A Drummer's Testament
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The inheritance of the soothsayers' bag; testing of soothsayers; the work of soothsaying; other types of diviners: the jinwarba; jinwarba divination
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Supplementary material
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Contents outline and links by paragraph
Introduction
- 1. soothsayers an old talk; beginning of talks on typical Dagbamba's beliefs
How soothsaying catches a person
- 2. soothsaying inherited through mother's house; new one caught by soothsayers
- 3. killing s bushbuck
- 4. killing a hyena alone
- 5. soothsayer's bag is an “old thing”; people who refuse can die
- 6. even a maalam will receive a bag that “catches” him
- 7. similarity of inheritance through woman's child to drummers, butchers, barbers
- 8. soothsayers from the typical Dagbamba; no starting from chieftaincy talks
Initiation of a soothsayer
- 9. how soothsayers gather when they catch a new soothsayer; pepper in the nose
- 10. teaching the new soothsayers to “see”; the baɣbihi
Consulting a soothsayer
- 11. many soothsayers in Dagbon; many people consult them
- 12. how one consults a soothsayer; example: treating sickness
- 13. payment; soothsayer cannot refuse to consult
- 14. good soothsayers are always busy looking into problems
Soothsayers and belief
- 15. people who go to soothsayers have belief in them
- 16. soothsayers' name: don't accept and don't refuse
- 17. Alhaji Ibrahim stopped consulting soothsayers because of Muslim religion
- 18. Alhaji Ibrahim also stopped because can cause problems between friends
- 19. soothsayers not always correct; have to look into yourself to interpret
Transition
- 20. other diviners in Dagbon apart from soothsayers: maalams, cowries, sand
Jinwarba
- 21. jinwarba look into fire; dance in fire
- 22. jinwarba in many towns and villages in Dagbon
How jina catches a person
- 23. jina begins as madness from dwarfs; follows father's line and mother's line
- 24. jina stays in the line; someone can marry into it
- 25. medicine to treat jina madness
- 26. example: hearing the voices of dwarfs conversing with a jinwara
- 27. Namo-Naa: jinwarba are mad people who have been treated
- 28. how the jina madness catches a person
The Jina dance and festival
- 29. the annual Jina dance
- 30. how the jinwarba dress; their walking sticks
- 31. how they dance in fire; how they see in the fire
- 32. their type of drum; their drumming not beaten outside
Jinwarba as diviners
- 33. jinwarba also look for people
- 34. jinwarba talk openly about people
- 35. some jinwarba look into lanterns, others into water
Conclusion
- 36. transition to next topic: tindanas
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Proverbs and Sayings
Knowledge is: everyone and what he knows at his place.
As he has died, he has left something old.
He was holding an old thing, and it will be good if someone gets the old thing to hold so that our bodies will be cool.
The talk that doesn't finish, if you do it, it is something that is going to be standing and waiting for you.
Baɣ' bila di malimali ti paai tɔm.
The small soothsayer has eaten sweet things and has come to meet the bitter thing.
The new soothsayer is going to ask for the health of the town.
The soothsayer's mother consulted and left it for him.
The soothsayer should choose good things and leave bad things.
All of them cannot be the same, because wisdom is not the same.
A soothsayer's farm is not far.
The day is heavy.
Ŋum pa nir' yɛlgu, di deei, di zaɣsi.
Someone who is not a person, when he talks, don't accept it and don't refuse it.
The person you stay with is the person you quarrel with.
The way people stay together, if they quarrel, they will come to talk again.
If a soothsayer tells you something, you should also soothsay in your heart.
As for the one your eye sees, that one is true.
If you fear someone, how can you ask that fellow how he works?
If you fear someone, you cannot ask him about his work.
If you are doing work today and it doesn't help you, will you do that work tomorrow?
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Dagbani words and other search terms
- Chiefs and elders
- Bag' Naa (Baɣ' Naa)
- Bizun (Bizuŋ)
- Naa Dimani
- Naa Nyagsi (Naa Nyaɣsi)
- Naa Shitobu (Naa Shitɔbu)
- Naa Zhirli (Naa Ʒirli)
- Namo-Naa (Issahaku) Yaa-Naa
- Nyologu Lun-Naa Issahaku
- Proverbs and praise-names
- Bag' bila di malimali ti paai tom (Baɣ' bila di malimali ti paai tɔm)
- Num pa nir' yelgu, di dee di zagsi (Ŋum pa nir' yɛlgu, di deei di zaɣsi)
- Names and people
- Bagbila (Baɣbila)
- Musical terms
- Jina
- jindugu (jinduɣu)
- Miscellaneous terms
- bagbihi (baɣbihi)
- binnmaa (biŋŋmaa)
- Bugim Festival (Buɣim Festival)
- bup [sound]
- bushbuck
- calabash, calabashes
- cedi, cedis
- chieftaincy
- cowrie, cowries
- Dagbani
- dazuli, dazuya
- jina
- jinwara, jinwarba
- kalnli
- maalam, maalams
- Muslims
- nyolinsi
- pesewa, pesewas
- sangkpalin (saŋkpaliŋ)
- sixpence
- threepence
- tindana, tindanas
- Towns and places
- Accra
- Dagbon
- Katariga
- Kintampo
- Kushebo
- Nyologu
- Ouagadougou
- Savelugu
- Voggo
- Yiwogu
- Zujum
- Cultural groups
- Busanga
- Dagbamba
- Dagbana