Lew Waldman's Ethnographic Arms & Armour Collection Archive


113 - African Tetela Region Kusu Tribe (Congo) Dagger

A large, broad leaf-shaped double-edged blade with complex shallow fullers and a narrow ricasso measures 13½ inches (34.5 cm.) in length and just over 3¾ inches (9.8 cm.) in maximum breadth. Except at the very end where a depression into the underlying wooden substrate suggests the previous presence of a now lost decorative element, the hilt has been clad with copper sheet, itself overlain by a spiral wrapped iron strip. Lew had attributed this as late 19th century Konda, however, in referring to Fischer & Zirngibl's Afrikanische Waffen (1978), the similarity to Kusu examples is striking (especially fig. 221). Overall length is 21 inches (53 cm.) with a weight of 16.35 ounces.




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