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Originally Posted by Norman McCormick
Hi Colin,
Many thanks for your insight. I take it there is no definitive aspect of spears from this region that would tie them directly to a specific group or is there an aspect that would make an item more likely to belong to one tribal group or another? The small country house estate that these came from was in the same family, I think from the 17thC, and was only sold recently. It is certainly more than likely both from personal inspection of the spears and the provenance that these are indeed 19thC objects. Thanks for your interest.
My Regards,
Norman,
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Hi Norman
I don't know of any way to distinguish spears between those Nguni tribal groups in South East Africa, although I've read somewhere that spears with barbs are usually Basuto in origin ? The Matabele were in fact an offshoot of the Zulu that moved northwards. Spears from the Mashona are identifiable, however, often with a metal spike to the butt and sometimes a lot of wirework.
Regards
Colin