My belief was that the term assegai ( although perhaps specific in its original Berber / Arabic usage ) has been used by Europeans as a generic word for all African spears and by the British especially for ALL types of Zulu spears . The word iklwa has been reserved only for the short stabbing spear of the Zulu . This word ( iklwa ) has long usage in SE Africa but has only fairly recently entered the English vocabulary via popular factual literature on the Zulu War of 1879 ( mainly due to Ian Knight ) .
The binding which helps to secure the tang is not typical Zulu in this example , which means either its a replacement binding or perhaps not Zulu but rather from a related ethnic group in S E Africa. Better quality spears have an intricate wire binding with or w/o a sleeve covering made from ox tail hide . In some cases , prestige status symbol spears particularly of the iklwa type belonging to chiefs are wholly covered in wire binding even to the typical swollen butt end.
I attach some examples from my own collection
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