's talk; Alhaji Adam does not get money like Alhassan; only Alhaji Ibrahim gives him his share
• 44.  proverb about white matter from the eye
• 45.  Alhaji Adam's acknowledgment to Alhaji Ibrahim for helping him

Sheni's old age

• 46.  Sheni is like a chief; how Sheni suffered for Alhassan Lumbila
• 47.  Sheni also has Alhassan's character; white heart; his friendship with John
• 48.  why Sheni gives John money
• 49.  how Sheni greets Alhaji Ibrahim, despite being the elder
• 50.  Sheni knows many people; has more respect and more old age than Alhaji Adam

Comparing Alhaji Adam and Alhassan Lumbila

• 51.  Alhaji Adam has respect, but not up to his father's; entered chieftaincy talk; Andani side
• 52.  Alhassan did not choose among drummers; took all to be his children; Tamale drummers are Abudu side
• 53.  Alhassan told Alhaji Adam that one day he would not get benefit; an old man's talk happens

Conclusion

• 54.  the talk is relevant to all people, not just Dagbamba

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

• 1.    conclude with history and difficulties of how John and Alhaji Ibrahim did the work

John's initial training in drumming

• 2.    John's arrival in Dagbon; asks to learn drum beating
• 3.    John returns from travel to start drumming; arrangements for charges
• 4.    John begind lessons; encouraging start; Alhaji Ibrahim delegates two drummers to teach
• 5.    issues with the two drummers; Alhaji Ibrahim rejoins the lessons
• 6.    Alhaji Ibrahim observes John's character and dedication to learning
• 7.    John learns more than expected
• 8.    John accompanies drummers to performances; asks to add more knowledge
• 9.    further conflict with the other teachers; Alhaji Ibrahim blames them and not John
• 10.  Alhaji Ibrahim's advice to John to manage the lessons with patience
• 11.  Alhaji Ibrahim sends John to Alhaji Adam Mangulana for medicine
• 12.  John buys drums and guŋgɔŋ; demonstrates more commitment
• 13.  John's respectful demeanor

Development of the relationship

• 14.  John leaves on good terms; some people criticize the lessons
• 15.  Alhaji Ibrahim and John correspond; John responds to Alhaji Ibrahim's wife's death; the friendship continues
• 16.  resistance and arguments against the friendship; Alhaji Ibrahim and John disregard the criticism; John returns to continue lessons

Development of the lectures

• 17.  Alhaji Ibrahim begins teaching “hidden” talks; Baŋgumaŋa and Ʒɛm; John makes sacrifices; sign of respect
• 18.  Alhaji Ibrahim's instructions regarding the significance of the sacrifice
• 19.  the initial interviews on the hidden dances set format; John returns and asks for lectures on Dagbon
• 20.  Alhaji Ibrahim's doubts about how to lecture
• 21.  Alhaji Ibrahim decides to talk about what he knows to be true; trust in the truth
• 22.  from the start, the talks go well; confidence in their value
• 23.  criticism and arguments against the work
• 24.  the elders support the work; Alhaji Ibrahim refuses the criticism of young people and outsides
• 25.  naming the elders who encouraged the friendship of Alhaji Ibrahim and John
• 26.  John sends Alhaji Ibrahim on pilgrimage to Mecca; significance of the gift
• 27.  the work continues; the difficulties of organizing Alhaji Ibrahim's pilgrimage; the benefits of patience

Alhaji Ibrahim's intentions and motives

• 28.  happiness and shyness
• 29.  respect for differences and distance between John and Alhaji Ibrahim; not because of money but for all to benefit
• 30.  enhance the name and reputation of Dagbon
• 31.  extend the knowledge of elders and ancestors
• 32.  involve the group and associates for guidance
• 33.  John's sickness; the work continues over many trips; re-reading and repairing the talks to finish them

The benefits of the work

• 34.  Alhaji Ibrahim's confidence in the talks
• 35.  the work has its extent
• 36.  blessings and benefit of the friendship and the work
• 37.  the work should benefit all involved; good to conclude with a sacrifice
• 38.  comparison to the sacrifice for the old talks
• 39.  the suggestion of a sacrifice is a recommendation that John can choose to follow or not
• 40.  the sacrifice is to secure the benefit of the work
• 41.  John has no debt for the work; friendship
• 42.  John should respect the work and present it with respect