Knobkerries x2 , ID and comments welcome.
 

Hi,
have recently obtained two knobkerries....one is of a very hard, close grained wood 58cms long (22 3/4 inches) The head is a 'flattened' ball ... widest 3.5 cms. I have assumed this is Zulu or surrounding tribes.

The larger, is a heavy dense wood, great patina ...some damage to the 'head' which appears to be very old (jeweller's loupe). Hand carved shaft/head with grooved carving at the handle end. Head is 'off-set' from the shaft ...some 'age cracks'. OAL 29.5 inches (75cms), head diameter 3 inches (7.5 cms) Judging by the patina etc I can easily see this being late 19th C .

Is Zulu a likely source for this knobkerrie ?

All comments greatly appreciated.

Thank you David

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Hi Katana

They seem to be Tanzanian and not Zulu to me. The wood and the style does not seem Nguni or Swazi and definately not Xhosha. Could be Gogo tribe but it's hard to be sure. Still they are nice examples.

Hi Lew,
thank you for your comments :) ,

The knobkerries were bought individually, at different times. The smaller one was described as a Zulu 'shield beater' :shrug:

The larger, hand tooled one seems to be made in the Zulu 'mould' (mold :) ) I have seen provenanced Zulu knobkerries that are not made from the usual bi-coloured wood and number of which were hand carved. In fact, I have been told that the majority of the bi-coloured type are early 20th C onwards (an opinion of a 'Zulu' collector)

Unfortunately, Spring hardly mentions knobkerries in "African arms and Armour" and Stone's " A glossary.......Arms and Armour...." mentions even less.

Tried to search google for "Gogo club" in image search..but just get pictures of scantily clad females ;) not a bad thing, but not really helpful :D

All the best
David

Hi David

I agree with Lew about the club with the larger head being East African, not sure about the other one.

The book "Zulu Treasures" is a good reference...

Regards

Thanks Colin,
for confirming Lew's opinion. It is disappointing that there is little 'dedicated' literature on African knobkerries/clubs/ throwing sticks. Nearly every 'knobkerrie' sold on eBay is stated as Zulu.....other than the Runga's which are obviously 'different'.
A few years ago I tried to discover which regions used which specie of wood for spear shafts.....and was completely unsucessful. I had hoped that ID'ing the spear shaft species could help give a more positive ID to a spear.
It seems that the same holds for clubs ...very little is documented as to the wood used.

Will 'aim my sights' eastwards and try and find similar clubs. I do think this is genuinely old and it would be great to ID it.

Just to illustrate the point about the diversity style and degree of workmanship of S.A knobkerries ...

Below is a knobkerrie collected from Natal Province, Nqutu District

Best
David

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David

Here is how I break it down as far as wood and style. The bicolored knobkerries are mostly Nguni and after 1915-20. Most mono medium brown ones are older 1879-1900 or so and tend to be Swazi or Natal Zulu. . I will try and get a pic together later on in the week and confirm it with a someone who has more experience and has lived in that area.

Hi Lew,
thanks for the info.....it also nice to see that you corroborate what I was previously told about the bi-coloured versions :) Look forward to the pics, thank you

I put together a list and will try my best to identify them correctly.

Here is some facts on the Zulu

The Nguni peoples are classified into three large subgroups, the Northern Nguni, the Southern Nguni, and the Ndebele. The Zulu and the Swazi are among the Northern Nguni. The Xhosa are the largest Southern Nguni society, but the neighboring Thembu and Mpondo are also well known Southern Nguni societies, often described as subgroups of the Xhosa. Each of these groups is a heterogeneous grouping of smaller (also heterogeneous) ethnic groups.

Top= Two Northern Nguni clubs to right is also the same.

Next= Swazi
Next two=Northern Nguni
Last= Zulu Natal
Below is a group of Swazi men with knobkerries.
I will post more examples as I come across them.

Thanks Lew, I appreciate it :)

Regards David