A Drummer's Testament

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Chapter II-11:  The Chieftaincy of Naa Zanjina, the Light of Dagbon

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The contributions of Naa Zanjina to Dagbamba custom; Naa Zanjina's youth and conversion to Islam; Naa Zanjina as the “light” of Dagbon; Naa Zanjina's Samban' luŋa; how Naa Zanjina got chieftaincy


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Contents outline and links by paragraph

Introduction:  Naa Zanjina's importance in the work

Yendi moved from Toma to Naya

Naa Zanjina's significance in enlightening Dagbon

Naa Zanjina's works in the Samban' luŋa

Barbers

More of Naa Zanjina's works in Dagbon

Savelugu-Naa Puusamli

Puusamli and Naa Bimbiɛɣu

How Naa Zanjina gave respect and gifts to get chieftaincy

How Naa Zanjina got the Yendi chieftaincy in Samban' luŋa

The contenders go to Mamprusi

The Mamprusi elder and Gushe-Naa call names

Dagbamba princes call their names

Naa Zanjina and Naa Siɣli call their names and succeed

Conclusion of Gushe-Naa story; Naa Zanjina returns to Dagbon

The arrangement behind the story among Gushe-Naa, Naa Zanjina, and the Mamprusi chief

Interpretations of Naa Zanjina's Samban' luŋa

Conclusion


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Proverbs and Sayings

Naa Zanjina opened the eyes of Dagbon.

The respect of Naa Zanjina in Dagbon resembles the respect of drumming itself.

In Dagbon here, whatever you are doing, if you are doing it with the strength of chieftaincy, and you are standing with the chief to do it, you know that it will have respect.

We drummers call Naa Zanjina the light of Dagbon

Naa Zanjina lit a lantern and open the eyes of the Dagbamba.

“It's something, and at the same time, it's nothing.”

“Naa Zanjina is holding sense, and he is the one who can hold people, dead ones and live ones.”

“Naa Zanjina has made Dagbon fine.”

The debt of the stomach, you cannot pay all of it.

The debt of the stomach cannot be paid in full.

The rain that helps a tree to grow, that is the same rain that helps grass to grow.

If a child always greets elderly people, the elders will always support him.

The way you know that you will follow and get something, that is the way you have to follow.

To go to an elderly person, you can't go empty-handed.

It is inside custom that you will give respect before you will get chieftaincy.

In the way of our custom, giving of gifts is not a bribe.

A human being's tongue is a ladder to the heart, and this is what you have to climb before you can go inside the stomach.

A human tongue is the ladder that you can climb to go into the heart.

“If many children gather to do something, the seniors among them should do it before the juniors.”

Many birds can destroy a guinea corn farm.

They farm, and they sow.  And they don't farm, and they don't sow.

They will plant the guinea corn, and it will germinate, and it will grow, and it will give birth, and many birds will come and destroy it.  And I don't go to farm to farm, and I don't sow the guinea corn.  The birds should know what they are coming to destroy.

They have farmed, and sowed, and a partridge will come and spoil the place.  And if you don't sow, the bird will come and see.  Unless somebody farms and sows, can the bird come to eat from the ground?  And so the many birds, they should come and eat.

A chisel can easily spoil iron.

If you have a skin rash, and you are hiding it from people, if it worries you for a long time, at one time you will have to bring it out and show it to elders.

They didn't kill Timaani, and Timaani is easing himself.

He took tears and wore them on his neck like beads.  And he took a sneeze and used it to be a good luck.

As for him, he is only a child looking after a horse, and so how is he going to get the sense to call a name?

A child who has no sense to call a name, how can he get the sense to look for a chieftaincy?

He is a child who will always go to the bush and carry firewood home.

A chest that is wide can collect every kind of dresses.

Many kapok pods, hanging on the tree, can never know who is the elder.

They will gather many newborn babies, and they are all lying down, you can never look at them to know who is foolish among them.

An anvil stone will roll and never break.

The dog that comes and eases feces will come and collect his feces.

Tiny grains of millet will gather many chickens.

A good place for blacksmiths will gather many iron rods.

The cry of a lion will wake up every village.

A child whose hands are clean, he should be the one to skin an elder person's goat, and he will take all the meat, and he will leave only the stomach and the liver to give to the elder.

He made it well:  he made it well for the grandfather, and he is going home alone.

A child who sits with elders will get sense.

This time we are sitting, everybody has left his talks to be following somebody's talks.

Dagbamba have taken their custom and thrown it away.

If it were not for us drummers, and women, Dagbon would have been dead.

If somebody is looking for knowledge, it is because he wants to come and repair his house.

You repair your house before you go and repair outside.

Somebody can be there and he is not an old person, and they will take an old person's name and call him, and he answers an old person's answering.

I want to talk the truth and it will repair our Dagbon, and you can't take lies and repair anything.

The eye and the nose are near one another, and the eye doesn't cry and the nose will keep quiet.  As the eye is crying, the nose is also running.

If you don't like somebody and he does any work, you won't like that work.  If he is swimming, you will say he is putting dust on you.

Chieftaincy is older than government.

If you want to know the talks of Dagbon, throw away the government talks.

Somebody who looks here and looks there, he doesn't catch a slave.

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