A Drummer's Testament
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The attitude of modern children toward their tradition; how traditional values are taught in the villages; the character of villagers compared to town people
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Supplementary material
Images
Villages: image gallery
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Contents outline and links by paragraph
Wisdom: asking and showing
- 1. introduction; Tolon-Naa Yakubu's name: “one person does not hold wisdom”
- 2. the one who asks has more sense (wisdom: yɛm) than the one who knows
- 3. importance of showing sense to others
- 4. holding sense without showing it is a fault to God
Education is not knowledge of tradition
- 5. educated Dagbamba and teachers do not know the tradition well; limited in their knowledge and add mistakes
- 6. benefits of writing down the tradition; importance of knowing one's tradition
Village evening discussions: model for Alhaji Ibrahim's talks
- 7. villagers hold on to the tradition more than townspeople
- 8. evening discussions in the village are the same as how Alhaji Ibrahim is talking; older people gather outside house and talk
How village children learn customs
- 9. village children respect old people; how a village child sits with his father and presses his legs while the father talks
- 10. how the villagers gather and the old men talk
- 11. examples of the types of topics; learn about customs; Alhaji Ibrahim grew up in a village, and even older people from the town ask him questions
Village children know Dagbani better than town children
- 12. villagers speak Dagbani correctly; town children who don't know Dagbani words
- 13. older people listen to town children and don't know if they are speaking Dagbani; village children pronounce words correctly
- 14. town child who did not know numbers in Dagbani; used English
- 15. Kissmal and Ben might not know Dagbani words used in idioms; example: tafirli
- 16. main lesson for village children is to respect old people; town children don't hold to that custom; villagers have sense and respect
Training of Alhaji Ibrahim and Alhaji Mumuni
- 17. Alhaji Ibrahim born and raised in a village; trained by fathers the same way their fathers were trained; taught to fear
- 18. how Alhaji Mumuni trains his children and talks to them
Differences between town children and village children
- 19. town children don't sit with elders; roam and go to cinema, Simpa dancing; do not want to suffer like village children
- 20. how village children do work farming and as messengers; town children are not as reliable
Comparing town life and village life
- 21. comparing town life and village life; village children trained to suffer; limited food for children
- 22. villages don't spend money much; don't dress up
- 23. town person can cheat another; villagers are afraid to cheat
- 24. villagers fear being taken to the chief; if village child does bad, the father will be taken to the chief
- 25. Alhaji Ibrahim prefers town; maalams say towns are better; villagers have suffering and difficulties and fears, but they have sense
- 26. villagers with large families are bolder, can even challenge the chief
- 27. villagers don't travel, rarely come to town; old people just go to the farm and relax under a tree
- 28. village children also don't come to town; follow fathers to farm; tend animals; village children don't trust town people
The character of villagers
- 29. villagers avoid town because they don't want to be involved in trouble; some old people pride themselves on never going to town; difficulties of villagers to get good food
- 30. villagers do not talk about their problems; keep secrets; avoid entanglements
- 31. villagers don't like to borrow money; prefer gifts
- 32. villagers freedom is different from town; free from troubles
- 33. villagers are happy with village life; eat the food from the farm; don't use money; peace of mind
- 34. peace of mind of the villagers; clarity; town people get farming land from villagers; good relations
Modern times have reduced differences
- 35. modern times: town people and villagers are the same; villages are absorbed into the towns; the differences Alhaji Ibrahim talked about were more in the past
- 36. less fear of the chief; village chiefs more empowered
- 37. town people go to villagers for help; not the same distrust as previously
- 38. village children have similar life to town children; mosque, football, films
- 39. the differences Alhaji Ibrahim showed are from the starting of Dagbon; villages are modernizing
Some differences remain
- 40. but many villages still holding strongly to custom; village children still more knowledgeable than town children
- 41. Tamale children don't know Dagbamba customs
- 42. town children should learn their customs in addition to school education; the way Alhaji Ibrahim's generation was is no longer there
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Proverbs and Sayings
If you sow a seed, it is the same seed which will grow from the ground.
If you say you are fit to be a person, it's good you know something about your tradition.
A child who sits near old people is also an old person.
“Oh! I don't even have tafirli. There is no tafirli in my pocket.”
If someone knows what is forbidden, he has got sense.
When a fish is wet, you can bend it, but when it is dried, you cannot try to bend it or it will break.
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Dagbani words and other search terms
- Chiefs and elders
- Tolon-Naa Yakubu Alhassan Tali
- Names and people
- Alhaji Adam (Alhassan) [Mangulana]
- Ben (Sunkari)
- Fusheni, Sheni (Alhassan)
- Kissmal (Ibrahim Hussein)
- (Alhaji) Mumuni
- Miscellaneous terms
- cedis
- chieftaincy
- Damba Festival
- kali
- lorry
- maalam, maalams
- nahu
- pesewa
- Praying Festival
- tafirli
- townsperson
- warinima
- woho (wɔho)
- yuri
- yem (yɛm)
- zuliya
- Towns and places
- Banvim
- Dagbon
- Lamashegu
- Nanton
- Sagnerigu
- Savelugu
- Tolon
- Vitin
- Voggo
- Cultural groups
- Dagbamba
- Dagbana
- Gonja