My Wife's African Sticks

[The Double D]

When ever I pick up a Zulu spear, the wife seems to think she should get something also. She has been gathering up knobkerries. Last night to celebrate New Years Eve, since we are well past the past party animal age, we set her sticks up and took pictures of them.



Her favorite is the second from the left. We got it last week. I know we aren't supposed to talk prices here, but it's acquistion is part of a cute story.

The Wife and I spent Christmas at Isandlwana Lodge in Zululand. Christmas morning the Lodge has a tradition of driving guests around the villages and passing out bags of candy to the children. As we were driving around we saw a kid herding cows. We called him over and gave him a bag of candy. He had this stick that was cut from a root wad and the end was just broken off. My wife said see if he will sell his stick. I offered him 2 Rand. He didn't say anything. I offered 5 Rand and he said yes and pointed at another bag of candy. So this is the knobbkerrie that my wife got from a real Zulu.

So next time someone asks how much a knobbkerrie is worth we can say at least one bag of Christmas Candy!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

[Tim Simmons]

I can see as a stick fan I am in good company. Nice sticks but to be very frank I do not like the tourist walking stick from central east Africa? Having said that brings me to show this baton sized stick you sent me earlier in the year, I have just enough time before luncheon this New Years Day.
This stick intrigued me and the tourist word was never far from mind, except the size, just has no meaning to a tourist. I have spent some time thinking about it, then it dawned on me. The animal is a baboon. I have found a small amount of information relevant to baboon iconography.

West African Secret Societies, F.W.Butt-Thompson 1929 In his listing of secret societies Subversive and criminal Most of the criminal associations are "animal" societies. The titles are often known to Europeans as "Human Baboon" or "Human Leopard". They include Crocodile, Baboon, Boa, Leopard.

Most of these societies had more than one function, some like trade guilds. In the same book

Baboon Societies. Societies of this order are known in the hinterland of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and the Volta regions. Since 1910 notice has been taken of "Ape Men" in the Pujehan district of Sierra Leone. Sometimes the hide of the animal is used as a disguise, but more often marks are made on the victims to represent wounds made by the teeth of the beast.

More generally baboons can also represent forest divinity, a shaman becomes a baboon in trance to solve and communicate concerns. The baboon shown eating alludes to the voracious appetite and ability to devour a whole crop, is used as a sign of strength so to protect the village.

So on to the stick. Clearly not antique as the white plastic eyes show. This stick has gone from doubt to my very favourite at the present time. Who know what the new year will bring.

[VANDOO]

VERY NICE STICKS AND A GOOD STORY
I ALSO HAVE A THROWING STICK I GOT IN TANZANIA . I TRADED A OLD GRANNY THE SHIRT OFF MY BACK FOR IT. SEVERAL WOMEN CAME OVER TO THE SAFARI TRUCK WHILE WE WERE WAITING TO CROSS CUSTOMS INTO KENYA THEY WANTED TO TRADE STUFF BUT DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING I WAS INTERESTED IN. I SAW THE OLD LADY WITH THE STICK AND ASKED ABOUT IT AND PULLED ON MY SHIRT AND POINTED TO IT THEY FIGURED IT OUT AND AGREED SO I TOOK OFF MY SHIRT AND HANDED IT OVER AND RECEIVED THE CLUB.
AN ITEM COLLECTED WHILE ON AN ADVENTURE ALWAYS MEANS MORE TO ME THAN ONE BOUGHT FROM A DEALER ,CATALOG OR GUN SHOW. I ALSO LIKE THE RECENTLY MADE ZULU ITEMS USING THE COLORED TELEPHONE WIRE. THEY ARE NEW ,THEY ARE MADE FOR THE TOURISTS, BUT THEY ARE ALSO MADE BY HAND BY THE ZULU AS ARE THE BEAD WORK JEWLRY OF THE MASAI. THE WORKMANSHIP IS VERY GOOD IN BOTH CASES AND THEY DO WEAR THE JEWLRY AND PERHAPS DANCE WITH OR USE THE ITEMS WITH WIRE WORK. SO TO ME THEY ARE STILL TO BE CONSIDERED AS ETHINOGRAPHIC ITEMS MADE TO USE IN THIS DAY AND TIME EVEN IF THAT USE IS A DANCE OR FOR SALE OR TRADE TO TOURISTS.

[Freddy]

Nice collection of sticks, Double D.

I'm also a 'stick man'. Perhaps you should have a look at some former threads about African sticks. They are always interesting.

I especially like the one you talked about (second from the left), but the one next to it, with the mushroom-shaped knob, also looks interesting. Is this one also from South-Africa ?

I want to show you a stick in my collection, which at first looks like an ordinary walking stick.
When I look at the top part, I can see the figure of a person in it. See the 'head' and two small 'arms'. For the rest, it has a plain shaft. At the bottom a heavy iron spike has been added. It resembles the ones found on African spears.
I keep wonder if this 'walking stick' is not some kind of concealed weapon. The iron piece is heavy enough to give a powerful blow. And I'm sure one would be able to 'poke' someone with it, too.

This piece originates from Congo.

Total length : 112,5 cm.
The spike measures 24 cm.

[VANDOO]

THE SPIKE ON THE END IS AN OLD BUTT SPIKE FROM A SPEAR. THEY WERE FOR STICKING THE SPEAR IN THE GROUND SO IT WOULD REMAIN UPRIGHT ,POINT UP AND READY FOR USE. BUT COULD ALSO BE USED TO DIG A BIT OR POKE HOLES IF SOMETHING BETTER WAS NOT AT HAND.

[The Double D]

Interesting stick Freddy. It could be a weapon, it could be a walking stick. My impression is the point is off another item added to a staff. The truth, who knows. It's neat, and African. I like it!

All the sticks came out of Zululand except the Central African tourist stick. I'm still snickering over that one. But my wife doesn't appreciate my humor and didn't like it when I told her it probably came from the Tourist shop in Nigerian or Ghana

The telephone wire decoration is a modern day Zulu art form. Some of it quite beautiful.

I was told a story that there was a movement at one time in the near past to prevent the Zulu's from carrying weapons. The Zulu's resisted the prohibition and said that the carrying of weapon was strictly ceremononial and symbolic-part of their culture and not offensive. They started carrying decorated light clubs and sticks, saying see--just for dancing and ceremonies. The decorated sticks are indeed light weight. But some of the heavy sticks were also decorated for "ceremonial" use. The two wire decorated sticks are substantially heavier than the run of the mill tourist stick. Those sticks may not be old left overs from the the Battle at Isandlwana but they aren't tourist items either.

I saw several like them last week being carried in Zululand. That includes one of the Mushroom shaped ones.

Tim, that Baboon stick nearly didn't make it out of Africa. She liked it. The Baboon Mafia huh, cool.

VANDOO I like the shirt off your back story. You can relate to the stick 5th from the right. It's as much as two months old and I got it from a very old frail looking wrinkled bent crone of a Zulu women.

I was up at Ladysmith, KZN in November. This old lady worked for the Gentlemen we were statying with. This Gentleman is my age Mid to late 50's. He told me that this woman worked as house keeper for his Mother and she was an adult woman then.

Early one morning I was watching the sunrise and saw this old woman walking up the hill to the house to come to work. She had a walking stick with her. Instead of walking over about 30 yards and going through the gate the Old Lady walked a striaght line to the livestock fence and started climing through. I went over and held the fence wire apart and helped her through. I admired her stick. It was a partially carved stick, not really very fancy. She chattered away at me in a mix of Zulu, Afrikaans and English, very little to none of which I understood. Then she took her stick and proceed on her way to the house.

The next morning I was talking to our Hostess when the old Zulu woman approached with a stick held out in both hands. She started a long dissertation in Zulu-Africaans-English. The hostess smiled and gave a small laugh and started translatiing.

The Old lady said I was a wise and noble man who had shown great respect and kindness to a tired old woman. I was a person who recognized good things when I saw them. She said her brother was a great carver of sticks and made them to sell to the tourists so that they could have a few extra Rand for food. She said the round top on the stick was for the hand when walking. The knob below the top was to give a better grip when walking up a hill. The spiral was so the tourists would buy them because the didn't like them with out. She said she had this stick specially made by her brother for me to honor me for the kindness I has shown her the previous day. Twenty Rand.

I thought her speech was one of the best sales pitches I had heard for a long time, gave a good laugh and got my 20 Rand out. My hostess said oh you don't understand. The old women is really showing you honor. She has never sold one of these sticks for less than 50 Rand.