Three African spears for ID

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by zalmoxis

Hi there are some books:
"Mande blacksmiths" (book) deals with some info about West Africa. A lot of west African spears are in "Armes Blanches De L'Afrique Noire". A similar double headed spear as your Ethiopian spear is depicted in " Spears and staffs with two or more points in Africa".
Actually Madagascar spears are easy to spot: the head and the end varies in length and even shape but they are the only spears the the shaft is carved to fit the head flush and not just inserted into it after making a pointy end on a stick. Most of the time the carving of the shaft is so good that wood also fits the space left from forging in the socket making it flush with that too. No other African spears to my knowledge are fitted like that. Most of the time the socket on both the head and end will have 2 or 3 brass inlay rings like yours. Your Madagascar spear has the head fitted perfectly if you look at it also the silver ring is aligned with the shaft and socket by means of carving. The end looks inserted which might mean that the spear might have been shortened and repaired quickly not allowing time for proper fitting.

Just reading through this thread again a bit more carefully and saw this post by Zalmoxis. Its not quite correct ... the African spears in question from Northern Nigeria/Bornu also have the wood shaft well carved to flush fit the socket and have brass and copper bands inlaid to the metal. The workmanship to these spears is pretty high.