7 1" NOTES A NOTE ON A ROYAL GENEALOGY Genealogical data collected from a drummer in Western Dagbon It indicates one of the roles of musicians in Dagomba society; it one morning in January 1966 gives some interesting information of several kinds. demonstrates the mode of rotational succession to kingship still functioning in the area and incidentally shows that the genealogical method is an indispensable tool for the collection of historical and sociological data in this context. In the traditional kingdom of Dagbon the drummers "Lunsi1 who play the closed, double-membraned, hour-glass-shaped drum, are the court historians, archivists and recorders of the present political system. They are also an important source of entertainment and prominent in all rituals involving royals and many of the life crises ceremonials of commoner folk. Analysis of census material at present shows that they constitute probably less than one percent of the total Dagomba population and that they are mainly concentrated in the politically more important villages - the chiefs of which are members of the royal patrician. drummers who learn, recite and transmit from one generation to the next the massive body of oral literature and genealogical material, in which the agnatic (sometimes uterine) ties between all dead and living royal chiefs are traced, right back to the mythical founders of the kingdom and their exploits and praise names recorded. It is these The piece of *he royal genealogy recorded here simply shows the line of succession to the Yendi skin, the kingship, over the past eleven generations, through a total of thirty reigns. It is incomplete as a record of the kingship as there are about a dozen more kings who reigned before Buriguyomda not published here. As regards succession to the royal skin certain patterns emerge when we examine the data. The first is that no prince became king whose father had not done so before him. When we analyse the relationships obtaining between successors and previous holders we see that * - * * •; NOTES 72. 6 were first sons 6 were classificatory sons (3 BsS, 3FsBsSsS) 10 were Full/half brothers 4 were classificatory brothers (2FsBsS, 2 FsFsBsSsS) 2 were classificatory fathers of the previous king (FsFsBsS) Thus in twelve cases the skin went to a member of the filial generation - own first son or classificatory son; in fourteen cases the skin was gained by a full or classificatory brother and in two cases only was succession to the office by a member of the father's generation. The process of segmentation of the royal dynasty is apparent when represented thus diagrammatical ly and the way In which the office tends to rotate between members of the different segments. The tensions such a system engenders in the sibling bond are witnessed by the accounts of fratricide recorded in the oral histories. From accounts of events surrounding the last succession to the skin it is apparent that there was great pressure from the members and supporters of Andanl's segment of the dynasty to prevent the skin being retained by a member of the segment tracing descent from Abdulai It would seem now as though the odds are against a rotation of the office back to a member of Andani's segment, since out of thirty instances of succession recorded here, in only two cases did the new king stand in the paternal relationship to his predecessor. I. Not only does this royal genealogy which the drummers recite go back in time for fourteen or more generations but it also has wide ramifications In the present. For instance a few hours recording the descendants of Naa Yakubu from the same drummer resulted In a genealogy comprising over two hundred titled descendants, mainly male. At present data is being recorded from a drummer as to the genealogical affiliations of all the reigning royal chiefs of the main villages recorded in the enumeration areas in the 1960 population census. At a later stage checking of these genealogies with a number of drummers from different parts of the kingdom will prove whether they are the standardized knowledge of all the competent drummers in Dagbon or A ROYAL GENEALOGY ±^* • • - • * *, 73. NOTES whether they tend to vary according to the reciter. One pointer to the fact that they should be standardized is that drummers are notable travellers gleaning their information from its sources as they travel from village to village while well known raconteurs also disseminate what they have learnt on their travels. One major problem is that of the authenticity of the records, whether they do in fact faithfully record agnatic (and uterine) relationships between princes. At the moment my guess would be that the accounts of the best informed of the drummers will tally with each other and that for a considerable number of generations back from the present these kinship links, recorded in the oral history, are an authentic account of genealogical relationships. Light will only be shed on these and similar problems by further systematic collection and sifting of oral evidence. KING LIST . Number of titled offspring recorded 1. Buriguyomda 2. Zolgu 3. Zong 4. Nengmitoni 5. Dimani 6. Yenzo 7. Darizego 8. Luro 9. Tutugri ^^Zagalali Mfckuli ^^^fttobli ^^ 6 12 3 6 8 11 5 8 7 5 5 6 16 12 6 NOTES 74, KING LIST Number of titled offspring recorded 17. Ziblim Nasa 18. Ziblim Bandamda 19. Andani Djangbarga 20. Mahame 2 1. Ziblim Kulunku 22. Sumane 23. Yakubu 24. Abudulai | 25. Andani 26. Alhassan 27. Abudulai 28. Mahama 29. Mahama bla III 30. Abudulai II 7 16 21 5 8 4 38 16 17 11 5 3 1 Note: more offspring are recorded for the kings whose own sons succeeded to the office than for those whose sons did not. Two of the main links in the royal chain, the forebears of all subsequent kings - Naa Gariba and Naa Yakubu, have the largest numbers of recorded children. C. Oppong (Mrs.) A NOTE ON ANCESTOR CULT IN GHANA Looking at the belief of life after death and art among the Ga-Adangmes and part of the Akan I have been led into re-assessing the real essence has been called ancestor worship in the literatur concerned.