Worlds Ugliest War Club

[thinreadline]

The way the shaft swells out towards the grip end is very reminiscent of the weapons of Zulu and other Bantu tribes of S E Africa . Many years ago I bought the contents of a Boer War / Zulu war museum and amongst the hundreds of artefacts there were 2 clubs very reminiscent of this example ( though not as impressive I have to say ) .Unfortunately I dont appear to have saved any photographs of them ... unless I posted any on this site .

[kronckew]

The Zulu Iwisa came in small, medium and large. Seems the higher in rank, the smaller the knobkerry head. (top) This is one of my large ones, about 5 in. in diameter & quite heavy. As the less likely they would be in actual hand-to-hand combat. For the Impi's Induna (Colonel) he's have about a 2in. Diameter head (3rd down). Most were around three inches in diameter (middle). I've seen a few root-ball ones rather rough, but most were smoothed like mine. I've seen a few that had conical studs screwed in like yours, but metal. Most had intricately braided wire wraps in bands, frequently now missing or damaged. Not all had the terminal increase in diameter at the end opposite the knob.

For our resident botanist: those protruding root stubs carved to emulate studs are rather regularly spaced. I seem to recall a so. pacific plant used for clubs that have such an even distribution. I believe some Fijian clubs were made from it tho I don't recall pointy ones, they had kinda flat topped ones.

The Zulu primary weapon was however the Iklwa stabbing spear, the African equivalent of the Roman gladius. Mine has the end swell, and the banding (bottom). They also used isizenze (axes, including the stabbing axe, but Shaka banned them during his reign, and they are secondary weapons compared to the Iklwa).

[drac2k]

Very impressive gentlemen! In the event that I can not definitively identify the club, this spring I will plant the root-ball,water it, and when I get foliage in the summer, I will forward pictures to our resident botanist.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by drac2k

Very impressive gentlemen! In the event that I can not definitively identify the club, this spring I will plant the root-ball,water it, and when I get foliage in the summer, I will forward pictures to our resident botanist.

I seem to recall St. Peter did something similar as he was fleeing rome, had an epiphany and pocked his staff into the ground, turned around and returned to the centre of Rome where he was executed in the Circus. The staff took root and grew into a tree. Maybe that was a different Saint tho. I'm not knowledgeable about saints (did root for the New Orleans version when i was stationed there tho).