Small....(and in my opinion)...beautiful

Freddy · 28th October 2005, 12:46 PM

Just found this one on the antique market this morning : an African spear from the Tutsi tribe in Ruanda.

When I mention 'small' in the title of this post, I refer to the spear head. Most Central African spear heads are big to really big. Just view some of the older posts on spears to know what I mean.
This is the tiniest one I ever found. The spear blade is beautifully forged with even some incised decoration just below the actual blade. The total length of the spear is 206,5 cm (82,6 inches). So it's a relatively long spear.
But the spear head is only 17 cm (6,8 inches) with the blade measuring a mere 7,5 cm (3 inches). It also has a metal finial (bottom part) of 11 cm (4,4 cm).
Any comments ?

I'm not showing the entire spear as it's too difficult to photograph. It has a plain wooden shaft.

Look at the next pic. I compared this Tutsi spear head with a spear head of another tribe (Kuba ?). In my opinion, this was a small spear head, compared to the normal ones found in the Congo. The other one measures 25,5 cm (10,2 inches) and is 6 cm (2,4 cm) wide.

These spears were used by the ruling Tutsi tribe in Ruanda. I found some pics of chiefs and of the famous 'Ntore' dancers. Look at the similar spears.

28th October 2005, 12:46 PM	#1
Freddy Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Sint-Amandsberg (near Ghent, Belgium) Posts: 830	Small....(and in my opinion)...beautiful Just found this one on the antique market this morning : an African spear from the Tutsi tribe in Ruanda. When I mention 'small' in the title of this post, I refer to the spear head. Most Central African spear heads are big to really big. Just view some of the older posts on spears to know what I mean. This is the tiniest one I ever found. The spear blade is beautifully forged with even some incised decoration just below the actual blade. The total length of the spear is 206,5 cm (82,6 inches). So it's a relatively long spear. But the spear head is only 17 cm (6,8 inches) with the blade measuring a mere 7,5 cm (3 inches). It also has a metal finial (bottom part) of 11 cm (4,4 cm). Any comments ? I'm not showing the entire spear as it's too difficult to photograph. It has a plain wooden shaft. Look at the next pic. I compared this Tutsi spear head with a spear head of another tribe (Kuba ?). In my opinion, this was a small spear head, compared to the normal ones found in the Congo. The other one measures 25,5 cm (10,2 inches) and is 6 cm (2,4 cm) wide. These spears were used by the ruling Tutsi tribe in Ruanda. I found some pics of chiefs and of the famous 'Ntore' dancers. Look at the similar spears.