[Jim McDougall]

Hi Kirsten,
I will concur with that very astute advice. In the meantime, you have presented a most interesting topic, seldom discussed here. While I am not very familiar with the arrows used by tribes in Africa, I think your assessment to Nigeria would be generally well placed, especially as a good place to begin research. I think several of the members here will hopefully be more specific in identifying the quiver of arrows itself, and I would would like to offer some general research suggestions concerning poison arrows in Africa.

One of the key plants used in sub Saharan West Africa is the 'Strophanthus hispudis' which produces the poison 'inee' (onaye), though there are others such as Acokanthera, oleander and milkweeds.
I always thought the application of materia medica was fascinating in literature, and case in point, the Sherlock Holmes adventures by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Apparantly the governor of Nigeria presented a quiver of poison arrows to Sir Thomas Fraser sometime prior to 1890, and Fraser was a contributor to the British Medical Journal. It is believed that Fraser and Doyle had met and Fraser may have made certain suggestions to him concerning matters of these topics. I am not sure whether the poison arrows of Nigeria ever appeared in the Holmes stories, however, the curare arrows of South America did.

Some good references, which I would suggest obtaining via interlibrary (the way I obtained many over the years):

"Nigerian Panoply: Arms and Armour of the Northern Region"
A.D.H. Bivar, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies"
Vol.29, #13, 1966.

"The Arrow Poisons of Northern Nigeria"
L.W.LaChard 1905-06
"Journal of the African Institute" V
discusses poisons of Central Sudan and Hausaland, as cited in "African Arms and Armour" (Christopher Spring, London, 1993, p.46). These regions would have used primarily the same forms presumably as seen with the expected cultural diffusion.

"Notes on Some Native Objects from Northern Nigeria"
E.F.Martin, "Man" Vol.4, 1904 pp.19-20

Spring notes that sometimes the length of the arrows reflected whether they were poisoned or not, suggesting of course that arrows were not all poisoned. I think some of the references on African weapons, such as Fischer & Zirngibl and others that I hope the African weapons enthusiasts will specify will be the best resources to identify the arrows.

As for testing, I think probably contacting one of the universities and networking through thier chemistry or even better, forensics departments would be best possibilities in beginning. This is how I would begin, though I'm sure others here will have more direct courses to take.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to look into this most interesting topic. It was a very fair and well placed query which I felt deserved a response with some genuine thoughts that might be considered of interest to other readers who will hopefully find this topic as intriguing.

All very best regards,
Jim