Tuareg club

[TVV]

Not sure if Tuareg, but the leatherwork does look West African.

[Changdao]

Indeed a peculiar find. It does look West African, and relatively modern.

As far as I know, the only ones in the region that appear historically in the sources using maces/clubs were a group of peoples living south of the Casamance River: Bainuks, Cassangas and Papels.

Bainuks and Cassangas:

"They carry another weapon, a thick club of up to three hand-spans lons, with knobs on it, which they throw at the legs (of enemies), or use to strike them on the head, to knock their brains out."

"They use spears, swords, knives,and clubs like maces,with knobs on them. In battle, they strike their enemies on the head with these clubs killing them, or throw them at their legs. This weapon is the one they value most, and the Casangas use it too."

"The Casangas and Banhuns understand each other in the same way as do the Portuguese and the Castilians. The king of Cazamansa is more powerful than the Banhuns and he rules them.. The Casangas dress like the Jalofos and Mandingas, whom we have already described, In their wars they use spears, arrows,and manducos: the manduco is the weapon used by the Banhuns, the shaped club we described earlier."


Papels:

"The weapons they carry are short swords, knives, spears, shields, arrows, and clubs called manducos."


"The Portugals nowe encoraged the negros to sette upon oure menne, the which the negros did with great battes and hachets, dartes and invenimed arrowes, and fowght at hand strookes."

[Marc M.]

Touareg knots: taburi, tabouri, aburi. Usually a wooden club was the only weapon the slaves, iklan,were allowed to carry. Cf Nicolaisen 1963. From the catalogue of the touareg exhibition Brussels 1994, unfortunately no photo.
Regards
Marc

[Changdao]

Originally Posted by Marc M.

Touareg knots: taburi, tabouri, aburi. Usually a wooden club was the only weapon the slaves, iklan,were allowed to carry. Cf Nicolaisen 1963. From the catalogue of the touareg exhibition Brussels 1994, unfortunately no photo.
Regards
Marc

Well, that goes a long way in solving the problem of this piece, I would say.

[Tim Simmons]

Certainly looks more like Tuareg leather work than say Mende.

[Marc M.]

What I want to say with my text is that clubs were used in touareg society by a certain caste in the past. It is unfortunate that there are no images in the catalog of this little known weapon. But as Tim already said based on the leatherwork probably touareg.
Regards
Marc

[Tim Simmons]

Very helpful Marc. Tuarag slave caste.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikelan

[Marc M.]

Touareg club: taburi, tabouri, aburi. Usually a wooden club was the only weapon the slaves, iklan,were allowed to carry. Cf Nicolaisen 1963. From the catalogue of the touareg exhibition Brussels 1994, unfortunately no photo.
Regards
Marc