3 More African Spears ...Congo ??

[katana]

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

Interesting all iron spear, I like very much. It suggests to me a currency spear rather than a weapon. Nice find.

Thanks Tim,
I think you could be right ..... a currency spear makes sense....do you know if currency weapons were made to be a certain weight or increments of a set value ?

[Freddy]

Interesting all iron spear. I have never seen one coming from Congo, but I'm still young (I think )

I looked it up in some of my books and I discovered the following information :

In 'Dodelijk mooi' (Deadly beauty) I found a (bad) picture of an all metal Congolese spear (page 73). According to the author it originates from the Popoi and/or Makere. These are tribes living in the vicinity of the Mangbetu (and also the Zande).
I'm not saying your spear is from one of these tribes, but these are the only ones I could discover who use all iron spears.
On page 51 in the general description of the different types of weapons, the author states : "the shafts (of the spears) are usually made from wood, but some rare examples exist made entirely of metal.

So, David, hang on to it !

In my collection, I have one all metal spear. This piece is from Kenya or Tansania. It comes from the Masaai. It's a spear used by uncircumcised boys when they watch over the cattle.
This spear resembles a long iron rod, with only the top end flattened to form the spearhead. In Christopher Spring's 'African Arms and Armour' there's a mention of such spears on page 112. There it is called 'esururu'.

I will try to post some pics later on this week

[katana]

Thank you sooo much for your input Freddy Look forward to the pictures of your 'esururu'.

Kind Regards

[Freddy]

Here are two pics. It's difficult to take a pic of the whole piece. It's about 1m70 long and consist mainly of a metal rod with a flattened head and leather handle.

[katana]

Hi Freddy,
nice spear I have only one more 'all metal' spear which I posted awhile ago. It is one of my favourites.....as it is unusual and nicely crafted. I didn't realise you posted your 'esururu' before ...on the same thread as this 'other' spear.....

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=masai+spear

I have now found the possibillity that this one is likely from Angola or nearby .... caption for picture

Culture: NGUMBI(HUMBE, VAHUMBE)
Locale: BETWEEN CUNENE AND COPOROLO-TCHILENGES RIVERS
Country: ANGOLA
Material: METAL,HAIR,CORD
Dimensions: L:108 W:7.3 [in CM]

[asomotif]

Just for later reference some pictures of my Ngbandi zaga.