Hi Tim,
This is nice shield. I did not know that this Turkana/Acholi style shields were made of steel, too.... Another steel shields were those ones of Fali/Kirdi style from the North Cameroon (similar to their leather brothers) and Amhara steel round shields covered with textile and adorned with brass strips (again similar to older leather ones; semi-finished pressed round steel corpuses were allegedly imported from Europe by flexible businessmen during 1st half of 20th century). I think now they use shields just for ceremonies etc. in Africa.
BTW, they are not able to make perfect false "old"round leather shield in Ethiopia now, you would recognise the difference. In the case of steel it would be easier for forgers.
Regards,
Martin
|